- Joined
- Dec 22, 2008
- Messages
- 9,594
THE EARLY YEARS
In the early 2000s the Internet was a cold barren landscape devoid of any public gathering of alchemists. There were Yahoo groups and some websites out there, often specialized. None involved all aspects of alchemy nor all types of alchemists, from the neophyte to the sage.
We are often asked about the history of this place, which is why this thread exists.
On October 8th 2007 at 11:33 am, I wrote this:
On October 10 2007 at 4:28 pm Beautiful Evil (known here as @Aleilius) wrote this:
There has in the past been a debate regarding who created the forum in the first place, and I always claimed I did... and Aleilius counter-claimed that we did it together. It is true that we discussed a forum dedicated only to alchemy over at OccultForums (now defunct). Perhaps Aleilius felt we planned it together somehow, and in a sense we did. But I would have made the forum regardless of Aleilius as I was only - from my perspective - trying to get some feedback on the idea.
Even if I dispute the fact Aleilius was a co-founder he did, however, something else for these forums that was as important as creating it in the first place, and that was to get people to join up... and to create content. Especially practical alchemy related content which was more of his area than mine. Without Aleilius participation it might not have grown as well as it did in those early days.
There are only a select few members that have been around since the very beginning when we had what we like to call the "old crappy board" (closed in 2009).
These legends are: @Illen A. Cluf, @theFool, @Green Lion, @Salazius and @solomon levi (although a few of them are not as active anymore as they used to be). Sorry if I forgot anyone. Some have been granted the honorary banner Honorable Meister for their services to the Great Work of these forums.
In 2010 user @Smoke designed the logo.
We also managed to overcome this: The Hack Attack thread of 2010
THE SABOTAGE
Aleilius was the moderator for many years. At one point he asked if he could create a new layout for the forum, which was fine with me. But he started to mess with the layout I had made... and I had said that he could make his own layout and then people could "choose" which layout they wanted to use. When he messed with the layout I had done, I told him to not do that... and this upset Aleilius so he deleted some code (in order to change layout I had to give him access to the inner workings of the forum, of which only I ever had access).
I managed to restore the code, and we banned Aleilius for sabotage.
ANDRO & MR K.
After having joined the forums in 2009, @Andro became moderator in 2012. Andro has been the longest serving moderator in our history so far apart from myself. The following year I wrote:
Not long after @Kiorionis joined and became a moderator in 2015 after @theFool decided to step down. There have been a few other moderators before, like Solomon Levi, Salazius, theFool and Zephyr (sorry if I forgot anyone).
In 2015 Aleilius sadly died.
On the old board many images were shared using an external host. One of the most popular was Photobucket, but then in 2017 they decided to charge users and thus hundreds of our images were broken.
ALCHEMY CONGRESS 2012-2016
During this era we had four gatherings. First in Paris, and then the rest in Amsterdam. Each time there have been different activities and themes, and also different people (but mostly the same crowd). We have, apart from discussing alchemy and sharing insights, done sightseeing like visiting the Embassy of the Free Mind, having dinner in Nicholas Flamel's house, taken part in psychedelic rituals and much more. Apart from the first gathering, I was somewhat instrumental in the arrangement of the following three and when I decided to step down from this none have, so far, stepped up to organize another.
Outside Flamel's house in Paris, in 2012.
Photo from the 2015 gathering (dev = Awani and Androgynus = Andro).
Photo from the last gathering in 2016.
ANTHOLOGY
In 2016 a bunch of the members decided to produce a book, which you can read about below. A few years later we did a sequel (coming very soon).
Alchemy Forums Anthology
Alchemy Forums Anthology - VITRIOLVM (coming soon)
DRAMA
Anything that becomes "a thing" gets hate, and we have some of that on other alchemy forums. Mostly we find it funny. We are still here whilst they often fall apart. Often the hate comes from us banning someone and we get charged with the crime of "censorship", which cannot be further from the truth. We only ban those break the Rules & Guidelines and more than not we are very lenient as we really don't want to ban anyone. We have never banned anyone because we do not agree with their position as long as they share that position respectfully. Also, this is not a democracy.
Apart from the conflict with Aleilius, all moderators that are no longer moderators have stepped down on their own. None, so far, has ever been fired. We do not know how long our current moderators will be with us, but if they are not - one day - perhaps YOU can pick up the torch and continue the work as a custodian of these forums that have been going strong since its inception. At the time of writing it's edging closer and closer to two decades. As far as forums and the Internet goes, that's legendary on its own.
THE EXODUS
In 2023 this happened:
Read more about it here: Exodus to Xenforo
Luckily the migration to a Xenforo platform went well. All the internal links were broken and the moderators are working hard to fix every single one. At the time we have 6000+ threads and 75 000+ posts. It's not a small job and we want to thank @Lakshmana for stepping up and helping out. All the threads will be cleaned and any broken images removed or when possible replaced, some threads can be merged and some archived that serve little purpose. The forums are looking better than ever with this modern platform.
THANK YOU
Without people participating this place dies. Everyone adds to it and thus every member is important. A special thanks to all the moderators and to those that donate: Patrons of the Arts
It costs money to run a free site and time to keep this place nice and tidy. If you want to donate go here.
Solve et Coagula
