Site Update

[Bryan]

Dear All,

Back in 2011, I was invited to a new site called Temple Illuminatus. I loved the visuals as well as the information available. It was also nice to finally start connecting with people who had differing belief systems. That’s what the Temple was all about—catering to everyone so all people had a home and a place to openly express themselves.

In 2014, I took over the site and we were still thriving, but over time we lost a lot of activity. The administrators here did an incredible job of keeping things going, but that kind of drop-off is sadly normal for many specialized social sites. Over the last month our goal was to reignite the fire and bring this place back to life. We removed members who hadn’t logged in for years, changed the aesthetics, and cleaned up old groups, photos, and videos.

Unfortunately, our efforts were in vain. There is a technical issue with data usage that is preventing us from moving the site. It would place us in one of the most expensive tiers and leave us with very little space to work with.

So it is with some regret that we announce Temple Illuminatus will be closing. We already have a new plan in place, but this step was needed. We only have about 8–9 active users each day, and most of them are admins. It simply makes more sense to shut this site down since we can’t move it. Closing will take at least a month, so you will have time to archive any blogs and posts you’d like to keep. We really wanted to transfer all of your content over, but it doesn’t look like we will be able to.

The good news is that we built a new site. It’s important to us that each of you still have a home and a place to openly converse and share. It’s a work in progress, but you can check it out and join at www.templeluminara.com. The hope was to hold onto the original feel, and I believe we have done that. I’m excited about what’s to come.

Of course it will take time to build a membership. We’re currently looking for founding members. These are people who can serve as experts in their respective fields and help the site grow. What we want to avoid is a group where everyone follows the same belief. That contradicts what the Temple is about, and it also pushes away people who might otherwise belong here.

First steps: find those founding members (if you’re interested, please let me know), add content and groups for specialized areas, and get some real activity going in the forums and blogs. If you aren’t interested in being a founding member, you are still encouraged to join and post.

On a personal note, it is frustrating that we can’t transfer everything over, but I’m actually quite excited about the new site in general. Please check it out and sign up if you’re interested. Building a new community will take time, but if we do it right, the site can will thrive.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any one of our admins. 

~Bryan

www.templeluminara.com

[Sirian Starlight]

Hi Bryan,

Thank you for the invitation to join the rebrand of Temple Illuminatus.

I humbly accept and am interested to know more about being a founding member.

I did join the new site. I don't know what kind of area of it you want if anything to be most active...I assume forums and maybe groups since as far as I know, that's what generates areas of interest to later visit.

I'm sorry to hear that this site hasn't been as active as it was once. It is really shameful that your hosting provider is not treating your data with the care it took 15+ years? To preserve. that's no small achievement, and I just want to thank everyone who reads this whether it's historical or recent, your posts mean something to me and, you do too.

I don't mind reposting things I've saved here, that's no issue.

I think that you should at least be able to ask for a data export...most hosting providers can give this and if it's like maybe $10.00 - $20.00 extra per month to get it moved to the new platform, I don't mind contributing to the cost of that.

If it were me in your shoes, I would say be proud of still offering this platform to the world wide web or find a way to archive it through archive.org so it's not gone completely. I'm sure you've probably looked into all avenues of research, just...from an outsider's perspective looking in, it seems like your hosting provider isn't as interested in being proud of everything you've contributed towards as you, and myself as well.

I know we live in an age where centralized hosting is being replaced by AI, bots and other changing technology...the specifics of which I'm not too familiar with. One place I have heard about, if a change in format isn't...too hard to handle, is Mastodon. It's supposed to be decentralized and you're able to keep all of your data. I don't know how well it can handle groups, though. But for everyday posts, it's an app you can install on your phone, and that might potentially be more affordable or available to people if you're trying to bring in a younger audience whose used to that style of interaction.

I love learning about new things and people's genuine perspectives along the way. I think you're doing the best you can, and I appreciate it. These days little web spaces like this seem to be disappearing more and more, as people switch platforms...and perhaps even spend more of their personal time offline, and I myself am guilty of this. Yet if it's social media you want less of, and more contributions of a forum and or blog like nature, I know a lot of journalists are using Mastodon/Fediverse for uploading personal blogs. I only mention this to give less work to management needs, potentially.

