While the MagicCafe is a place for Magicians to help Magicians, we welcome mentalists to take part in discussions involving their craft. For this reason, we have two forums specifically for those discussions. This forum, "Penny For Your Thoughts" is for the general discussion of mentalism and mentalism related topics. No methods may be discussed here however. The second forum, "Inner Thoughts" is only available after reaching 50 legitimate posts. It is here that more in depth discussions, which may include methods, can be held. Posts with exposure or leading to exposure will be removed from the Penny forum.

Dave, thank you for posting this. Hopefully it will go some way to avoiding exposure in the searchable 'penny' forum.

Thank you for clarifying these guidelines. The rules for posting in penny and inner thoughts are hopefully more clear to all now.

May also be worth mentioning that we also have Mentally Speaking for product reviews although many reviews are best posted in Inner Thoughts.

Mark

Thanks Dave...

In this section:
we do not ask how something is done that we've seen
though we do ask for book or dvd references

we do not mention by name techniques and methods
though we do downstairs, in inner thoughts

we introduce ourselves and are open and honest with each other
we talk about mentalism in general terms up here, and more indepth downstairs
we report posts that break the forum rules and posting guidelines
we try to all get along!

Oh Well,
my topic is locked.
I surely understand these guidelines and want to stick to them (I love the art!), but it's a little bit hard to "reach" 50 Post for the "inner entrance". I have enough knowledge to develop my routines but when I have a question I can't post it cause there is this "50 posts rule" I don't want to post 50 rubbish answers just to go there. I mainly just read posts and when there is something interesting on the Café, I grab an old book, buy a new one and I don't have to post irrelvant things...so how to write 50 posts, when I'm not allowed to
hach, let's see...

With respect Mysteryos, I think you're missing the point of this community. If you say you are "have enough knowledge" and "live the art", the surely you'd have opinions and thoughts to share in some of the general topics here in Penny? Asking questions and receiving help is only one part of what members here do. We have plenty of topics where you could share your own perspectives or experiences with someone else, as well as a large number of less serious threads where no deep knowledge is required.

I realise new members don't have a lot of advice or answers to give, but if you're reading Penny a lot, you should have found many places where you could post that aren't affected by your level of experience. Don't be afraid to talk to us. Chances are that the members here won't answer your questions anyway if we haven't learned enough about through your posts. Hanging back and dreaming of hitting 50 posts doesn't help you get there, nor does it let us get to know you.

Hey C.J.
I'm sorry, I didn't want to sound arrogant - english is not my native language and its sometime a little bit hard to write whats on my mind and then I sound rude when I don't want to. That's right, I will search for some topics and try to give some answers or opinions on posts. I really didn't reflect my post above, I was just a little bit upset because my Topic was locked immediately and I only asked for some help on a "Switch" not for exposing methods(maybe a good book or a PM)...

But Yeah you are right, let's see if I could finde some good penny topics

Thx!

Thanks Dave

HI, My name is Elisha and I am an aspiring mentalist. I think that most people, at least in my experience, will immediately smell foul when you say the word b****t. If you say, "write someone's name on this b****t", they will ask you what a b****t is, what a b****t does, who created the idea of a b****t, and other difficult questions. When I first read practical mental magic I had to google what a b****t was.

Personally I do not use the term ^billet^,but if I find myself saying that word by accident I quickly point to the piece of paper,this tells them that a billet is a piece of paper and I believe they will never ever ask what a billet is nor google it.Lets be honest here,who would google a piece of paper?

Billet probably originates from the French language.
In French it is used for paper money, which in English probably got shortened to bill.

In French billet is used for allot small papers, like train or plain tickets, receipts etc.
But in English its still a perfectly good word, so I would not worry to much on over explaining what you mean when you do happen to mention it.

And lets face it, if someone wants to find out the method to an effect not knowing the "professional jargon" for a slip of paper will not stop them.

Thanks Dave

Bob Cassidy strongly advices against using the word "billet" in front of lay people.

I agree, it's not necessary and it leads to unnecessary confusion. Just say piece of paper

Thanks Dave

I like Docc Hilford's reason for not using the term "billet" in performance: people don't call them billets. They just say "piece of paper" Why not call it what your audience member calls it, thereby both speaking their language and keeping a technical term out of their reach

Thank you for clarifying.