I was diagnosed with depression two weeks ago, and the doctor gave me antidepressants. I feel better now, but the side effects are uncomfortable -- dry mouth and headaches. Well, the doctor said that this specific antidepressant (it is called 'Sertralina') is not really addictive, and I would leave it easily in the future.

Maybe this will give you some insight to the early days of TPF. — Sir2u

I felt nostalgia reading the thread even though I wasn't a member back then.

But never attempted it. Have you? — Amity

Yes! I attempted writing haibun on more than one occasion. Yet it has been a while since I wrote the last one. It is hard to write to me because I can't figure out when I should stop or not. Remember that a haibun needs to end with a haiku. So, in most cases, it was difficult for me to discern whether the prose needed to be longer or shorter. Now that you mention it, I can't remember why I stopped writing haibun because it is a good way to practise our creativity skills!

I wonder if that could be incorporated into TPF 'philosophy writings' or 'short stories'?
What do you think? — Amity

Yes, definitely. I think it could be incorporated into 'short stories'. Like a different way of participating in the challenge/competition/activity, etcetera... or we may do an activity only focusing on haibun but this could be a bit extreme. :chin:

Hello Amity. How is it going? :smile:

In the traditional sense, correct.
Sometimes, people (even philosophers) love a poetic idea, like 'haiku' and run with it. Across the globe.

The book mentioned in the OP is one such enterprise. Creativity flows. — Amity

I think I might be precise. Japanese haiku poets no longer follow the traditional structure. Nonetheless, I still believe that it is very important to give a try at understanding Japanese aesthetics and their way of thinking. They are more ambiguous than us (the Western people), and they are also influenced by a culture where silence and non-emotional expressions are very relevant.

I think one of the usual mistakes I made writing haikus is precisely trying to be creative. The key of the haiku is letting ourselves be embraced by nature. :flower: :smile:

javi2541997 - how is haiku progressing where you're at? — Amity

Very well! We (my friends and I) are publishing haikus in an online magazine. It is very fun, although some haikus might not be very good enough haha. On the other hand, we also focus on commenting and sharing ideas about old known haikus by Santoka, Kobayashi, Buson, and Shiki. This is very interesting, and I am learning a lot, but I have to admit that I still have a lot of things to learn. I met folks who have written haiku since 2000 or 2002. Crazy! Imagine writing haikus for more than twenty years!

The following thread is very awesome, but it is only available in Spanish (sorry): :pray:

Kire.

Yes! The game didn't even begin yet. Keep an eye out for Entry 001. — Kizzy

Kizzy, where is the Entry 001? Should we keep waiting and have more patience?

Yes! The game didn't even begin yet. Keep an eye out for Entry 001. — Kizzy

I'm hooked.

The times, or levels, or versions of TPF method of entry or order of ops is something I didn't consider, at first. — Kizzy

Yeah, doesn't matter, Kizzy. You started this thread with good manners, and it is a great and interesting OP. I thought you should know that TPF worked differently back in the day.

Please, don't worry! I can tell you what it is, what I have about you from what I have gathered from you! — Kizzy

Haha. I know, I know, dear friend. I was joking. It is very intriguing that some can have an opinion on me in that way. I mean, thanks to your notes or files, I realised that I exist for someone. Dude, thank you so much. I don't know if it is really related, but I remember that the last summer we talked to each other through private messages, and it was fun. It might be related to your files or maybe not... time will tell us.

But first, I think and find the mention of John Locke to be of relevance, especially considering you, your mind state, and status in that time, 2021 I suppose, when and where you emerged onto the scene. — Kizzy

I agree. Good point. But I have changed a lot since then. I perfectly remember why I started my first OP. By that time, I was very interested in British empiricism. It has been fun since then, and I met awesome people here. Yet it is true that I also had negative experiences with a few users. But nothing that had torn me apart!

Javi, I will say, the note I have is kind of recent...and in it mentions user, that I have left off the list, karl stone. — Kizzy

Nice! This is like playing Cluedo. Is there a further clue to consider?

Kizzy... Kizzy... my mate you are doing spooky stuff.

Jokes aside.

First, not all of us sent an email to Jamal to join TPF. I joined this site in 2021, and by that time, you didn't need an 'invitation' to join. You just create a user and then sign up. The invitation guideline came after, I guess, one year later. So, there are a large number of users who never sent an email to Jamal. This has led to recent users, I guess.

