The Noble Pagan Forums - Hard at Work: The Official Unveiling of The Noble Pagan Library and Herbal Directory!

So yes, I've been missing for a few days. For that I apologize, but I think you will all agree with me that it was well worth the disappearance, for I bring to you two new sections of the site and I do believe you will fall in love with them.

So without further ado I present to you:

The Noble Pagan Herbal Directory
This portion of the site is 100% completely user driven. In other words, you guys are providing the information as per many requests I've gotten over the last few months.

As a result, you are able to edit *most* of the pages that have to do with the herbs themselves, and if there isn't a page for the specific herb there already, you have the ability to create it. When you are creating a new page you are given a basic boilerplate to follow so that all the herb listings have an identical layout.

Now, due to the potential for harm from bad information in the herbal, I will personally be perusing the herbal once a week page by page to ensure that a) the information is good and presented in the proper manner and b) the boilerplate for the herbs was utilized and kept to as much as possible. Any pages added that do not follow the boilerplate layout or provide misinformation will be removed, and if the problem was misinformation, the user responsible for it will receive an infraction on the site as a whole (to many infractions = full ban from the site). Minor issues are not a problem, as I will be editing out any problem areas I see, and since the rest of the members have the ability to do so they will probably fix any inconsistencies as well.

If you've ever edited on Wikipedia, you already know how to use the system. If not, there is a help section to help get you started.

And last, but not least:

The Noble Pagan Library
The first thing I'm sure you will notice is that it looks nothing like the main site. That is entirely by design. I wanted the library to be entirely separated from the site by way of look and feel. I personally feel that the dusky gray feeling of the library adds to the ambience of what we're trying to do there.

So what are we using the library for?

Simple. Documents, manuscripts, grimoires, ancient texts and other hard to find works of the written word. These items will be available both via PDF hardfile for your reading at your pleasure, or on the library itself. Now, this one is only user driven in what you guys supply me to publish. You can login there, but you only have the ability to read the site. This is, again, by design. I want to keep this area in spotless condition, and make sure the documents don't get lost (as a lot of the ones in my personal collection are going to take a very long time to convert).

More information is available on both sites, and if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask here. I will do my best to answer them.

So hop on over to the herbal and the library and see what's what and then come on back here and let me know what you think!

CR

I understand that the copyright Gestapo would take a dim view of putting more modern texts in this library, but how about a collection of links to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble for works like Adler's Drawing Down the Moon or Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft. Just a thought.

Love the layout in the library. I definitely has a different feel than the forums and to a great effect too. Also I'm not the most capable herbalist around but I'm pretty darn good so I think it's awesome for us to have someplace to share info like that. I know I'll have stuff to add to it .

Yep, unfortunately the copyright Gestapo would have a field day with us if we reprinted anything still in copyright protection without permission. I'll look into the code to provide some featured books from amazon and B&N based off your (the members of TNP) recommended reading lists: What Are Your Recommended Pagan Reading Lists?
Thank you, I was shooting for a completely different feel for it to put folks into the right "mood" for reading these texts. As for the herbal directory once you learn the wiki-formatting, it's very easy to add and edit there. We are using the exact same code that wikipedia uses, so if you have ever edited there you already know the system. If not, like I said, there's a help section to get you started. If you guys run into a block somewhere and get stuck, just shoot me a shout and I'll help you out with it.

Cumulative time for both of the wikis came out to be about 4 days of code adjustment and design work to get everything right.

Incidentally, if you guys can think of another use for a wiki on TNP, it's a mere matter of 45 minutes to get it up and running now for us , so feel free to drop a suggestion for another wiki if you come up with another offering that would fit into that kind of format.

On the library thing - at our local library, I can download ebooks and save them to disk, etc. for future reading. What does that do to copyright since I "legally" got it? Not like you can return ebooks!? LOL

Your local library has agreements that the state / local govs have with the publishers to be able to offer that. It helps that they are also not making a profit off the books, which is where the biggest issues with literary copyrights come into play.

Seems we know alot ourselves and are the type to seek knowledge. As we learn, we can write information 'in our own words and willing to share freely', specifically for this library, and donate the material for the website. I believe I could write many short articles on say 12-14 topics, Technomage, Alchemy, Cosmology, Meditation, Healing, Lore and Music, Divination, Sacred Math, Crafts, Wheel of the Year, Nature, etc. Including on each document, links to sources and other websites or reference books to further the readers knowledge. Would this be out of line?

not at all that is what we love to see

Whoa, I must have missed this in the time I dropped off the map. Looks nice.

I don't think CR aka Jabby BEar would mind at all. HONESTLY, I would love to see what you got....

This sponge of mine would greatly appreciate it. I can't sit still too long right now, it's spring at most summer I gotta soak in all this nice weather (sinuses/hay fever/death by stress will permit) before the snow flies again. Love to read different articles on many subjects from many perspectives..I can usually sit long even to read those. =P

P.S. Forgive me for my improper grammar, punctuations and spelling errors. Sinus fog plus back pain. My mind isn't here right now. =P