• Thank you to Carol and Steve Bowman, the forum owners, for our new upgrade!

Ideas for the NEW Reincarnation Forum

Steve

Steve

Grand Poobah
Super Moderator
I'm starting a new thread so we can continue the flow of ideas already flowing under my Announcement thread. Apparently the Forum's near-death experience has jolted people into action.

We--Carol, me, Tinkerman, and Deb--want to hear any and all ideas for how we can improve this Forum. All ideas, no matter how crazy or fundamental or petty, are welcome.

We know we need to modernize our whole approach because so much has changed over the last 25 years. We need to attract new members, which means we need to be a place where younger people feel comfortable engaging and sharing. It also means we need to figure out how to integrate with all the other platforms out there to spread the word that our Forum is a safe place for sane conversation.

We need to make the Forum self-sustaining financially. Which shouldn't be that hard because basic infrastructure costs are around $500/year. If we can raise more, we'll use it to fund some actual marketing and promotion.

If this thread gets too busy, I encourage you to start new threads here. Put the word NEW in the title so we can be sure to see it.

Thank you all for your enthusiasm. These are exciting times. (I wonder what the Forum's astrological chart has to say about this moment.)

Steve
 
Hi Steve,

I would personally like to see some type of index of popular topics. There are some things that seem to come up all of the time. After awhile, one gets tired of trying to find the best threads and posts discussing certain things, such as the power of PL trauma to "breach" the memory barrier, the relationship gender dysphoria and cross gender lifetimes, soul gender, . . . . etc.

Some of these popular topics are actually covered somewhere in the headings, but overall, I'd love to see some type of alphabetical index as well as a topical index. These things can be searched, but searching can be problematic as it either brings up too much (and too much irrelevant material), or the person searching hasn't found the right search term, or right combination of search terms, to find what they seek.

Anyhow, one of my pet peeves.

Cordially,
S&S
 
S&S,
Thank you for sharing your pet peeve. If it's troubling you, it's troubling other people too. This is the kind of small fix we're looking to gather. Along with the big ideas, that I hope to see as well.

Steve
 
Could make an youtube channel with some of the better examples and well documented cases plus whatever, the same goes for FB. Not sure about Twitter for the usual reasons and reddit used to be nice until a couple years ago.
 
Melon04, what do you mean by the new forum community? We don't intend to make drastic changes here.
 
It will probably involve making things tidy, easier to read, maybe more fun too! But the underlying purpose and function will be exactly the same I'm sure.
 
Totoro said:
It will probably involve making things tidy, easier to read, maybe more fun too! But the underlying purpose and function will be exactly the same I'm sure.
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Okay that's fair. So I guess it will just be a newer and much cleaner copy of this forum?
 
SeaAndSky said:
Hi Steve,

I would personally like to see some type of index of popular topics. There are some things that seem to come up all of the time. After awhile, one gets tired of trying to find the best threads and posts discussing certain things, such as the power of PL trauma to "breach" the memory barrier, the relationship gender dysphoria and cross gender lifetimes, soul gender, . . . . etc.
Click to expand...

I would love to see something like this too. Perhaps it could be a sub-forum where notable threads are moved to (like the current FAQ section) or a series of threads with links to the best threads (so that they don't need to be moved).

If you decide to do such a thing though, it's probably a good idea to remind members not to make a new thread if many already exist on the topic, and that it's OK to revive old threads. For some reason, on most of the internet it's discouraged to "necro-post" on an old thread. So it might be worthwhile to specifically state that old threads are still open.
 
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Something from a technical perspective, but on other forums I get an email notification when there is a reply to one of my posts or a thread I'm watching or when receiving a PM. That doesn't seem to happen here; am pretty sure it used to when the forum was on the old software, but not since the 2015 migration. That might be a useful thing to have working again, to encourage engagement and return visits.
 