I feel pleased that I appear in your famous files or notes. Now, I am also a bit scared. I only hope that you haven't targeted me for unknown reasons, or you are planning to threaten me because you have sensitive information about me. No, I don't think so. You are not that kind of person. But I am not going to lie: I feel now a bit intrigued. What might Kizzy have about me? :chin:

My very first layer of my presence here is not very interesting, and it is plagued by spelling errors:



This is a great "vault" as you stated. Looking forward for revealing more secrets. :wink:

So presumably if one deletes a conversation, it is deleted for oneself, and not for the other participants? — Banno

Presumably, yes. But there is another important fact, and he wasn't the one who started the private message. Probably, if the member who started and invited the rest deletes it, it affects all. Otherwise, the thread of the private message remains. Well, this is a conjecture. I don't really know, but it is interesting to talk about the tips of TPF.

Not sure why - "@I Like Sushi" and "@T Clark" do not come up, — Banno

I Like Sushi comes up easily. Try to search him using only the words 'Like' or 'Sushi' and his name pops up.

My theory that @T Clark doesn't come up is that many members whose names include 'Clark'. If I type 'Clark', they appear before Clarky since the search feature only reveals results that begin with 'C' or 'Clark', whereas our friend's user name begins with T.

On the other hand, it is interesting to know that @J is unsearchable. I didn't know that.

Good morning javi. I don't mean to be overly pedantic, but I think it's important to note that the op is clearly and specifically concerned with "discussing philosophical ideas in Private Messages". — Metaphysician Undercover

Good afternoon MU. Yes, I understand what this thread is about, and I still believe that the replies this OP received from the rest of the members are very insightful. Yes, it is true that we are not debating about the concept of metaphysics or epistemology. These are 'real' topics of philosophy. But, sometimes, it is nice to get to know each other a little better. These kinds of threads can help us to do so. I think discussing philosophical ideas in private messages is great because I think you share ideas with a member you have in high esteem or you trust in him.

Exactly. So the response to such a question is abuse? I don't get it. If the thread were in the Lounge, would that make it OK to be sarcastic and disrespectful? (Perhaps so; I never visit the Lounge.) — J

I will be honest: when I joined the forum, I believed that whenever a thread was put in the lounge, it was like a punishment. Nonetheless, later I learnt that the lounge can also hold interesting discussions, but the topic doesn't especially address philosophy, and that's why it ends there. I recommend you visit it. You will not get disappointed. :wink:

I believe the point of this thread is not to be philosophical but to ask us if we use private messages to interact privately with other members.

I think it is interesting to read the replies from the other mates. Some use private messages to talk with people they consider closer to interact with; others use it to gossip, as Benkei stated. It is comprehensible that the main point of a forum is to interact with the rest widely. But this should not create boundaries for the interactions. Talking with someone privately through PM is another way of using TPF.

I mainly used private messages to talk with @Arcane Sandwich in our native language. Also, I interact with @T Clark a lot through PM when he feels I am angry. Because there are personal or emotional stuff that need to be treated more privately. I don't know if this thread ought to be in the lounge, but it is quite interesting to see that folks built personal relationships with some members that they trust in.

Do you find yourself using PMs for more intricate discussions? — Banno

It is not only for doing philosophy, but I use private messages to show myself with more freedom. Before @Arcane Sandwich was banned, we had deep conversations in Spanish using private messages. This is the way we became friends, and we still have contact through email. Since he is the philosopher and not me, I am like his student, and we talk of different topics, but I was learning about 'Divine Simplicity' lately thanks to him.

Overall, I believe private messages are used with members you have a certain level of confidence in.

The Transylvanian Trilogy: Volume I. They were counted. by Miklós Bánffy.

Shocking! That's very sad news. It feels like yesterday when she gave the feedback on my stories in the 'short story competition.'

Rest in peace, Vera! Thanks for everything.

And thanks @Amity for letting us know.

After how the tables have turned since January, he feels more entitled than ever to claim that the whole of Ukraine is Russian. If you have an old man in the White House saying similar statements like "the Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America" or threatening Denmark to make Greenland part of the USA. Well, it is not strange that Putin would follow a similar tune.

Cărtărescu's Blinding trilogy.

Karl Stone — Hanover

Understandable. I think we all expected this sorrowful end. Don't you?

Honestly, I believe that @karl stone was like a preacher in the desert. His ideas are good and revolutionary, but I think he is sending the message to the incorrect audience. If I were him, I would have already started a campaign. But, for unclear reasons, he decided to share his ideas with us. The first time is nice, but the rest can be unbearable, and I guess this is what caused the banning of @karl stone. Whenever we ignored (or even criticised) his 'Magma Forever' theory, he took it personally.

Instead of redeeming himself, he kept the same attitude. Now, I would like to ask @karl stone: Who is the shepherd and who is the lamb? This can answer many questions. He either felt like the shepherd or the lamb.

Descanse en Paz. A really picturesque member.

Inquisiciones by Jorge Luis Borges.

I don't understand the chart, and the tulip seems to be lagging. I would like to recommend you to use ChatGPT as a prompt too. It will plummet sooner or later, as well as tulips back in the 17th century.

