To: K-list
Recieved: 2000/03/11 11:57
Subject: Re: [K-list] [k_goddess] Call for articles
From: Laura Olshansky
On 2000/03/11 11:57, Laura Olshansky posted thus to the K-list:
From: "Laura Olshansky" <editorATnospamrealization.org>
Dear Angelique,
Let me say the most important thing out of order, at the beginning. My
website doesn't compete with yours and El's. It's in a different category.
It's a magazine, not a site devoted to a subject.
Your sites (which I admire tremendously) cover their topics in much greater
depth than we ever can. Our purpose is to print a little bit about those topics
and then link to your sites so people can learn more there.
For example, if you check our Kundalini pages, you'll find a ton of links to
El's site. I don't think we have any links to Domin8rex.com yet, but we
certainly will, as soon I get our reference page written on whatever I
should call this subject.
As an example of how you could use our site to your benefit instead of
viewing it as a competitor, take Chuck Hillig as an example. (He's the
author of a recent very popular book on nondualism.) He let me
preprint a selection from his forthcoming book. I accompanied his
selection with a blurb for his current book and links to his site.
Result? In the next few days, 300 people read the excerpt on our site, and
some of them followed the links to his site, and (I presume) some of them
bought his current book. (Our hit rate has gone up a lot since then, so future
numbers should be higher.)
You are welcome to use our site in the same way.
If we compete with anybody, it's the other web magazines -- Tricycle,
What Is Enlightenment, Noumenon, Ascent, etc. (But we don't really
compete with them because editorially we are quite different. More about
this below.)
> Laura, what I don't understand, is why you are creating this organization
>that you obviously cannot afford the time or money for, instead of lending
>help to existing organizations? I am really puzzled by this.
Nobody's creating an organization here. It's just an electronic magazine.
The name is "realization.org" rather than "realization.com" or "realization.net"
only because the site's not commercial and it's not a network and it's not an
organization, but those were the only three choices.
We do have money for it -- it costs only $30 a month. We do have time for
it -- it has been operating and expanding for three months now. Although
of course I wish I had more time for it. I'd like to change the content every
day, and this has proved impossible so far.
> I've read the realization.org site, and I see you are seeking donations,
>and complaining about expenses... complaining about how much work it is..
>so why are you doing it, then??
We are not seeking donations. There has never been a request for donations
anywhere on our site. About two months ago I turned down an offer of a donation
that came unsolicited by email because we don't need donations. As I said,
our site costs practically nothing.
Marilyn's recent column about our cashflow wasn't a complaint. It was meant
to say to our current and potential contributors, "See, we really can't afford to
pay you. We're doing this for love, and if you want to get printed here, you have
to do it for the same reason."
When you say "complaining about how much work it is," I guess you're referring
to remarks like the one I made above wishing I could change the content
more often, and to our requests for more volunteers. I don't view these as complaints.
I enjoy working on the site very much. I ask for volunteers because the goal is to
have more contributors, and in order to print more contributions, we need more
editors.
> I've paid for the K-lists (before they came to onelist) and Kundalini
>Gateway out of my own pocket, as a labor of love, just as I have created my
>own site, Domin8rex.com for the joy of doing. I'm retired as a pro-Dom, but
>the site will stay up, because people find value in it. At present I'm
>working on building a LARGE Kundalini sanctuary.. an investor has been
>provided by Goddess. I did not need solicit donations.. Goddess has it
>handled..
That's terrific!
> I'm not saying you have to do as I do, you can do as you like, but you
>keep spamming the lists I run soliciting help...
I'm sorry you regard my posts as spam. Although I screwed up with a
sloppy post recently, I usually am careful to address our announcements
only to lists that match the content of the post. Every time I mail those
things, I ask myself, "Is it likely that some readers of this list will be glad
they saw this, or will the only benefit be to realization.org?" Unless I really
think some readers will be glad, I don't mail it (although as I said, I screwed
up recently and probably have screwed up other times and certainly will
screw up occasionally again in the future.) If you want me to stop
sending them, just let me know, and of course I'll comply.
> ... and trying to re-invent the wheel. Why?
Re-invent which wheel? As I said earlier, if we compete with anybody, it's
the other web magazines like Tricycle, Noumenon, Ascent, What Is Enlightenment,
etc. But none of them is doing what we do. Tricycle is concerned only with Buddhism,
but we cover a wider range including even neurotechnology. (And Tricycle doesn't
put very much of its content on the web yet.) What Is Enlightenment
consists mainly of interviews, but we have never published an interview (at least I
can't remember one right now.) Ascent concentrates on teachers from a particular
lineage; we cast a much wider net. Etc.
> Are the existing organizations not worthy of your support?? Thank you
> for the links.. but please explain Why?
Doesn't that question apply equally to you and El? Why do you each have sites
instead of one of you working on the other person's?
In my case, the answer is, first, yes, your organizations are very much worthy of
support. And I think I'm giving support by creating a site that will draw in
new, additional readers for El's site and your sites and other people's sites.
Second answer is, I have a different editorial vision than other people, just like you
do, just like El does. There is no existing site that exemplifies that vision. If there
were, I would be doing something else.
Best regards,
Laura
http://www.realization.orgj
P.S. Also, from a reader's point of view, it makes little difference whose server a page is
on. If I link to your site and you link to mine, many readers will go back and forth without
even noticing they are passing from one site to another. (My mother does this, she really
doesn't know.) So if I make a page that talks about your site and links to your site, I'm helping
you just as much as if I made a page for your server. It's the links that matter, not the physical
location of the page.
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