Spiegel said:
If you decide to do such a thing though, it's probably a good idea to remind members not to make a new thread if many already exist on the topic, and that it's OK to revive old threads. For some reason, on most of the internet it's discouraged to "necro-post" on an old thread. So it might be worthwhile to specifically state that old threads are still open.
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Now I really want to know when we are getting rules for the new forum.
 
Steve said:
We know we need to modernize our whole approach because so much has changed over the last 25 years. We need to attract new members, which means we need to be a place where younger people feel comfortable engaging and sharing. It also means we need to figure out how to integrate with all the other platforms out there to spread the word that our Forum is a safe place for sane conversation.
Click to expand...

To attract new members you could try to reach out to the reddit pastlives community. It’s a pretty active community with several new posts each day.

They already have a link to this forum/Carol’s website on their sidebar, but it’s an old link that doesn’t work anymore! Furthermore it’s titled “Children’s past lives discussion board”. So people reading this don’t realize this is a board to discuss adult’s past lives as well, nor do they even find the forum.

At least you could try to contact the reddit mods and ask them to update this link. (see screenshot)

On reddit they also do AMAs (“Ask me anything” – sort of interactive interview answering random user questions) with people who work in the field of reincarnation, like hypnotherapists and the like. They even did an AMA with Jim Tucker in the past.

I’ve no idea if the reddit mods would agree or if this is even something you would consider, but as Carol is an expert in the field with years of experience maybe it would be possible to do an AMA with her (or someone else representing her work) on reddit r/pastlives. During the AMA you could give information about Carol’s work, about this forum and our community, and leave all the relevant links and contact info you want - so doing a bit of promotion.

The AMAs are then archived and pinned to the sidebar of the reddit community for years for everyone to read. (See other screenshot)

Link to the AMA with Jim Tucker to see what I’m talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pastlives/..._ama_guest_is_dr_jim_tucker_prof_of/?sort=old
 

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All good suggestions. Keep them coming.

Ocean, you're on the right track. We want to be more integrated with other places online where reincarnation is being discussed. We just don't know how, yet.

We're going to take a hard look at the underlying software and server infrastructure of the Forum to see what needs to be modernized. Geeky, tech issues that affect how smoothly the Forum functions, ease of use for members and mods, safety and security, and visibility on the web (SEO and such). We might even change to a new platform, away from XenForo. If any of you have the technical chops and experience to help us at that level, please speak up.

Similarly, if any of you can help us figure out how to be more visible and attract more members and moderators--marketing and promotion and affiliations and feeds--please speak up too.

Steve
 
Ocean said:
To attract new members you could try to reach out to the reddit pastlives community. It’s a pretty active community with several new posts each day.

They already have a link to this forum/Carol’s website on their sidebar, but it’s an old link that doesn’t work anymore! Furthermore it’s titled “Children’s past lives discussion board”. So people reading this don’t realize this is a board to discuss adult’s past lives as well, nor do they even find the forum.

At least you could try to contact the reddit mods and ask them to update this link. (see screenshot)

On reddit they also do AMAs (“Ask me anything” – sort of interactive interview answering random user questions) with people who work in the field of reincarnation, like hypnotherapists and the like. They even did an AMA with Jim Tucker in the past.

I’ve no idea if the reddit mods would agree or if this is even something you would consider, but as Carol is an expert in the field with years of experience maybe it would be possible to do an AMA with her (or someone else representing her work) on reddit r/pastlives. During the AMA you could give information about Carol’s work, about this forum and our community, and leave all the relevant links and contact info you want - so doing a bit of promotion.

The AMAs are then archived and pinned to the sidebar of the reddit community for years for everyone to read. (See other screenshot)

Link to the AMA with Jim Tucker to see what I’m talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pastlives/..._ama_guest_is_dr_jim_tucker_prof_of/?sort=old
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Reddit is 100% much better than TikTok lol. (Even though I personally find the community toxic and hence why I never had and never will make an account.)
 
