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What happened to e-sangha?
Is anyone here familiar with "e-sangha," the Buddhism portal?
I used to hang out there years ago, but now I see it's down, apparently the result of some kind of "cyber-attack".
I also notice that a separate website has been created, for the (apparent) purpose of denouncing e-sangha.
Does anyone know what this is all about?
I used to hang out there years ago, but now I see it's down, apparently the result of some kind of "cyber-attack".
I also notice that a separate website has been created, for the (apparent) purpose of denouncing e-sangha.
Does anyone know what this is all about?
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Comments
Imperminance.
What happened?
Someone who didnt like their policies, which were all correct and admirable by the way, sent them a virus.
The "lawsuit" is a joke.
Anyway, as was so succinctly pointed out, the reasons for the demise of e-sangha are largely immaterial.
Impermanence is the bottom line. It was, it now isn't.
Finito, really.
And frankly, attempts to recreate the same conditions here do not go down well.
Either fit in with the policies of Admin and Mods here, or go away, lick your wounds, feel better and create something of your own.
If that's what you want to do.
Or stick around, but adapt.
Choices choices, huh?
Any and all forums, like individuals and other communities have their shortcomings.
The idea of suing an online Buddhist community is very strange. The plaintiff himself admits that "litigation between Buddhists is always, always a tragedy"--and yet he's filing a lawsuit against a fellow Buddhist.
Therefore, if one were to use his own words, one might say this man is deliberating choosing to create a tragedy.
For a Zen priest to do such a thing, he must feel very strongly about it indeed; but it all seems a bit strange.
I agree. but these are problems of his own making, He's going to have to deal with it.
E-sangha wasn't a proper sangha.
First of all there were too many traditions to effectively call it a proper sangha. It was more a communal gathering of different traditions, some of which were permitted more voice than others.
Secondly, there was so much ego-feeding going on, it deteriorated into a forum where temperaments overtook teachings.
The bottom line is that it got too big for its own boots, overloaded and collapsed. It was just an internet forum.
It came to an end.
Fine.
As I said, it's impermanent, and as such, needs to be let go of.
As my 9th grade biology teacher wisely pointed out many years ago: when changes happen, you have but three choices - migrate, adapt, or die. That's been pretty much my life's mantra ever since
Mtns
But as a Moderator, I hesitate advising people that one of their choices is 'to die'. Bit extreme. I'd only use it as an absolutely last resort.
By saying "If it had been the best, it wouldn't have been attacked," you seem to be linking the attack to the quality of the site, which is an interesting interpretation.
Isn't it possible, though, that a "great" site could fall victim to a cyberattack just as easily as a lousy one could? I'm not sure I see the relation between how good a site is, and whether it can be attacked.
Maybe I misunderstood your comment, though--that's always a possibility!
It's interesting to examine some of the arguments we put forward on this site. Often, our thinking is biased (the human condition), but we're not aware of the bias, because we simply haven't noticed that side of ourselves yet. It's a "blind spot". I fall into this error all the time.
IME, forums like NewBuddhist with a relatively laissez faire approach to moderation tend to outlast the more restrictive forums. I think, with a moderate amount of traffic, issues of doctrinal disagreement tend to work themselves out and visitors appreciate the freedom to make their own decisions about what they agree with.
The way some of the mods behaved, it was the equivalent of a complete stranger walking up to your group in the middle of conversation and putting their hand over your mouth. Just think of how absolutely rude that would be if that happened.
They weren't all like that and there was definitely a lot of lenience and high quality posting there, and in light of the egregious (had to fit that word in sometime) abuse of power there, it still worked. When it didn't a lot of people must have been really disappointed. Never mind.
It appears that other people had made similar experiences with e-sangha, as I have heard it being referred to as "e-stasi", "big brother sangha" and other similarly charming titles. Well, this is one thing that can happen if a forum gets too big and if policies don't get managed well. I have recently seen the same development in another Buddhist forum that has apparently seen significant influx of former e-sangha members. Presumably also a policy and management problem. Just as in the real world, history often repeats itself in cyberspace.
Cheers, Thomas
Maybe they just got tired. It takes a lot or work to run a website every day, especially one of that magnitude. Sometimes you just get sick of doing it every day. Maybe the loss of data (this is what I heard happened) was the final straw.
The forum even had a system to be sure if the people who were posting where monks, lamas, or not; I think it was by far the best buddhist forum to the date..
As my 10th grade biology teacher put it SO well...
When your environment changes, you have only three choices:
1. Migrate
2. Adapt
3. Die
"Migrate, adapt, or die" seems so animalistic. Perhaps apt for wildlife, but certainly not for people. Our human response —adaptation— comprises a very wide field indeed.
One adaptive measure for people of good will is to accept their situation with a kind of humility and good humour that realizes that it is in giving up the need to control every facet of our lives that some real joys are thereby allowed in.
We human beings have manifold choices. Animals have neither reason nor laws to protect or guide them.
I find this triad of choices quite dismally incorrect, although I fear I don't see any connection with the topic of this thread in it.
Does Google cache help?
I never really found it to be overly moderated or intimidating, but I joined it maybe 2 years ago, a year after you left. The only one negative thing I remember was a thread about a group or sector of buddhism that was cult like and should not be mentioned. It was like something from Harry Potter lol, I was not allowed to ask or speak of this movement and case closed right there.
I in fact find some people to be greatly condescending on this site sometimes and ultimately intimidating. Other times I feel the scope for discussion is cut short as there is too much emphasis on not being able to say certain things. After all, it is a discussion site...
That was what I was told about about E-Sangha too- I never visited there either and heard about it at Buddha Chat. The demise of BC was a loss for me, litigation was a factor that was raised in the mix that I heard about there too in the end
Out of curiousity which group of Buddhism was this? I've seen a few movements called "cult like".
Probably he is referring to the NKT tradition (although there where other so called "traditions" that were banned, for example, fire sangha, dark zen, etc.). That's because in e-sangha the administrators and the mods considered themselves (as I do) proper students of the Dalai Lama, etc. And there is a long story about this so called "new kadampa tradition" (strictly in an historical sense, Gelukpa are the New Kadampa .P) about Dolgyal: http://www.dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden
http://www.dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden/his-holiness-advice
It is a heavy polemic that has its roots not only in tantric practice, but also in politics.
Now, I don't want to resurrect this polemic, nor to start a discussion in this thread about this. It is only for information to this person.
I forgot until Alfonso suggested his opinion, there was an 'N' in the abbreviation for sure. I tried to ask about who they were etc but nobody would tell me. he thread was dedicated to a person who had a friend who had joined this movement and she was trying to steer her away, to no avail
Buddhist LJ group whaaaaaaat?!?! Bout to go find it.