Do you have political aspirations, at this stage in your life? — kazan

No, not really; I lost confidence in politics because it always ended up disappointing me. It is difficult to keep an idea for years in this very volatile world. My motto is 'live and let live'. Don't treat people badly.

But politics is a game played by snakes. I am already happy if I am a good citizen, neighbour or friend. We have to be better than the people who are in power, the ones who pull the strings.

Australian smile.

When it comes to friends and family, getting them to listen is more important than understanding. If they are listening, they can understand within 1 minute or 50 years. There is no such thing as a conversation anyone would understand without listening. — Cobra

This is what I was about to post. It is not possible to understand someone without the act of listening carefully. Well, language also plays an important factor. Imagine two persons listening to each other, but they don't share a common language. Here, the act of understanding would be in trouble.

Who cares who rules, it's how they rule and the outcomes. — kazan

I agree Kazan, good point.

Don't you ever think of getting involved in Australian politics actively? I believe you and @Banno would be good Leaders of the House.

You don’t understand the move because you wouldn’t do this. — Tom Storm

Exactly.

Members cannot delete their own posts. They can edit them, so they can replace the entire text of a post with a single character, which is what happened in this case. — Jamal

Yes, yes. I know. We are only able to edit the posts, not to erase them. The same happens to discussions. I remember asking fdrake to erase a thread I started because I wasn't able to do it by myself.

I believe he couldn't have erased more than 9K posts, but as pointed out, he may have had a new view on everything, and then puff, vanished into thin air.

:up:

I am surprised it is allowed; — unenlightened

Me too. I thought the site owned our posts and threads and they couldn't be deleted.

Our past ideas can be embarrassing, no doubt. But not forgetting (or erasing in this case) the past can help us to understand how we are in the present and how we would look like to be in the future. I have changed during these four years in the forum. But I don't regret any of my 6,291 posts. Each post represents a footprint of my existence here. From now on, how can a new member ever know that tim wood existed here? :sad:

If they would like to join again, they can send an email to infoatthephilosophyforumdotcom. — Jamal

But everything he posted with his old user profile is now permanently deleted, right?

Exactly.

The solution is to not post for a period of time and have a break from the Internet or the forum. According to the explanation of events by , he started to self-erase. I believe he did it in a state of anger, and his emotions were out of control. Deleting the posts is an extreme option, indeed. Imagine everything you posted for years vanishing like the smoke in the air.

Forgive me, but I think I will avoid Kundera. — jgill

Give him a try. You will not get disappointed. Trust me, jgill. :wink:

I want to believe there is a place to return, but whether I could be capable of approaching it is what scares me the most.

I understand the utility of a preface. It can help the reader to begin with an introduction and basic points of what the work will be about. But this is the precise reason I want to skip them. I'm afraid that the preface will give me one interesting idea, and I'll end up with a completely different one. The only time I read a very well-written, interesting preface was in Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses.

He wrote a preface to French readers and an epilogue to British readers (or the other way around; I don't quite remember). I think that was clever because the 'mass-man' was focused on a Spanish context, but Gasset was aware that his essay would only have success if it ended up being read by French and British philosophers.

I wasn’t aware that anyone had ever actually read the preface to any book. — T Clark

I haven't read any preface ever. I tend to avoid them as much as I avoid introductions; I would rather not get affected by opinions before I start the book. I want to get mine when I finish it.

Blinding, Book Three: The Right Wing by Mircea Cărtărescu.

The last volume of this excellent trilogy. Mircea has become one of the best authors I have read for the past years. I am looking forward to reading other works of his, but I will do a pause after finishing this one.

Oh! Hello @Book273, nice to see you posting here again.

China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty — Maw

It sounds pretty interesting. Any thoughts on it?

Yep, I agree.

I believe we get to the same conclusion: the problem is the people in power and not the set of laws or rules. Some countries are lucky that they can combine both: good laws and honest people.

I understand. But I was not thinking about the US administration. I was thinking of other countries where politics are not very relevant and the judiciary system is more used to being independent. It is hard to find out which one, but I guess Finland, Ireland, the UK, Japan, or Germany may be good examples. I wish we (Spanish-speaking nations) had a better procedure against corruption, but the system became a full-blown septicaemia, I suppose.

I will not give up, though. I still believe there are honest judges that work under a lot of pressure from corrupt politicians and agencies. Not all of the system is already dead.

Because his corporate sponsor or political patron wants the bad law implemented. — Vera Mont

True.

This is why I propose a 'code of conduct' for those people and situations.

There could be a process where the corrupt get summoned to testify in court. But who could be the one who writes the subpoena, and what could be the correct process?

I see a light in the dark tunnel: only judges can control other judges through the code of conduct. It is not necessary to concede too much power to Supreme Court judges; and these could be controlled by ordinary ones in a courtroom similar to a disciplinary process.