Dear John and List,

I opt and suggest we start doing legitimate organizing and networking...

I am currently trying to address this problem in my own way and space (in a by-invitation group called "Golden Dawn and the Internet," an ad-hoc thinktank for designing internet applications capable of intelligently networking GD practitioners so as to automate and democratize hierarchical functions such as demonstrating and legitimating attainments -- message me if interested), but this problem of increasing the organization-value of our networks needs wide attention from many venues.

My question is -- If an online application were available to network and organize hermetic practitoners, what would it look like and include (or exclude) that you cant squeeze out of the Tribe application? How would you improve or extend Tribe services and functionality to increase the organizing and information value to *hermeticists in particular?*

Here are a few ideas of mine:

The Tribe "individual profile--social network--tribes" model is really cool because it is centered on the social network that lies between all those individuals and all those groups. However, I think it is extensible by creating "customizable sub-network templates" as follows (really just "Network Templates -- The general level that exists now would become the "super social network" or "general social network template").

What if you could have MANY profiles, each specificly matched and customized to the needs of a specific Network and its ancillary services, of which Networks you could also have MANY, each having many possible Tribes all revolving around the same operational "Template" and any unique roles and services it offered...Thus, you would have networks of networks, but each network would be built around its own template of what kind of information and services were important to that community (so when you clicked on the picture of the Posting member in a Network using Template A, you would see a completely different and specific profile than you would see if you clicked on the same member in a Network using Template B).

To flesh out the idea, My own example would be the "online network of Golden Dawn Practitioners." The Golden Dawn was once a Hieratically legitimated, secret system of practice whose arcana has long since *become openly accessible and entered the community trust,* a situation that has over time presented many excellent examples of "The Legitimacy Problem," generating a large community of practitioners online, with different backgrounds of training using the same material, and therefore many conflicting views of what constitutes good and legitimate practice. Just visit any typical e-list on the subject and you will see that the issue is always around and never goes anywhere.

In this case, if I were designing a template to reflect the kind of information and services that I believe are sorely needed by this community, the personal profile would show a list of grades attained by date, linked to documentary & mode information (i.e. if you got a grade from a temple, it would list-link to that, if you did it on yourself, you might have pictures and a copy of the redaction you used or other materials templated to legitimate your efforts!). Your profile (as I see it in my minds eye) might also contain information on any temple affiliations linked as above (temples and other templated entities could also be entered in the system, if necessary as users with an entity role of "temple"), info on past and current template-defined roles (like being an online "Mentor" -- links to list of Mentees in the network -- or a network certifying authority for ritual proficiency helping to connect on and off lines (certification as a network certifier would be based on a "trust-ring" concept, see below), user-determined role-controlled access to magickal diaries...A template-driven service, as I see it, would be to have a Blog-base for magickal documentation where you could mark entries by category (dream, ritual/spell/working, general diary, grade-essay, whatever) so reports and printouts could be generated -- imagine choosing under a setup tab whether you want your entries auto-dated using Sunsign, Moonsign, planetary hours or Thelemic dating schemes? Whether to auto-generate local weather information (one of the hokier suggestions for diary correlates I've seen).

On the other side of the coin, The Tribes involved in this particular template of Social Network would also be many in number, but all revolving around the template -- there might be one tribe for the discussion of each grade's materials, requiring threshold grade achievement to join. Tribes for the discussion of temple management, for overseeing the work of off-line certifying trust-rings, for whatever anyone saw a need to make another tribe for, A tribe for those trust-rings of certifying agents for ritual work or temple standards and those seeking to join them (i.e., anyone certified as being a member of a trust-ring could then setup an official ground-visit to certify others, but the work of the ring would also be in the hands of the group at large -- thus putting the burden of legitimizing and validating attainments in the hands of the community).

Anyway, a complex and narrowly focussed answer to a simple and broader question. those are some of my personal, untested, ideas about how to create a more organized online space for hermeticists of the GD practictioner-stripe, as example, that would address "The Legitimacy Problem," if you feel called to hash more of this particular kind of example out send me a message so I can invite you to the place where that is happening, but I would ask for here, what other models of hermetic practice might generate different approaches to organizing hermetics online? Or to return to the question, should we splinter and/or sacrifice?

Yours in the Great Work,

Michael S. Downs