What is your vision for Mortal Mist?

[pj]

I'm posing this question to the owners here - to YOU.  I'll answer for myself (as but one of the owners) in the next post.

What do you hope to see MM become in the short and long term?  What is your vision for this place we've all worked so hard and long at establishing?

This is an important question to consider right now, as there are changes afoot - all, IMHO, for the better, in how the established lucid dreaming communities are viewing one another and the greater calling of bringing awareness of Lucid Dreaming to the world.

Please consider this and post your response.

Thank you!

[pj]

I hope to see MM remain the intimate, tightly focused community we have become.

At the same time, I would love to see the impression of "exclusivity" or being some kind of club with an attitude of superiority go away.  Those of us who are here know that we aren't like that, but to the outside world that does, sadly, seem to be the impression we have projected.  That impression harms us, as half of our mission is about promoting Lucid Dreaming, and we cannot accomplish that mission without being inviting and desirable to those new to Lucid Dreaming who are looking for information, ideas and support.

I would like to see us continue growing slowly, have more inexperienced newcomers finding a place here, all while maintaining our focus and tight sense of community.  I would like to see the completion of the efforts for the owner-members to take over all aspects of managing and maintaining this community and website.

It is my hope that MM might become the "public radio" of the Lucid Dreaming world - a not-for-profit alternative to the big commercial sites that makes sense for a small part of the Lucid Dreaming world through offerings and opportunities that just wouldn't work out in the big, busy and crowded communities.

[DrTechnical]

I don't want to over think this. Rather I will go with my instincts.

Yes, I like the fact that MM has been pretty drama free. Yes, I agree that we don't want to seem stand-offish, too esoteric or any of those things. So sure, we should continue to find ways to attract newbies and balance the mix here some.

The one thing I see MM as a good vehicle for, is continued research into the unknown. I think there have been a few efforts into this. I have to admit, with all my personal distractions, my efforts into these areas have been very hot and cold as well.

But we have so many mature, capable people here that it would be unfortunate not to leverage the sparks of creativity that flow here daily.

This could be pooling the efforts of several people to investigate new LDS's, or Dream Sharing, or PSI or whatever.

Sure, we do this a little. But the efforts are very informal and people ultimately lose interest. It would be great if we as a community could start a project and really HIT on something. I think the types of people here in the Mist, lend themselves to that possibility, more so than a DV's for instance.

[Moonbeam]

In the short term, MM already is what my vision of a good dreaming forum is.  I didn't realize we gave an unwelcoming impression; I think anybody could start a DJ here and jump right in and be recognized and welcome.  I think everybody who posts gets a welcome.  However, if that's the case, we need to fix it.

Since my own journal, reading other journals, and keeping up with the other dream-related topics takes about all the time I have, I can't say I could ask for much more.  All I really need to make progress is to be able to talk about dreams with people and share ideas.

However, I know we have to grow or die.  I hope pj's efforts to increase interest and familiarity with lucid dreaming are a source of new members.  I do think the number of people who stay interested in dreaming enough to keep coming back for that alone is always going to be small, but we need to at least be welcoming to those that stop by and maybe a few will stick around.

The experiments are fun too, and like Dr. T, I think we have a lot of good stuff going on, and a lot of potential as far as ideas and abilities.  However, the nature of the subject and the way in which we are naturally limited in studying it make for slow going, so it's another aspect that needs patience and probably only the hard-core will stick around for it.   But if we could work on better organization of those it would probably be helpful.

[mu]

I hope to see MM remain the intimate, tightly focused community we have become.

Well said.

Perhaps it's this very thing that gives some people the impression of exclusivity?  If that's the case, I wouldn't want to sacrifice that.  I would welcome any changes that do not detract from, but rather increase "the world's knowledge" of lucidity.  Whether that means promoting, researching, etc..  I would not welcome changes that lead away from lucidity, into any more general subject than that of dreams.

I don't get the impression *at all* that MM has an air of superiority.  (Nor did I when I first visited.)  But maybe it is our tight focus that is responsible for that--a newcomer into the world of lucid dreams might feel quite lost in many of the discussions.  Even though we have some introductory material explaining how to, and a little bit why to have lucid dreams, there is no general impression of what it's all about, what we're doing here, until you've been here for awhile.

But it's extremely difficult to say what we should be about, when what we're about is lucidity.  What's lucidity about?  Lucidity is about so many things; it's impossible to describe it.  Especially since so much depends on subjective experience.  It's like having a site about "imagining."

So, maybe it would be good to have a way for first time visitors to get an impression of us, and lucidity, rather than being faced with only how-to tutorials, and personal discussions on the forum.  Maybe we could do something on the front pages, allowing members to create little stories about their experiences, and stories with descriptive, inviting tones.  Something like that.  In short, let the members say why they're members!

