Strict Crackdown On Duplicate Accounts & Immaturity

[Leo Gura]

We now have robust systems in place to catch duplicate accounts. Anyone caught trying to open a duplicate account will automatically have ALL their accounts banned. No exceptions, no second chances. This forum only allows one account per user.

This forum is cracking down hard on all serial exploiters, manipulators, immature people, and mentally and emotionally unhinged people.

From now on you only have ONE chance at being on this forum, so watch what you do and watch what you post. If I see you posting immature nonsense or misbehaving, I will not hesitate to ban you and you will NEVER get a second chance. All second chances are over! I am cracking down on anyone who wants to be in proximity or communication with me. If you want to have the privilege and luxury to be near me, to associated with me, to receive advice from me, or to communicate with me, you better be on your best behavior around me. That's the new policy. This forum will no longer be a safe haven for immature or emotionally unhinged people. Anyone not mature enough to communicate or socialize in a mentally-stable and integrous manner will simply not get to participate around me. If you cannot control your emotions, you're out. If you behave in an egotistical and dogmatic manner, you're out. If you attack other members of this community, you're out. If you try to manipulate this forum, you're out.

This forum is going to be much more exclusive and elitist going forward. The elitism will be based on maturity and wisdom. I've come to the realization that I need to be much more protective of drains on my time and my mental resources. I will not be dealing with any clown behavior any more from my audience. For too long I have been far too lax and democratic, letting people exploit my time and mental energy without limit. That is now over. I will no longer be helping or associating with anyone who is not mature enough to rise to the level of my teachings and philosophy. My work is very advanced and I want to build a community of people who rise to its level. Immature people have not only been wasting my time and mental energy, the have also been wasting the time and energy of mature and serious self-actualizers. This community must become a place of where serious people want to be, people who are actually doing work on themselves. I realize now that my mistake from the beginning was trying to appeal to everyone with this community when really it should always have been a place only for serious and mature people because they are the ones for whom I do my work. Those are the kind of people I want to associate with. That's what would make this community valuable.

If you want to associate around me, you better be a mature, honest, decent human being who can control him/her self. That's the new standard. Many of you here clear that bar. It's just an immature minority who keeps taking advantage.

The infrastructure of this forum is being upgraded to block anyone who doesn't rise to this new standard. All the loopholes are being closed.

Thank you to those who have stuck around and behaved in a mature manner from the outset. From now on I will be making this space for you -- for us. This will be a rare online space where the wise, mature, and serious hang out.

If you notice any member of this community behaving in a chronically immature way, please report them to me (via PM) for review. I will periodically be reviewing the performance of every member here and making decisions about who to keep around and who to ban. Evaluations will be made holistically, not based on any one post. I will be looking at your overall level of maturity, mental stability, emotional stability, character, and ability to think in an unbiased Tier 2 fashion.

A handful of worst offenders have already been perma-banned.

You should treat this forum as a place where you have an opportunity to make friends with me. And you only get one chance at that. If you screw it up you will not get another. In fact, I will ban all your IPs from ever being able to access Actualized.org and any future courses or teachings that I release. Do not treat this forum as just some disposable, anonymous thing. In fact, in the future we may transition to photo ID verification for all members and remove anonymity. So post as though your first and last legal name is attached to your words. If you wouldn't want your real name attached to your post, then it isn't worthy to be posted here. If my name is attached to this forum, so should yours. You don't get to come here and do anonymous verbal diarrhea with zero repercussions.

Thanks again to those who have been on good behavior from the beginning and never needed such warnings and reminders. I will also be making an effort to improve my communication with you to rise to the level of maturity, wisdom, and respect that you deserve. I want to make myself a resource for serious and mature students. I will be working towards that over the next year and beyond. I want to help fewer people, but more serious people. So ultimately that's all this is about. I have been thinking long and hard about the role I want to play as a teacher. And the more I think about it, the more serious I want to be. The days of clowning around are coming to an end. It was fun while it lasted but I am outgrowing that soon. I definitely have not been as mature as I need to be, but that will be changing in the future.

Edited January 25, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Leo Gura]

I am investing thousands of dollars into code to upgrade our backend to make the above possible, to give Mods better tools to identify and track all bad actors.

Edited January 25, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Sempiternity]

Heard all this many many times before. Hopefully this time it's a revolution, leading to a space that fosters intelligent discussion, instead of a cesspool of immature teenagers or grown 'men' who have the maturity level of teenagers. I've been checking in on this forum for many years, as I see it has the potential to be something great, and at times there is greatness. Years ago there used to be some real jems of deep conversations and debates. I feel like the toxicity of this forum has scared off most serious people, and most what remains is childishness. Hopefully this time it makes a difference, leading to a real change. Thanks Leo. 