I can't say I've been the most active here, but a space with a dedicated, more personal following as opposed to a group expectation is, and always has been what I've wanted in a community. I will do my best to be more active on the new site. One thing I noticed is that I wasn't able to see a place to upload any videos there...as is the case here. Perhaps it will come in time...I'm sure I could find a way to embed them in a discussion, and make some group contributions regardless.

I wish you all the very best. Sorry for the long post.

[Bryan]

Hey Sirian, 

Thanks for your response here. I appreciate it. The biggest challenge right now with our data is that there is a very large amount and we aren't able to delete it. We could transfer it over to the new platform, but if we did, 65% of our allocated space would already be eaten up. Then we would be expected to manually delete every file we didn't want one by one.  That's simply too much for anyone (50+ GB) which is why we just decided to build something new. We also didn't want to transfer over dead groups, inactive members, and forum posts from 15 years ago.

I will check out Mastadon though. I've heard of that in the past, but haven't ever researched it or checked it out. Thanks for that suggestion.

I will also check out archive. That's not something crossed my mind, but might be worth considering. Thanks for the idea. For now, one of our admins suggested we have a shout out for members that are no longer with us, so I plan to add something on the new site honoring both Leila and Kyst. 

In regards to videos, I currently have them turned off on the new site. I need to run a couple of tests before I consider adding them. The problem is people can upload videos up to 100 MB and those really destroy our allocated space. I need to test to make sure share URLs don't actually upload the videos to the server. They shouldn't (because it doesn't work that way), but based on our space issues, it's quite possible they are taking up more than they should.

Lastly, I did see your sign up and will push that through as soon as I'm able to today. If you're interested, we are looking for founding members as described in my original post. Let me know if that's something that interests you.

Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you on the other site, 

~Bryan

[Sirian Starlight]

Hey Bryan..just seen this.

Not sure your budget but...if it's a platform you need, and it's space above all else you're worried about...I did find something relatively affordable for that. that is, if you're comfortable paying for a dedicated server. Something tells me the new platform is...interesting, but just in case it doesn't work out, I did put together some alternatives. Really depends on how you want to reach people to be honest. Google alone is limited for that these days.

Dedicated Hosting

I've personally used them and combined with a service like Yuno Host Apps will really give you a more straight forward and scalable dataset to work with.

I don't know how experienced you are with Linux or hosting stuff though, and so in case you want a solution that's a little less technical, I looked up some more stuff and found this.

Companies like HiveFlare and HelloBox specifically come to mind because they manage the hosting part, and their plans aren't that terrible. Plus there's a basic free option that isn't too bad, so if you run low on funds one month, they won't just delete everything you put in to it.

I'm sorry if this isn't what you were looking for, these are just simply alternatives in case you aren't happy with how things are going. I'm sorry but in my own opinion, a company not treating 15+ years worth of content as precious to me is a red flag because it means...that you are just a $ sign to them, potentially.

I've come across companies like that in the past. I know the world isn't doing too well with all the chaos going on government side...and I also know relatively speaking interest groups like this are practically a drop in the ocean compared to what's popular out there. I don't like it when hole in the wall communities get scammed like this, and have to choose between what's affordable and what's achievable.

Like I say, only if you think you need it, things like this exist out there. People these days honestly just want connection without drama, a feeling of belonging and closeness with something other than a kind of empty void. Realistically speaking, social media to some extent will be your friend here...especially videos. I will help promote what I can, and see where things lead.

I really like the idea of honouring the spirit of members no longer with us. I have seen far too many community sites fade over time because they just, couldn't bring in sustained member growth...and I partially blame search engine decreased visibility for this. the other thing I blame is lack of notifications. And I've already been seeing like every message from the new site go to spam...not sure there's much you can do about that but the low trust factor will probably make people think it's dead, even if it isn't for that reason.

It's early days yet. I just want it to be worth it for us all. I appreciate you putting the time in to rebuild all that you can. thanks for being you. I understand that you were trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Much love, light and blessings,

Sirian Starlight.