Expect downtime as things are happening!

[Mystress]

  Great changes are afoot! A new membership management system and an updated forum.

  There will be some downtime in the new few days as an excellent and honorable web developer fixes all the stuff that is over my head.

Please don't be concerned. It probably won't interfere with access to the lessons except for restarting the server but this tearoom will be in maintenance mode and the new forum might be in a different folder.

The exact timing is uncertain.

I will be sending an email to the whole member list but I need a copy of the error message that comes after posting.

[Sava]

Awesome! Looking forward to the new forum. I haven’t updated my membership in a long time. Pretty strapped for cash until I get my new job in the next 4-5 months.

[Mystress]

Welcome to the updated tearoom! Not made pretty yet, but functioning perfectly.

(Sorry Sava, I deleted your two posts because I guess it was not obvious my post already gave me a copy of the error messages? Thanks for enthusiasm.)

 Many thanks to Ciprian Murariu, the only dev I trust with the FST back end and the author of phpMyChat, the old chatroom on fire-serpent.org that he will be restoring soon.

  The membership management system I was going to install turned out to be buggy af and down to its last dev. Not putting my eggs in that basket.

 After four years, dozens of systems tested, $700 usd wasted on a system I thought would work, I have decided to go retro and enhance user data safety by not having any stupid database driven member ship management system or web forms, at all.
 
 I always hated mysquirrels... (mysql databases) with rare exceptions like this forum. Anything using them seems to need constant updates and babysitting, and all the popular ones are targeted, security risks if ignored.
 
When I try to update stuff I usually end up breaking it. So I had not updated this tearoom since it was installed in 2007. It is safe from hackers behind security, and needed an expert touch. I needed a dev whose discretion I can trust completely.

 I used to think nobody would be interested in hacking a spiritual website but these are the days of bots that go after everybody.

 Most of the site error messages are "wp-login.php 404 file not found."

Bots trying to find a wordpress login to hack it, and other similar. One of several files bots look for, to hack. My lovely vintage styled site does not use any of those systems. Bots can go whistle.

No member database means nothing to hack. Protecting your information is very important to me, and the best way for me to stay ahead of the tech is to take a step back and not use it at all.

My lovely little cgi driven email response form that has worked perfectly since 1997, still works great except for chrome browser screaming warnings like it is a house on fire.

 I cannot find a replacement that does not use a database so I am going old school and using email auto-responders.
 
 I ask a lot of questions on the reg form, wanting to know people and the new application form has even more personal questions (name and address are considered personal questions, these days) and I cannot find any reason it needs to be stored online anywhere when it is for my eyes only.
 
 Email has all my member records, safe on my home computer, behind double firewalls plus server encrypted, using a rare email client that is pretty immune to viruses, attachments are not opened, they are sent to a folder to be scanned.
 Occasionally backed up on a password protected portable drive.
 
 Only need four pieces of info to run the online system. Username and encrypted password for the security.  Registration date for the mystery curtains. Email for contact.

Linux Apache htpassword and htaccess files with 64 bit encryption are still gold standard, and most of the database systems don't even use htpassword so they can be compatable with windows servers. Simply inferior.
 
Prior to 2007, installation of the current, broken system there was no system. I got registration forms via email, and added new members to security by hand via the website control panel.

 That was easy but it meant I was constantly checking my email to add people promptly, felt like I could not go on vacation.

 The membership system took care of that but I don't want instant access for anyone who pays, anymore. I am seeing the wisdom of the old zen schools making candidates wait outside for a week.
 
 Before taking down the registration, I was refunding everybody who spewed impatience at me for not getting the instant gratitication.  So now there won't be any.
 
  In future, new members will be added on the first of every month. Application forms can be sent anytime but I will be taking a week to evaluate them, as I do with grad essays. Successful applicants will get an email response with payment options.
 
  I have decided to use a sliding scale for tuition rates, for the sake of fairness and accessability. One price for third world countries, one price for the west (there will be an increase) and I am going to add a patron level that is four figures and includes my skype and many hours of personal support, in 15 minute portions.

 I want to start screening new members, because 80/20 rule. A handful of people in the past have been ejected, usually because I was taking too many hits. Often it was people with some sort of mental illness, trying to hide out in spirituality when they needed proper medical care. A few narcissists.
 
 FST has never been advertised, only search engines and my other sites. Goddess brings my students, sometimes with amazing synchronicities.
 
 At times, students have commented that they wished I did advertise, so more people could benefit.  I will, and the larger exposure makes me even more invested in screening new members like I am hunting for replicants.
 (Blade runner movie reference)

When FST opened in 2000 it was a pioneer in online edu using streaming video. A one woman show, GenX cottage industry, humaitarian effort,  and I have decided, to be true to myself:  it is ok for it to look like one. People have told me my hand made webpages are charming, a refreshing change from all the slick cookie cutter wordpress everything.

The amount of time and energy I have spent trying to bring GenX FST website up to GenZ standards is just stupid and I am happy to give it up.

I get all kinds of spam for various courses on facebook, and all of them are using the same stupid tricks, the FOMO and the upsells, extravagant promises and tiny disclaimers cauncelling the promises. I want nothing to do with any of those predatory practices to get people to open their wallet. It is dehumanizing and repulsive to me.
 
When a student tells me they learned of FST years before they enrolled, and waited because guidance told them they were not ready, I feel honored they respect the powerful transformation they are embarking on.

I don't want joining FST to be something done on impulse, I want it to be a considered decision.

As part of the transition to no system, I may be adding some people to the announcement list, (if they did not add themselves at registration) as I won't be able to email announcements to all members through the current member system after I take it down, and not all members join the tearoom so I cannot use it to contact all members.

 About 1/4 of members do not make a tearoom account, they prefer to read as guests and remain invisible. I liked the idea of members being added automatically, but the current setup allows for more privacy.
 
 The option to change one's own password has existed since 2007 but it was not used because, I never linked the pages. Seemed more secure to just send the url on request. Password reminder requests, I handled them. They have always been very rare. Not worth automating.

 I will be sending one last email from the old system, to explain changes to members who may not see this post.

 I don't expect there to be any down time connected with these changes.

In other news, I am doing a project to merge the best of the 2020 edition, including the page design, retrofitted into the original 2000 pages.

A wise teacher said, people can only take on three new ideas at a time. Some of the 2020 lessons had a lot more than three, and it felt like too much. Overwhelming. 

2020 was to expand to 60 lessons, parts of the new four, will be added to current lessons and some content will migrate to kundalini-teacher.com. Reshuffling some of the content and refreshing the look, but leaving the original lessons names and order intact.

I am feeling very good about the plans!

Thats all the news, thanks for reading. Sorry if its too geeky!