Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

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Jhana4
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Jhana4 »

I've only been here a few weeks. I haven't had any problems yet.
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
Mawkish1983
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Mawkish1983 »

I suspect most of the users here are extremely grateful for the generous gift that is Dhammawheel: a financial gift because David provides it for us all to use for free; a gift of time because I know running and moderating a forum can be a time-draining endevour; a gift of Dhamma because I continue to learn a tremendous amount from the administrators and moderators as well as the other users.

If I'm ever not happy with a gift, I ask for the receipt and take it back to see if I can have it exchanged (or I simply say 'thank you' and accept that sometimes we are given things we don't necessarily like). I don't start a public internet blog devoted to demonstrating to the world how unhappy I am with the gift. I just... wow. Stunned.

Sorry, back to work I go.
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Adrien
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Location: France

Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Adrien »

I am extremely gratefull with the organisation of this forum. I like the fact that everybody cannot say what he wants where he wants. I've seen how "total free speech" results in a french forum, and I can tell you that it's not pretty to see (and as a consequence, this forum closed). I am sure that moderators must have done some mistakes, but it's unavoidable when you need your personal judgment to controll things. Not everybody feels the same way about the same things. I didn't have any problem, but that's logical considerating that I'm more a reader than a writer. The dissatisfaction of some is the price for the good quality we have here. Keep on the good work !
Please don't hesitate to correct my english if you feel to
Jhana4
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Jhana4 »

retrofuturist wrote:Greetings members,

Over recent months, one Dhamma Wheel member has expressed grave dissatisfaction in relation to the way this forum is managed, via a blog specifically designed to target this forum and its volunteer staff.

Lest it be soddened by the rain
http://dhammawheel.wordpress.com/2010/0 ... llo-world/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've used and ran many types of internet forums. I once had a person put up a hate blog about a mailing list I took over. This was years ago before I started my current practice. The whole event felt magnified in my mind. One thing I learned from the experience is that disputes on internet forums only matter to the people involved. Nobody else cares.

I think that is healthy.
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
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tiltbillings
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by tiltbillings »

Jhana4 wrote: One thing I learned from the experience is that disputes on internet forums only matter to the people involved. Nobody else cares.
A good reality check. Thanks.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
PeterB
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by PeterB »

Modus.Ponens wrote:I've been here since the beggining and only have two major cases where I've been displeased with a moderator or another member: the case which was the reason to create two more subforums for meditation. In that case the moderator said he was sorry in the thread he ruined so no problem there. And the other one is when people make fun of Hanzze, namely alan.

Apart from that I'm quite satisfied with this forum in the years I've been here. And let me take this oportunity to thank David Snyder for the forum he has provided us with and to the moderating team for doing an excelent job in general.

I think that the mods and members including alan, are EXTRAORDINARILY patient with Hannze, who despite a number of very reasonable requests has made no effort to either improve his English or to glean even a basic knowledge of the Theravada.

I will join you raising a glass of non alcoholic beer to David and the Mods.....thats sounds like a 70's band. :toast:
PeterB
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by PeterB »

tiltbillings wrote:
Jhana4 wrote: One thing I learned from the experience is that disputes on internet forums only matter to the people involved. Nobody else cares.
A good reality check. Thanks.

True that. Just the people who are involved and the occasional person who likes to play Eric Berne's

" Lets HIM and YOU fight ".... ;)
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tiltbillings
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by tiltbillings »

PeterB wrote:
tiltbillings wrote:
Jhana4 wrote: One thing I learned from the experience is that disputes on internet forums only matter to the people involved. Nobody else cares.
A good reality check. Thanks.

True that. Just the people who are involved and the occasional person who likes to play Eric Berne's

" Lets HIM and YOU fight ".... ;)
Warm Fuzzies all around.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Monkey Mind
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Monkey Mind »

If agreement with the authority figures in my life was a prerequisite for participation, I would never leave my home. I do not always agree with the opinions expressed by various mods or admins of this forum, but in the places where I did not agree I learned a lot about the diversity of opinion that exists within Theravadan Buddhism. I've learned a lot about critically examining the teachings of any particular teacher, whether that be Ajahn Sumedho, Brahm, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Goenka, or any other. I have also learned a lot about why differences of opinion can form over the same sutta: issues with translation and interpretation, etc.