[Inliytened1]

16 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

I am investing thousands of dollars into code to upgrade our backend to make the above possible, to give Mods better tools to identify and track all bad actors.

@Leo Gura if you have it setup properly you won't need mods.  It will be automated.   Mods will just give a personal touch.

[caspex]

Quote

I am investing thousands of dollars into code to upgrade our backend to make the above possible, to give Mods better tools to identify and track all bad actors.

I would enjoy it if you invested as well to fix bugs and also improve the forum design. I mean the designs subjective, but I'd personally enjoy the feel to be a bit more smoother. Unless the feeling of jaggedness is intentional, I'd like it to be modernized more.

Also adding quality of life features like clicking on that grey space outside the post you are looking at, to go back out to the forum you were browsing. Instead of the alternative that is clicking the back button. You know, how reddit does it.

[DrugsBunny]

I enjoy this place, it's appeal is extremely unique. That said, I have no interest in deceiving anybody. I've had a previous account that was banned, and I'll disclose the account privately. I imagine this would be effective in determining the efficacy of your new backend code.

Posting this may obviously result in a permanent ban of course, but I'm confident the temperament I've adopted should suffice as acceptable to be a member here. As I see it, my previous conduct warranted overt penalties, whereas my present demeanor does not, so if you disagree that would also put me in disagreement regarding the moderation here, so a strictly enforced departure would not affront my sensibilities.

On my old account I would very commonly go out of my way to aggressively berate people with asinine right-wing opinions, which I still have a tendency towards but more sparingly and it's more tactfully done, not even because I'm aware of the consequences of my conduct, but really because it's just more sensible to be less aggressive, and I almost cringe at my old inability to gauge just how unnecessary a lot of it was. I imagine I only got away with it as long as I did on the previous account because my use of language afforded me some plausible deniability regarding how my harsh personal attacks were perceived. 

The thing about banning people from here though (unless they are extremely obviously toxic) doesn't especially sit right with me, only because this place serves a unique utility in being able to discuss the metaphysics of consciousness in a way no other community can provide. So what drew me back in when I created this account -- you'll see my first post was a question regarding some of the philosophical implications of the views expressed on Actualized -- was the necessity to have my burning curiosity resolved. Things discussed here can evoke an existential crisis, and it would be unfortunate to have no means of pacifying the anxiety that comes with that.

[max duewel]

Sounds exciting. I think that's a good move. 

[mr_engineer]

Dude, but it's the immature people who need your help the most! A mature self-actualizer can just sit in a room, contemplate and do their own thing. 

It sounds like you're trying to use brute-force to exterminate all ego from your community. While I understand the motivation and your frustration with egotistical people, I don't know how realistic this goal is. Also, it kinda sounds like you're moving away from Spiral-Wizardry, in an attempt to raise the level of the forum to Tier-2. Cuz from what I remember you saying in the Spiral-Dynamics video, Tier-2 is about mastering every stage of the spiral, not running to the highest stage. 

Also, it sounds like you're wanting to make this community about yourself, like 'this is the kind of community I want for myself'. You're wanting to personalize this to yourself. Isn't this egotism on your part? Isn't this moving away from your Life-Purpose, or impacting people who actually need your work? 

If you truly want a community for yourself, I'd suggest going out on your own time and forming it in real life. And, spending lesser time here. And, putting your mods in charge of helping out people in need. If you want a core community of self-actualizers, your mods are good for that. And, you can keep this forum as a part of your Life-Purpose work, or your brand as actualized.org. Because it also looks like you're wanting to mix your personal and professional life here and making the community about your own personal needs. You may have personal needs, which is fine, so you can form another community for yourself that we don't have to know about. Where the stakes are higher. Where people actually have more skin in the game, than random people online. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by mr_engineer

[Kksd74628]

@mr_engineer

Immature people can stay, but they are little bit pushed to value Leo's patience more precisely. Being new to these things is not the problem, but being this hard-to-teach person just becomes distraction for members here and restricts growth of all Actualized.org members. The impact that practically comes with this is that people start to respect the direction where Actualized.org is trying to push members more which leads to even better growth for everyone and also we get the bad apples who don't want to grow away asap. Why would you carry someone on your shoulders who's disrespecting your help? Try to understand that this forum is rare goldmine and this forum, video content and Moderators help is given all for free for you so behave nicely or you're out. As simple as that.