[StarSeeker]

Maybe we could do something on the front pages, allowing members to create little stories about their experiences, and stories with descriptive, inviting tones.  Something like that.  In short, let the members say why they're members!

, mu!

[Sean999]

My thoughts have already been expressed in the previous posts; we should remain focused on LD'ing while maintaining an inviting and beginner friendly atmosphere.

I don't know if this deserves a new thread or not, but I have an issue with Seekers' Corner: it's very sparse. If I remember correctly, everything was basically flushed out of there..? That board was meant to help beginners have their first LD's, so we're gonna need some content in there. I don't want to distract from this thread too much, so if anyone wants to start a new thread, please feel free. If not, I will probably make one tomorrow after school sometime.

[Moonbeam]

So, maybe it would be good to have a way for first time visitors to get an impression of us, and lucidity, rather than being faced with only how-to tutorials, and personal discussions on the forum.  Maybe we could do something on the front pages, allowing members to create little stories about their experiences, and stories with descriptive, inviting tones.  Something like that.  In short, let the members say why they're members!

Thirded.

I don't know if this deserves a new thread or not, but I have an issue with Seekers' Corner: it's very sparse. If I remember correctly, everything was basically flushed out of there..? That board was meant to help beginners have their first LD's, so we're gonna need some content in there. I don't want to distract from this thread too much, so if anyone wants to start a new thread, please feel free. If not, I will probably make one tomorrow after school sometime.

I think Seeker's Corner was just for Seeker to have workshops and stuff, but yes you're right mostly focused on beginners.  I've been moving threads out of there to (what I thought was) a better place.

[pj]

We have two separate and worthy points brought up here.  Each needs a new thread:

Seekers Corner. . . there is discussion scattered all over the place about that.  (It was not intended to be the "workshop hall" - it was supposed to be a place for "seekers" of knowledge about lucid dreaming to find as a convenient first stop.)

And apparently the motion has carried to add a section of member testimonials or some such thing to the front pages.  We need to sort that and make it happen.

Now - back to our regularly scheduled thread!

[Seeker]

My thoughts for Seeker's Corner was a place in which basic techniquest could be taught and discussed.  A good place for new members or those just learning LD could find help.  The biggest problem we have had in that respect is that we are having difficulties attracting people who are just getting started in LD.  We've made a long climb in the search engine rankings, but until we make it to page one or two we are not going to attract that many casual browsers.  

One thing MM excels at that should not be changed is:

1) It's sense of community - It is one of the smoothest running communities I've seen.  No problems with trolls or spammers.
2) It's focus on advanced LD topics including research for newer or improved techniques.

It has been a goal of mine for years now to help bring all of the major lucid dreaming communities together into a friendly alliance.  This is based on the fact that first and foremost, we are all lucid dreamers and do not allow ourselves to exclusively belong to one forum or another.  Lucid dreamers participate at two and sometimes more lucid dreaming sites, taking what they need from each site and hopefully leaving little nuggets of wisdom at others.

Can MM meet everyone's needs?  I doubt it.  By the same token, DV, LL, LD4All, Lucidity, also cannot meet everyones needs.  

So, in summary.  MM needs to be positioned so that it meets the needs of the LD communities not fully covered by the other sites.  It must also remain open minded and ready to share ideas with others in the greater LD community.  

I would love nothing more than to see replies to posts on other forums pointing people to MM, or LL, or etc. for an answer to a posters question.  I do not know if such a lofty goal is even possible, but I'd really like to find out!  

[pj]

I would love nothing more than to see replies to posts on other forums pointing people to MM, or LL, or etc. for an answer to a posters question.  I do not know if such a lofty goal is even possible, but I'd really like to find out!   

So would I.

And you've just pointed out a couple tooltips that need attention - LL and LD4ALL, in the spirit of exactly what you are talking about.

We're trying to DO it.

[StarSeeker]

I would love nothing more than to see replies to posts on other forums pointing people to MM, or LL, or etc. for an answer to a posters question.  I do not know if such a lofty goal is even possible, but I'd really like to find out!   

At Dreamershell, on a thread about dream reports, I mentioned the MM dream database system - the Dream-catcher. The members there already knew MM, so it wasn't much of an advance.

[pj]

Yes - the members may be familiar with us, but the back link is worth its weight in gold.  One of the greatest factors in search engine "scoring" is back links from known high quality and RELATED sites.

This is why link swapping can be so valuable.  The only ones who don't really win from it are those who are already in first place for their chosen target terms.

[pj]

Well - thanks to everybody who took the time to contribute their thoughts to this question.

The next question has now been posted in this thread - regarding re-thinking our mission statement.  Your thoughts in this thread should be kept very much in mind for the next step.