I said above that we're looking at everything, including the underlying software, which is Xenforo. I just looked into it and discovered that we've been running a very old version of Xenforo. Upgrading will give us new features, be easier to use, and greater security. I also did a little research and Xenforo is still considered to be the best forum software, so we're not going to look for an alternative--which is a relief because changing platforms is a pain (we switched from vBulletin to Xenforo in 2016).

We'll make sure we give plenty of notice when we upgrade. It might mean the Forum is down for a few hours. We'll also figure out the best way to get people up to speed on any new features. This is all good.
 
Another idea.. start an Instagram featuring credible cases, interesting facts and other things and post regularly. You can tie the Instagram to your Facebook page. Make use of hashtags.

Maybe add a teaser like "who were you in a past life? Join us and find out!".

Do we have a guide on techniques here? We should probably have one.
 
helz_belz said:
Don't remember there being a specific guide or how-to section, but happy to go through my bookmarks to find useful threads which might be a good place to start?
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Hi Helz,

That sounds like the first step in something I was mentioning: having alphabetical and/or topical indexes linking the best locations and threads to find things or find where they are discussed. It might be a good idea to come up with a list of popular topics and do a brief blurb with links to the best threads related to each. That might do it, as one cannot do a topical or alphabetical index of everything ever discussed on the board. And, anything that is done as a start can be expanded later.

One of the benefits of this is to get people to go back and read-through and add their questions and comments to existing threads rather than continuing to start new threads all the time. Having been here for awhile, I can say that many of these threads consist of just reiterating things that have already been said or discussed before. (I.e., "reinventing the wheel" threads).

Hmmm. I'm curious at this point for people to make some suggestions in terms of top topics. Obviously, threads related to regression techniques, etc. would form one topic.

Cordially,
S&S
 
SeaAndSky said:
One of the benefits of this is to get people to go back and read-through and add their questions and comments to existing threads rather than continuing to start new threads all the time. Having been here for awhile, I can say that many of these threads consist of just reiterating things that have already been said or discussed before. (I.e., "reinventing the wheel" threads).
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How are we going to enforce that the new forum won't have repetitive content like that?
 
Housekeeping really. Encouraging people to read through frequently asked topics and adding their discussion there, or merging the threads.
 
Totoro said:
Housekeeping really. Encouraging people to read through frequently asked topics and adding their discussion there, or merging the threads.
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Speaking of which…

Do you have any clue when the new forum will get rules and FAQ written?
 
melon04 said:
Speaking of which…

Do you have any clue when the new forum will get rules and FAQ written?
Click to expand...

I'm getting confused. I wonder whether everyone is talking about the same thing here?

Going back a few days there was an announcement that this forum would be made read-only. Shortly afterwards that announcement was revoked and this forum will continue.

In the interval between those two announcements, I think someone decided to start up a separate forum somewhere. That would mean two independent forums each having their own separate existence. At least that is my understanding.

However I'm not sure which of the two forums are referred to in posts here. My suggestion is that discussion of an external forum (if my understanding is correct) should take place there, not here.

As I said, I'm a bit confused as I've not been online for several days and am trying to catch up.
 
@Speedwell I opened the other forum only as a continuation of here in light of it closing.

Since the plan seems to be revamp and keep it open (here) I would prefer all posts and efforts also stay here.

I'll keep the forum, since it's up but there's no point in using it since we're going to stay open.
 
 
Your ideas to make important threads easy to find--indexing, or whatever--are really good, exactly the kind of improvement we're hoping for to make the Forum easier to use for newer members and easier to mine for the veterans. My only suggestion right now: if you're getting started on specific ideas for that, start a new thread, to keep this idea thread open for more new ideas. This renamed Topic, Forum 2022, is for such work (and specifically visible to all members, not just mods).

Not a formal announcement yet, but we are going to do a major upgrade to bring our very old version of XenForo up to date. We'll be offline for a couple hours, probably in the middle of the night Tuesday/Wednesday (in the US). The new version will have new features and, who knows, maybe a much better way of indexing the existing threads.
 
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