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... and I'm as resignedly enthusiastic as ever. Yes, links were updated on that previous post - I see no reason to reward Webring's misconduct in this matter, or continue sending visitors to a soon to be nonexistent page on Geocities.
This community exists, primarily, because some have complained about having trouble getting in touch with me, when trying to join one of my rings. With all of the spam dropping in through the old Bravenet forms, I guess I was missing a lot.
I was serious when I wrote of my desire to retire from Pagan affairs, but I was also serious when I said that I'd never play Red Rover with people. So, I've set this up, and apologize for any earlier inconvenience. It wasn't intended.
Like the companion ring, Above the Categories, Uppity Syncretists is for those whose religion combines aspects of one of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) with those of a traditional polytheistic religion from what we'll call the Greater West - Europe, Southwestern Asia, North Africa and the Americas. In this name we should read, not a call for a renewed European imperialism, but a wish for a renewed recognition of kinships long forgotten.
Unlike the other ring, this one is for the discussion of less pleasant matters but please, people, let's keep this one reality based. Pages about psychic attacks and other such nonsense will not be approved.
- To bring you up to date
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antistoicus- September 17th, 2009
- Why we're not on Webring
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- antistoicus
- September 17th, 2009
Quoting the original homepage ...
June 26, 2006 ... We would start with a note of regret. At the time we are writing this, we find ourselves in a bizarre test of wills with an unknown adversary at Webring, who insists on creating a difficulty that is bound to lead to a misunderstanding. One of us set up the ring, and placed it into the category "Religion>Paganism". To his amazement, he soon found that somebody or something had switched it over to "Adult". He switched it back, and changed the general settings to change the ring from being an adult ring to a general audience ring. Somebody or something then switched it back, and so this continued, back and forth, with the result that an ad for "adult friend finder" appears on the hubpage, which is now blocked from view for most readers. If you are looking at this and thinking "somebody is insulting our religions", you're probably right, but please know that it isn't us. All that we can do is muddle ahead, hope that Webring gets its rogue employee under control, and wonder where such hatred comes from.
This ring should, for the most part, be self-explanatory. We do limit membership in it to those who have actively participated in one of the lists currently on this ring, or who have been referred to us "in the real world", offline. (Strange expression, that; as if the computers were worked on were just figments of our imagination). This helps weed out some of the more virulent evangelists we've seen from both sides, Pagan and non-Pagan alike. Never imagine that intolerance is ever limited to any one faction. For that reason, understand that the people you meet on these lists will approach you with caution as they must, and don't take it personally. Consider the popular hysteria that attends the discovery of the fact that the Santeria engage in the ritualized slaughter of animals, leading right up to the attempt to pass laws prohibiting this "satanic" practice, as if the kosher butchering of animals couldn't reasonably be called "ritual slaughter" itself. Why does doing the exact same thing become "sinister" merely because somebody one doesn't know does it? The sad reality is that popular America, society always seems to feel the need to have a scapegoat, some group that it assigns itself an imagined right to feel paranoid about, and if religious bigotry can provide a strangely socially acceptable cover for the racial bigotry that some would try to deny that they feel, in the face of abundant evidence to he contrary, all the more convenient for some. For others, a time to breath in deeply, sigh, and dig in for a long, needlessly difficult time ahead.
Which is to say, be patient and earn the trust of those you would meet. When the time is right, the doors will open. The ring lies this way. If you're looking for one of the lists mentioned on the hubpage, here they are:
June 28, 2006 ... Am much annoyed to have to report a new development. The ssnb code, correctly cut and pasted, is failing to produce anything other than the "alert navbar" one should see in the absence of any memberships for a U#, even though there are a number that would apply. Our own ring's navbar has failed to appear in the SSNB of any of our members. Yes, we've tried to write to Webring about this problem. No help was provided.
God helps those who help themselves. Our members backed up their misbehaving SSNB with HTML copies of the navbar, and we will do likewise here on the ring homepage wih the navbar of each ring that has already admitted "Above the Categories". Webring may or may not care about doing right by others, but we will never leave any doubt about such things ourselves.
July 5, 2006. Support has still not responded, so we just set up a new ring and recycled the old one. The new id is "syncretism"; the ring with id "syncretic" has been renamed "Uppity Syncretists", and has fittingly been mostly repopulated with pages focused on less positive aspects of the experiences of syncretic pagans. Certainly, what we're seeing here qualifies. There are a few reasons why the old, miscategorized ring wasn't simply deleted, but this one is reason enough - curiosity. We're wondering if Webring will ever get around to responding to our report, and so we're giving them an infinite amount of time to do so. Maybe. We'll give the new/old ring its own graphic in a day or two, with the really new ring retaining the original look of the old new ring. Read that one a few times, and it'll eventually make sense. I think.
Those wishing to join "Uppity Syncretists" need to join the Scuzzboy list and introduce themselves, their pages and their concerns. This page, now, is the homepage for two rings
and, as I've indicated, the hubpage for the first ring is accessible to the general public, while the second link on that last list will take you to a ring hubpage accessible only to those members of Webring who are logged in and whose memberships are set to allow them to see adult rings. Even though neither of these are adult rings.
July 5, 2007. In a true display of professionalism and maturity, Webring responded to our mild criticism of their decision to place sex ads on a religious ring by confiscating our ring. The good news is that they couldn't take away our sites, so we'll be moving those and this ring over to Ringlink, where ringmasters and ring members alike are said to be better treated. Antistoicus will be taking over the new ring, at least for now, and seems to be responding to the offer with his usual resigned enthusiasm.
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