Anybody who focuses on the meta of the discussion here at DW rather than the content is missing this benefit altogether. I want to join the others in expressing my gratitude for DW, the staff that maintains it, and the people who participate here.
"As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I."
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.

Sutta Nipāta 3.710
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Annapurna
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Annapurna »

PeterB wrote:
Modus.Ponens wrote:I've been here since the beggining and only have two major cases where I've been displeased with a moderator or another member: the case which was the reason to create two more subforums for meditation. In that case the moderator said he was sorry in the thread he ruined so no problem there. And the other one is when people make fun of Hanzze, namely alan.

Apart from that I'm quite satisfied with this forum in the years I've been here. And let me take this oportunity to thank David Snyder for the forum he has provided us with and to the moderating team for doing an excelent job in general.

I think that the mods and members including alan, are EXTRAORDINARILY patient with Hannze, who despite a number of very reasonable requests has made no effort to either improve his English or to glean even a basic knowledge of the Theravada.

I will join you raising a glass of non alcoholic beer to David and the Mods.....thats sounds like a 70's band. :toast:

Ahhh, Peter, my dear, do you ever post in a forum NOT using your own language?

If not, you have NO idea what a challenge you are facing! :jawdrop:

It is so hard to improve on one's English skills, especially, because you are never aware of making a mistake! Perhaps after a while you think about a sentence and think: That sounds wrong....but when you submit it you think it's good.

Please bear with us, who at times cripple this beautiful language beyond recognition!

We think we write well, while we are--lacking. :smile:
PeterB
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by PeterB »

Sorry Anna...not buying it . If my French, German, Italian, was as poor as Hanzze's English I would not even attempt to communicate on a website in French, German or Italian...on at least 20 occasions he has had feedback from a number of different people saying that they have no idea what he is trying to communicating. Several people have made the point to him that if he spent just part of the time he spends posting in improving his English everyone including him, would benefit.

Then there is the other point, he has made no attempt to grasp even the basic points of Theravada Buddhism and instead refers to a weird hybrid of Mahayana and Animism of his own devising.


I simply read past his posts without stopping at them. I cant be arsed.

If at anytime he appears to be making an effort to understand the Theravada view instead of delivering lectures characterised by banality and gibberish in equal measure, I will start reading them.

PS YOUR English Fraulein Anna is better than many of the English speakers on the forum.
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Wizard in the Forest
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Wizard in the Forest »

Frankly, from the short time I have been in this forum, I have not once been dissatisfied with it.
"One is not born a woman, but becomes one."- Simone de Beauvoir
Jhana4
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Jhana4 »

Deleted.
Last edited by Jhana4 on Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
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Modus.Ponens
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Modus.Ponens »

PeterB wrote:Sorry Anna...not buying it . If my French, German, Italian, was as poor as Hanzze's English I would not even attempt to communicate on a website in French, German or Italian...on at least 20 occasions he has had feedback from a number of different people saying that they have no idea what he is trying to communicating. Several people have made the point to him that if he spent just part of the time he spends posting in improving his English everyone including him, would benefit.

Then there is the other point, he has made no attempt to grasp even the basic points of Theravada Buddhism and instead refers to a weird hybrid of Mahayana and Animism of his own devising.


I simply read past his posts without stopping at them. I cant be arsed.

If at anytime he appears to be making an effort to understand the Theravada view instead of delivering lectures characterised by banality and gibberish in equal measure, I will start reading them.

PS YOUR English Fraulein Anna is better than many of the English speakers on the forum.
Still no reason to say that he's good for comic relief.
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
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Wizard in the Forest
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Re: Open invitation: Help us improve your DW experience!

Post by Wizard in the Forest »

Okay, I might be out of line, but this isn't a Hanzze thread, so how about it be kept a little more organized around the OP? :focus:

Personally I think this is one of the best forum's I've ever been too, if not for the format, it is BECAUSE of the wise decisions of the moderators. I have been to quite a few, and never really felt welcome or like a part of it really, so this is really something I value. Don't take this criticism by the EX member too seriously.
"One is not born a woman, but becomes one."- Simone de Beauvoir
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