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Proprietrix -> RE: Like Gor? Love Klashaan! (5/25/2006 4:16:55 PM)
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I have to admit, even though I’ve been following this thread from day 1, I had to go back over and read it about 3 different times to figure out what the hell is going on. The first 2 times, I really saw it as a marketing campaign trying to sell a book. I still find myself at a place where I’m not quite sure, but at least have a somewhat better idea. I did however, feel it was important to let Jude see someone’s point of view from outside, so that she might understand why some people are put off by this whole thing.
I looked back at the OP before writing this. It starts out well "Here’s a new concept." It then slides into an extremely vague description "It is based upon a strict code of conduct, service, and rules for slaves - and yes, Dom/mes." (Aren’t a lot of D/s lifestyles based on that?) Then it goes into "I’m starting a local group, a yahoo group, mailing list, meet & greet, lessons, students. I need helpers, assistants, positions need filled." The End of post. That was it. That was the whole post.
I could have come on here and said "I’m starting a new trend. It’s based on protocol. I’m starting a local group, hope to go national soon. If you are serious about it and/or want a managerial position. Let me know."
Do you see how vague that is to those of us who aren’t in one’s personal social circle?
It took days and pages to figure out (although fuzzily) what you might be talking about.
To recap how us "outsiders" saw this thread progress once the OP was posted:
mistoferin kind of tipped us off that maybe this has something to do with a book loki wrote. Those of us who don’t know Loki or aren’t friends with Loki, or had no idea that Loki ever wrote a book, now know one thing. Loki wrote a book and Jude is starting a group. (Still, we have ZERO information about what the hell is going on.) So we skip over a bunch of arguments about Gor. Loki comes in and confirms we’re talking about a book (or books?) We skip some insults and arguments on truism and fiction. By the 30th post, Jude is asking if people have read the book… and some of us are still waiting to hear the damn title. Post 39 someone finally speaks up about the ignorance "Well that at least answers one question, who wrote it. I hadn't heard of this book or books so I tried Googling it of course and checking with B&N and came up with nothing. So I'm assuming you haven't published." (Which is similar to what other onlookers were thinking and doing.) Post 44 and Loki finally directs us to a website that has some exerpts from the book and we find out we can’t purchase the book because it hasn’t even been published. (But for some reason others have read the book and make comments on it. Confusing.) Post 48, someone mentions he still doesn’t understand what the lifestyle is about. (And I’m thinking "Yup. Me either.") He’s redirected to the website. Someone brings up some pirate group in England. More people comment on what a great book this was (that hasn’t been published yet, so I’m still wondering if their comments are based on the exerpts on the website or if they somehow got a "behind the scenes" look at it.) Skip some arguments about fiction. Skip some more arguments about Gor. FINALLY, on the third friggin page of this thread, Loki explains a little bit about the belief system of the lifestyle in question. (Information, that in my opinion, should have been in post #1.) and we FINALLY find out how these other people could speak about a book never published. Here we are, a good 70 or so posts into the thread, and it’s just now being cleared up that Loki wrote a book and a few ladies are forming a group about it. More arguing about Gor. That takes us through the end of page 5 of this thread.
My stance is this: How on earth are we supposed to be even slightly educated enough to join a "east/west coast tower of klashaanians" based on something we know remotely nothing about?
Here’s the problem. A very small group of people (about 6 I can gather from reading this thread) know about this book and have read it. They are now trying to recruit hundreds of people nation wide to join mailing lists, communities, and adhere to a lifestyle we know nothing about. We hear of "communities" being set up on both the east and west coast, and we’re invited to join, but we have no friggin clue what’s going on.
I’m not saying this isn’t "real" or "good" or anything like that. I’m just saying the whole thing comes across as a bit odd. I’m still not clear on many things. Is this a series of books? One book? When were these books written? Are they going to be published? Will I need to read them to understand the lifestyle and it’s principles? If so, can you see how some might see this as a marketing technique to sell the books?
I went to the klashaan link and there’s was no direct statement of what’s going on. It talks about these houses/towers that aren’t yet set up and groups that so far don’t have any members. It has events that aren’t scheduled and positions that need filled. It almost comes across as a few people trying to recruit helpers, but I have to say, why would I dedicate an unknown amount of time and energy to establishing a tower/house for Klashaan, when I don't know anything about the principles on which it's founded?
It doesn’t directly say this is a lifestyle based on a book. A stranger wandering to this website would have little if any clue what this is about. Many of those strangers are coming from here at CM. Like me. If I wander upon a website and it assumes I know the details, I assume that it's an exclusive and/or elite group and I was not meant to know the information. Most websites give a pretty sufficient general view of what they are about on the first/home page. I found myself wandering aimlessly among the pages, trying to find a direction and thinking "What the hell is this?"
This Klashaan might be a really nifty thing. I really don’t know, because I have nothing but disorganized confusion to base anything on. I can’t say "Hell yes! I buy into these ideals! I’m going to join!" Because I can’t figure out what the ideals are, what book I’m supposed to be buying, what membership I’m supposed to be joining, or really, what the heck is going on. All I’m hearing is "New lifestyle that might or might not work for you!! Join now! Sign up here! Buy the book once it’s published! Help us set up a community near you!"
It seems like the cart rolled WAY in front of the horse here. How can I possibly take this "new thing" seriously when I’ve never even heard of it before, but I get smothered in requests to join and marketing to buy and recruited to help?
Maybe a better technique would have been to say "Hi. I’m so and so. I thought up a new lifestyle. Here’s how it works." and then let people slowly learn about it. In time, if they found they were liking it, they probably would eventually buy the corresponding books and join the corresponding groups. But to come rushing in like a lion, seeking membership for towers and houses and books, with very little regard to even telling everyone what the heck is going on, really just caused a whole lot of confusion to many of us and kind of turned us off to the whole idea before we even knew what you were talking about.
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