Don't get me wrong though. Actualized.org cares about people, but just if they care about themself enough to understand the consequences of acting like an A hole. It is not too much asked to treat other's like human beings, care about their worldviews and analyze them, not bully or steal anything and have positive mind state when posting. You are given laws in your country and the point is to make better society for everyone and it also guides humanity to act better. Also understand that Actualized.org is Leo's self-expression too and yeah that is valuable too. Don't call that egoistical or anything, because of cource Leo has all rights to do things his own way and he should. Don't make something problem which isn't.

-joNi-

[Grateful Dead]

Amazing! Excited to be a part of it. Thank you Leo.

[mr_engineer]

22 minutes ago, Kksd74628 said:

Immature people can stay, but they are little bit pushed to value Leo's patience more precisely. Being new to these things is not the problem, but being this hard-to-teach person just becomes distraction for members here and restricts growth of all Actualized.org members. The impact that practically comes with this is that people start to respect the direction where Actualized.org is trying to push members more which leads to even better growth for everyone and also we get the bad apples who don't want to grow away asap. Why would you carry someone on your shoulders who's disrespecting your help? Try to understand that this forum is rare goldmine and this forum, video content and Moderators help is given all for free for you so behave nicely or you're out. As simple as that.

This is a very slippery slope to being labelled a cult by the mainstream. I understand your desire to appeal to serious self-actualizers, but that's not most of the world. Having a 'cult-audience', as marketers like to call it, while talking about God, is going to attract controversy. I don't know whether this is going to be good for your impact on the wider world. 

Especially this 'hard to teach' thing - someone reading this post for the first time is going to be like 'another ideological echo-chamber of spirituality'. You may call that a projection, which may even be true. But, when it comes to your impact on the world, image is very important. Precisely because most of the world is hard to teach! And, it's not even fully their fault. They look at you and whether you're walking your talk first. That's how they form your image. This is just what it takes to teach new things to people who fancy themselves as 'advanced self-actualizers'. 

One of the rare things that Leo has to offer is that he's not ideological himself and he's able to be authentic on camera. This is his image. My suggestion is to not change this on an image-level. Cuz once you do that, as someone who teaches spirituality, things can go south. 

26 minutes ago, Kksd74628 said:

Don't get me wrong though. Actualized.org cares about people, but just if they care about themself enough to understand the consequences of acting like an A hole. It is not too much asked to treat other's like human beings, care about their worldviews and analyze them, not bully or steal anything and have positive mind state when posting. You are given laws in your country and the point is to make better society for everyone and it also guides humanity to act better. Also understand that Actualized.org is Leo's self-expression too and yeah that is valuable too. Don't call that egoistical or anything, because of cource Leo has all rights to do things his own way and he should. Don't make something problem which isn't.

You can moderate for intellectual honesty and solve these problems. 

[mr_engineer]

If you're going to teach about God, try to compete against religion. Don't hide from the religious nutcases. Or else, you will lose the holy war. 

This is one of the huge appeals of spirituality in a self-help context. These are people who have been burned by religion and atheism and they're looking for an answer to their suffering outside of religion and atheism. So, whether you like it or not, you're competing against religion. A big part of that is to not repeat their mistakes. And another part of that is to be willing to get your hands dirty when it comes to debating religious people (or other ideologues). 

If you're teaching philosophy, ideology is your bread and butter, whether you like it or not. 

[Kksd74628]

@mr_engineer

2 minutes ago, mr_engineer said:

This is a very slippery slope to being labelled a cult by the mainstream. I understand your desire to appeal to serious self-actualizers, but that's not most of the world. Having a 'cult-audience', as marketers like to call it, while talking about God, is going to attract controversy. I don't know whether this is going to be good for your impact on the wider world. 

Especially this 'hard to teach' thing - someone reading this post for the first time is going to be like 'another ideological echo-chamber of spirituality'. You may call that a projection, which may even be true. But, when it comes to your impact on the world, image is very important. Precisely because most of the world is hard to teach! And, it's not even fully their fault. They look at you and whether you're walking your talk first. That's how they form your image. This is just what it takes to teach new things to people who fancy themselves as 'advanced self-actualizers'. 

One of the rare things that Leo has to offer is that he's not ideological himself and he's able to be authentic on camera. This is his image. My suggestion is to not change this on an image-level. Cuz once you do that, as someone who teaches spirituality, things can go south. 

