Folks in the bizarre section would like to have some freedom to discuss presentation AND method at the same time. This tends to make longer posts and also to put method details in the same place as the presentations.

Any chance you could call it "Horns and Hoofs" or "Eye of newt..."

?

Jon

That would be wonderful! and would make our lives a bit easier around here!

it could be called "i love rainbows" we would be more than happy as long as we have an organised secret session that deals with the bizarre side!

georgie

We realize this could open a can of worms, jealousy, and a plethora of "us too" requests from other genre based forums.
But..
It would alleviate some of the searching and weeding out of uninteresting or irrelevant (from our perspective) posts;
We also thought that in order to gain entrance, perhaps instead of just building up a number of posts, those wanting ingress would have to answer a quizz of some kind first.
Of course, who'd decide which questions and answers ? Well, I'm sure most of us would be more than willing to take up that chore, and work together on something the current crop of bizarre regulars would feel happy with, taking that workload off the Café staff.
There would be no more threat to marketed effects' secrets as there currently is in the standard Secret Sessions.
It would enable us to more freely discuss some methodologies however, in a forum where the context is completely pertinent to our interests.
Or... here's a novel thought - but I haven't run this past anyone in the bizarre forum yet - perhaps, if it helped to justify the additional effort, we could share with the mentalists' forum, as many of us on both sides feel there is a great amount of common ground between us.
Just some thoughts.

I second, or third, fourth, whatever, that motion.
It really would be a useful tool for us.

Thanks,

Dave

Im with the guys above it would be great IMHO. And thank you Jonathan for taking it a step foward.

I would love to see a place where Bizarrists can talk more freely about the unique secrets of our genre. There is too much clutter in the general Secret Session for it to be of use to me.

Well, we already have such a private forum in French.
Until now, it works perfectly well on invitation only. We have our rules of invitation, but you don't need to be an expert to participate. Every subject* is open without any restriction and the forum is quite humorous, if not delirious sometimes. They're a lot well advanced original routines (and techniques) on many subjects and all participants may use them privately. In case of someone desires perform one of the routines for a paying audience, he just have to ask the creator.
Until now, it works perfectly well.

*We explore mainly bizarre magic but this includes also cheating, cardmagic, close-up, mentalism, stage magic, contract negociation...

This could be fun, but having to pass a test or sit before a panel of Inquisitors, as much as we might enjoy heating the irons in the brazier, doesn't seem very practical. The fifty-post milestone for Secret Sessions seems to work OK, because the Café moderators delete graffiti posts by morons who just want to read the "secrets." In the interests of making things workable for our gracious hosts, why not just say that we'll work with the fifty-post limit?

So my vote is "yes" with a fifty-post entry fee. You realize that you folks have made me change my mind with this discussion!

Yours,

Paul

I vote along with drwilson. I think the 50 post entry is sufficient, but I will go along with the consensus.

The "quizz" idea was just a thought, but I'm amenable to whatever the consensus is.
For that matter, many a magic website's "secret" question can be googled in under a minute.

I'm beginning to like the "invitation only" concept. People aren't limited to posting only in one place, so it's likely that the members have already had dealings with new prospects in other forums. This makes testing unnecessary. If they're qualified enough to be asked to join that should suffice.

Just banging on the door yelling "Let me in!" doesn't mean the doors should automatically be thrown open for you.

I think invitation only is elitist and as I have made plain enough in the past (and possibly paid a price), goes against the original concept of the Café. If people want a private club, JOIN one or START your own, do not try and co-opt what has been going on here - quite successfully I'll add, for some time now. If the Café is turned into a series of test or invite only forums, it will eventually fail. I realize this is only my opinion but if nothing else there are people here who can attest that I am consistent in my opinion.

Frank Tougas

Frank,
As long as people don't know they exist, then they have no reason to try and get in to somewhere they obviously don't belong.

For example, using another interest of mine, if a guitar player were to try and join the "left-brain luthiers" forum (BTW this is not closed membership, it's just an example)because it concerns guitars, they'd soon learn that talk about monopoles, dipoles, resonances and acoustic theory of spruce vs. cedar is not for them and they'd soon leave. For some forums it's better if the "lookie loo's" didn't get access in the first place to prevent the topics from drifting to "What color guitar should I buy? A blue one or a red one?"

I like the idea.

A secret session will be great. I don't really agree with the 50 posts idea.
invitation only would be much better. but that is just my oppinion.

so I vote "YES" with invitation only.

regards

-Matt

Yes, lets do it...call it..."The dark side"....

but, Im afraid to say, I still shall refraim from posting effects...too much capitalistic vampires waiting in the corners...or so I heard...

!VIVA BIZAR!

I would like to see a secret sessions area for bizarre magick here. I think the fifty post rule is okay. Not perfect mind you but it does offer some control.

Yes.

Elitist, sure ! Our forum is not an open one; isn't magic a secret thing ? But the quality of the members and the secrecy permit us to develop totally new concepts within a small group. Plus, it's French speaking. And the French language forums are so stupid and low level that most of the interesting people in magic refuse to participate. That's the reason why I like some kind of elitism. It serves magic well.

I vote yes also:)