Actualist Online Blog Setup and Design

Took some photos while out climbing today , with terra Arcadia in mind , maybe a backdrop or something

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Amazing. Would be great to use that

Nice, that is good idea. We could have a big header with a different Arcadia-like picture for each blog post. I have plenty in stock :national_park: :smiley:

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Of course.

Those who like Arcadia here, associate it with the older and more traditional meanings you mentioned and which are also the ones I like (a bucolic paradise, etc.). But to those who have been engaged in occultism, mysticism (as @claudiu mentioned), conspiracy theories, alchemy, etc., Arcadia adds this kind of interpretations:

ā€œArcadia is the bucolic paradise mentioned by the ancient Roman fabulist Virgil. In short, it is an occult symbol for the kind of place one ā€˜entersā€™ as a spiritually awakened Initiate in the Classical Mysteries, or as a Gnostic ā€¦ or through the pursuit of Alchemy. Arcadia thus compares with other allegorical ā€˜placesā€™ in ancient texts ā€“ countries or communities where people are long lived, content beyond compare, or there is always plenty and peace: Thaumasia, Elysium, the Buddhist Shambhalla, the (Celtic) Otherworld, Platoā€™s Atlantis, Hyperborea or Lemuria. These are lands that never existed except as metaphor, as symbols, as they represent a far more abstract and elusive spiritual goalā€.

In my case, for instance, it always refers me first (by a bias of old readings) to Poussinā€™s painting and the occult interpretations that are also referenced in its Wikipedia entry: Et in Arcadia ego - Wikipedia

But its plain, classical interpretation is clear and the most widespread. Besides, I suppose it would be enough to avoid these associations -or to anticipate possible questions about why we chose the name-, if necessary, adding some clarifying lines/a subtitle in the blog, as in fact Richard has had to do with dozens of words that, indeed, were created by feeling beings.

But I donā€™t have a strong opinion about it. So much so that you wouldnā€™t need to wait for my vote because, apart from my mundane inclination for ā€œblogā€ or ā€œterra.actualisā€ (but I understand the caveats mentioned), I donā€™t think I have a real preferenceā€¦

Seems like we have consensus (either expressly for, or not against :slight_smile: ), so Iā€™ve gone forward with terra-arcadia.com ā€¦ sent out admin invites to Miguel, Srinath & Solvann, on wordpress (not tied to this platform but seems easy to start with)

Blog name: Terra Arcadia
Tagline: The already-existing earthly paradise

I like it more and more because, it readily has the associations of perfection and utopia, which are then normally associated with something impossible, but then once we capture the attention and reveal it is actually possible, that may elicit the desired interest :open_mouth:

Also the other domains, if anybody wants to use for their own projects let me know, they are all freely available

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Good, but didnā€™t you say that the name was going to be part of/added to ā€œactualism.onlineā€ instead of a separate domain?

No I meant different domain -

I misunderstood , thought you were asking if I would replace discuss.actualism.online with the new domain also , or if we would have both discuss.actualism.online and a new domain

Oh, you are right. I interpreted

as attached/appended to the current domain name, like ā€œterra.arcadia.actualism.onlineā€.

Thatā€™s why the first thing I said was that I preferred something short! Because it seemed to me that in that case, with some exceptions, with almost all names the result would be too long! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Ok it is decided, it will be: http://the.real.terra.actualis.that.is.actual.to.be.found.at.actualism.online

So, just to be sure I understand correctly:

  • Is it proposed that ā€œactualism.onlineā€ and ā€œdiscuss.actualism.onlineā€ continue to exist, but at the same time we have a blog on the domain ā€œterra-arcadiaā€?

or

  • Is it proposed that ā€œactualism-onlineā€ be renamed ā€œterra-arcadiaā€ (where the blog would also reside) and the forum become ā€œdiscuss.terra-arcadiaā€?
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Forum: http://discuss.actualism.online
Blog: terra-arcadia.com

Ok, then it doesnā€™t seem wise to have another domain completely differentā€¦ I think we should not rush and discuss a bit what would happen with SEO, for example. We should think long term about search engines, the undesirable split (loss) of number of visits, clicks, etc.

In fact, when you prefixed ā€œdiscussā€ for the forum instead of directly installing it on ā€œactualism.onlineā€, I assumed you did it so we could have other subdomains in the future like ā€œblog.ā€, ā€œvideo.ā€, ā€œlive.ā€ or whatever.

And when you published your article on ā€œactualism.onlineā€ it seemed to me the most natural thing to do. That is, I donā€™t consider that it is necessary to generate a separate domain or even a subdomain for the blog, because ā€œactualism.onlineā€ is already mounted on Wordpress, which is the same platform that was chosen for ā€œterra-arcadiaā€ (this would also add another Wordpress to maintain) and because thatā€™s exactly what was missing when accessing the ā€œactualism.onlineā€ home page: content.

But having said that, I thought @Srinath was proposing to have the blog with a separate name/subdomain but within actualism.online. The main page would then function, for example, as a portal linking to the most active/attractive topics of the forum, to the most read/attractive articles of the blog, to the AFT and SimpleActualism pages that we consider most suitable for beginners, etc.

An intermediate solution could be arcadia.actualism.online, but maybe you, Srinath and others support the creation of a different domain for reasons that I do not understand and we can discuss.

This came up when Srinath suggested that we give the blog a title that isnā€™t ā€œactualism.onlineā€ ā€“ from there, naturally, it seems much cooler to me, to have the domain terra-arcadia.com :slight_smile: . Rather than say terra-arcadia.actualism.online (very wordy!)

I think is far too early days to think about SEO, visits, clicks, etcā€¦ I propose going more for what is fun at the time - do what is fun, because we can :smiley:

So actualism.online can simply have a link to this other site, instead of hosting the content itself. It will be identical to the main page being a portal, except, the link will go off-site to another domain, instead of to a subdomain.

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I also take pictures and would be stoked to have them involved (rotating backgrounds?)

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Why do I always discover the interesting threads literally months after they are posted haha. I must not have this app set up properly I swear I never see anything :joy:

Sounds like voting has already closed, but thought Iā€™d put in a ā€œpostal voteā€ for terra actualis. To me it sounds otherworldly and very cool yet doesnā€™t stray etymologically from what actualism is about.

Keeping in mind, people have to wrap their heads around what the word ā€œactualā€ means (assuming we arenā€™t intending to drop that word). To my mind that is barrier enough without introducing another weird word, that also has various historical/literary connotations which could be confusing. To me Arcadia sounds like a utopia in oneā€™s imagination, or in some far off land, or to be built in the future - rather than under oneā€™s own nose, now.

No biggie either way, as both sound good. Iā€™m just giving my personal opinion.

I do think Srinathā€™s list is absolutely iconic as well :smiley:. Hopefully we can still find some uses for those. Dancing Munks of Ballina is a great band name haha.

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