As always, thank you for being a part of the community! We’ve implemented a number of changes over the past few months, so we wanted to fill everyone in on what’s new. If you’re not already a member of our online Discord community, please join us today!
Table of Contents
Staff Changes
We are delighted to welcome John to the team as an intern moderator. Anthony A. finished his intern period some time ago and now owns a shiny ban hammer, although so far he just keeps using it to tenderize meat. We’re lucky to have you both!
Thank You to Our Donators
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following new and return donators: mendaxis, Anthony A., эZ, teacups, Ronald, Sean, and awendela. Thank you as well to the rest of our current monthly supporters: Sandy S., mind exploration, rustybikes, acidjames, Krish, and Candace. Meditation Mind operates 100% on donations, so this community would not be possible without you. See a full list of present and past supporters here.
Channel Additions & Changes
In late May, we transitioned #weekly-discussion to forums. This is a much better fit for the weekly discussion format, as discussion for each weekly topic is consolidated into a single forum post, making it easier to revisit and continue to discuss past topics.
The downside to this change is that mentioning roles with more than 100 members in a forum post does not ping the members. To make sure that you aren’t missing out, go to #Channels & Roles > Customize and select Weekly Discussion or enable the channel in Browse Channels.
Due to the overwhelming popularity of the #languages-and-cultures thread, we have created a new channel by the same name in the Casual category. We already have threads in the channel for learning Spanish, Chinese, Malay/Indonesian, Japanese, Sanskrit, and more. Whether you’re learning a language or just curious, come join the fun!
We also changed the descriptions and/or names of several channels. The description for #the-lounge now better reflects our wish for members to be kind and engage mindfully, even when hanging out in the lounge, and the description for #venting-void now clearly states that messages may still be seen by others, even with message history turned off.
To encourage members to use Bloom’s meditation tracking functionality, even when not participating in the monthly meditation challenges, the #meditation-challenge channel has been renamed to #meditation-tracking. We want as many members as possible to benefit from this unique feature of the community.
Finally, the iconic #laughing-buddha is now #wholesome-fun. Laughing buddha was a great name, but it proved to be ambiguous as to the purpose of the channel. We hope the new name and description clarify the intent and we look forward to even more wholesome fun! (Note that the channel is still affiliated with r/laughingbuddha.)
Goodbye, Public Mod Logs
In April 2021, we introduced #public-mod-logs for greater transparency in moderation. Now, just over two years later, we have chosen to retire it.
The moderation bot we originally added to introduce public logs, Auttaja, not only lacks customizability, but is also unreliable. Because of this, we stopped using the moderation functionality long ago. We left the bot running for the logs, but it remains unreliable, and many moderator actions never make it to the logs.
More importantly, we have never been fond of the public shaming aspect of public logs. During two years of using the logs, we have seen no evidence that the tradeoff is justified. Our staff members hold each other accountable, and we believe the community trusts us to moderate with integrity. We remain committed to transparency and members are always free to contact us about moderator actions via @ModMail.
Upcoming Special Event
We are pleased to announce that senior meditation teacher Toby Sola will be joining us to offer a guided meditation and Q&A. Toby is the co-founder and CEO of Brightmind and the creator of the Brightmind meditation app, which teaches the Unified Mindfulness system, developed by Shinzen Young.
We will be polling the community to decide on a date and time in late August. In a separate poll, community members will be able to vote on one of two possible themes:
Decision Making
Three key takeaways: (1) How to use meditation to make better decisions; (2) Experiential understanding of the components of self (mental talk, mental image, and emotional body sensation); and (3) A new perspective on a current work or life decision.
Meditation Buffet
Familiarize yourself with the three basic families of meditation techniques: noting and labeling, nurture positive, and auto focus.
The Unified Mindfulness system already enjoys significant popularity within the community, so this will be a great opportunity for those who are unfamiliar to find out what the buzz is all about! (Big thanks to Anthony A. for making this happen!)
Odds and Ends
We have added four practice roles and two framework roles: @Death Contemplation / Memento Mori, @Four Elements Meditation, @Mantra Meditation, @Wim Hof Method, @Achintya-Bheda-Abheda, and @Universalism.
Members can also now choose the @Ping-friendly or @No pings please role to let others know their preference regarding being pinged. Note that this is an indication of preference only. While we encourage members to honor each other’s preferences, these roles are optional and may go unnoticed. If you feel strongly about not being pinged, please adjust your Notification settings for the server and/or client.
Below the ping preference roles, you will now find the two options shown below. Key to the Archives grants access to channels that have been retired to the archives, which currently includes #questions-old and #weekly-discussion-old. Gold nuggets await those willing to search. Potato needs no explanation. The above roles can be found in #Channels & Roles.
Did you know we have a Soundboard (shown below)? Soundboard is a collection of audio clips that can be used in a voice channel. Clips can only be triggered on the desktop client, but mobile client users will also be able to hear them. Note that you must be Cypress or greater to use Soundboard.
Recently, we have had several cases of users joining the server seeking help in the midst of a mental health crisis. Our community is not a mental health community and we do not have staff who are professionally qualified to handle crisis situations. We have added a ?crisis command to quickly display information about major crisis hotlines. The command is available to all members, so please feel free to use it when deemed appropriate.