Leo has stated that he is trying to impact small group of people who are extremely motivated and disciplined on this work. There will always be people thinking that something is a cult, but thoughts don't matter as long as it isn't. Actualized.org probably right now doesn't try to influence to whole world or even to whole spiritual realm, but just to his fellow friends who actually take the help with thanks and respect. You should be you and not change based on what some people think of you and the same goes to forums. If someone dislikes, (s)he can leave. Those who like can party. That's not rocket science.

7 minutes ago, mr_engineer said:

You can moderate for intellectual honesty and solve these problems. 

Polices aren't enough, you need also laws. Without laws it would become corrupt more easily and how people would know what you can or can't do. Moderation has been used here for long time and still people just play here like it is some school game. We are literally talking about destroying whole Universe before your eyes here so I guess asking to be nice and good human being and kicking trolls away isn't too much to ask.

[Thought Art]

@mr_engineer It’s like we are in a university class and you are like “Tottlers should be allowed here! And screaming babies! And the homeless! They need education too!”

There are people here who chronically get swept up in needless drama and foolishness. There’s no point in them being here. 
 

In order for the forum to function and to be of value to anyone… we can’t have screaming, running kids making a mess of everything. 
 

It’s fine to lack some maturity… but to be blatantly obnoxious, toxic, abusive, disrespectful, constantly in trauma and spreading your sickness around… not here. 
 

The forum actually has guidelines. Leo has been very lax in enforcement.

Edited January 25, 2023 by Thought Art

[mr_engineer]

6 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

@mr_engineer It’s like we are in a university class and you are like “Tottlers should be allowed here! And screaming babies! And the homeless! They need education too!”

There are people here who chronically get swept up in needless drama and foolishness. There’s no point in them being here. 

University costs money. This forum is free. I thought you knew what you were signing up for when you run a free forum. 

You put the forum behind a paywall, most non-serious people will go away. I guarantee that. 

Heck, one of my solutions is to actually do that! To create a private patreon or something behind a paywall in which you give exclusive services and force people to have more skin in the game. 

This forum is the level of your business-funnel that is free. You can feel free to shill your patreon here if you want! And invest more into that level of the funnel. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by mr_engineer

[Thought Art]

@mr_engineer That’s none sense. There’s nothing about a forum being free that says “anything goes”. It’s a private piece of online real estate, it has guidelines, and a function. If people can’t follow the guidelines and maintain a relative degree of integrity they shouldn’t be here in my opinion. 

[Kksd74628]

@mr_engineer

There are games that cost and still people bully other's in those games, cheat and act like a children. You can't stop child to buy games. Even in games there are rules and you can get ban. This isn't anything new. Also Actualized.org is trying to be easy to access for new people so having paywall would make it harder for people to come. Why are you arguing against something so basic?

[mr_engineer]

26 minutes ago, Thought Art said:

@mr_engineer That’s none sense. There’s nothing about a forum being free that says “anything goes”. It’s a private piece of online real estate, it has guidelines, and a function. If people can’t follow the guidelines and maintain a relative degree of integrity they shouldn’t be here in my opinion. 

I never suggested that you make it 'anything goes'. I was disagreeing with the criteria for moderation. And that if you have these criteria behind a paywall and if you keep the free space lax, where you get to let loose a little bit, it will be more efficient for everyone. For sure, feel free to ban trolls. And people making personal attacks and behaving disrespectfully. But, banning debaters as 'immature people', it's a bit much for a free space. You can justify it better where people are paying to be there, that you respect their money. 

You can do what you want, man. This is me doing some systems-thinking here. I know you're not going to change anything for me. I was just intending to see how far you've thought this through. 

23 minutes ago, Kksd74628 said:

@mr_engineer

There are games that cost and still people bully other's in those games, cheat and act like a children. You can't stop child to buy games. Even in games there are rules and you can get ban. This isn't anything new. Also Actualized.org is trying to be easy to access for new people so having paywall would make it harder for people to come. Why are you arguing against something so basic?

Yeah, but games are for children. And for entertainment. This is a self-help service. And people sign up only if they need it. 

Edited January 25, 2023 by mr_engineer

[Manusia]

5 hours ago, Kksd74628 said:

being this hard-to-teach person just becomes distraction for members here and restricts growth of all Actualized.org members. The impact that practically comes with this is that people start to respect the direction where Actualized.org is trying to push members more which leads to even better growth for everyone and also we get the bad apples who don't want to grow away asap. Why would you carry someone on your shoulders who's disrespecting your help? 

Agree

[eggopm3]

Good decision. far too often I come to this forum looking for a 2nd tier perspective on things, and then end up getting sucked into wasting my time reading a thread full of drama and immaturity or whatever else. If I wanted to read facebook-level discussions then I'd go on facebook.