Introduction by your forum host!!

[Martijn (admin)]

Welcome!!

My name is Martijn van Mensvoort, psychologist & hand researcher from The Netherlands.

I started this forum initiative, after I had been a member of the former 'Palmistry International Forum' [earlier name: International College of Palmistry Forums] that was presented by Sue Compton during the past few years.

Unfortunately, Sue decided recently that the continuation of her very large forum (at it's peak 1200+ members) became a mission-impossible. Merely because she felt that too many members used her forum for inappropriate purposes - that did not fit with the purpose that she had in mind with her forum. But Sue has welcomed my follow-up forum initiative, and she has joined the memberlist of this new forum. So she is able to share her experience as a forum manager - maybe in the discussions, but for sure behind the scenes!


Regarding my background, I started my career in the fields of hand reading in 1993 as a student at the Dutch 'Academie Antropodynamica' - www.antropodynamica.nl, the largest school for Hand Analysis in the Netherlands,
The Academie Antropodynamica was founded by Edo Sprong, who was in the 80's a student of Ganshyam Singh Birla, at 'The Birla Center for Hast Jyotish' [earlier: National Institute for Self Understanding] in Montreal, Quebec - Canada.

In the same year I also started my study in Clinical & Health Psychology at Leiden University, The Netherlands.


In 1997 I completed both studies, and started a part-time career as a hand researcher. Over the years I have been involved in various hand analysis projects, including: doing consultations, teachings, master class workshops & writing.

In 2002 I started working on a hand research website, which is running since 2004 at the domain name: www.handresearch.com

At the following page you can find an overview of my hand research projects:
http://www.handresearch.com/research/palm-reading-research.htm


So, basically my main interest concerns collecting & developing research based knowledge about the hand as a 'diagnostic' tool. I have a large experience in related (academic) scientific literature. And I am familiar with various types of 'palmistry' - experienced members will recognize this in the structure of the

However, the creation of a global palm reading network became over 3 years ago one of my high priority projects ... and I hope this brand new forum will come another milestone resulting from these efforts!


Your forum host,
Martijn van Mensvoort, Asten (N-B) - The Netherlands, 2010

[TruthSeeker]

Martijn,

While I applaud your effort in bringing this forum to life, I feel that at the very outset we may need to do an exercise in "lessons learned" from another (failed) forum. It would be pity if all your efforts fall by the wayside if this forum allows certain nefarious elements to wreak havoc (yet again). Yes, I'm being purposefully abstract here. YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I MEAN! IMHO, you (or someone else) will have be ruthlessly efficient in rooting out the "wrong element" from this forum. This may mean having strict rules of forum etiquette (no political or ideological football and NO PERSONAL ATTACKS ---- I was a victim, I know all about it!)

Just remember George what Santayana (1863-1952) said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

Wish you all the luck!

--- TS

[Sucom]

Hi TS

I feel that at the very outset we may need to do an exercise in "lessons learned" from another (failed) forum

Making the very difficult decision to close the PI Forums was not easy for me, especially as the forum was frequented by so many on a regular basis. The membership list quoted by Martijn would have been a great deal higher (literally thousands) if I had not made a regular, annual pruning of memberships no longer in use. I used to prune memberships so that at any one time one would be able to view the most relevant, current, accurate number of interested, participating members.

After running, focussing and maintaining a forum for nearly ten years, I found that other projects needed my energy, attention and focus so, at least for the time being, the Palmistry International website and forums have been taken down. For this reason, I am particularly pleased to see that Martijn has taken up the initiative to create a new forum, allowing previous PI members to continue and for new members to join.

I don't think it would be true to say the PI forums failed - on the contrary, the forums were very successful - one of the reasons it attracted so many members with such varying views and interest. However, I would agree that a fresh beginning is always good. One of the things I most love in life is to have a clean, fresh piece of paper and a pen in my hand ready for a new project. For me, something stays in existence for as long as it serves its purpose. If a project no longer serves its original purpose, it's time for a new one!

A large forum will inevitably draw interest from members of many ideas, thoughts, views, ideals, etc - not all will agree with each other! For many forum members, visiting a forum becomes an everyday way of life making it very difficult to decide who should join and participate and who shouldn't! But previous experience is always useful and those aspects of the PI forum that some members were perhaps not quite so happy about will no doubt be remembered when decisions are required for the everyday running of this new forum.

I already love this new forum - the colours are my favourite so it is already pleasing on my eyes! lol. I wish it every success!

Sue

[anu_d]

Dear Sue...good to see you posting and hope you are well.
the PIforums was a great place....it is shut now.....I undertsand but not a failed place by any means.

It's the foundation stone for bringing together a huge community of plamistry enthusiasts from the experts to the novices.
A great service to the world of palmistry...and the resultant user community has spread together and overtwo separate platforms / forums even after the closure of Piforums.

Thanks for making PI forums availbale to us....and hope to see you post your thoughts more and more.

Regards---a_D

[Martijn (admin)]

Hello TruthSeeker, Sue & Anu_d,

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. And please don't worry about the fact that so far there is not list of forum rules.

But the very first forum rule will be something like:

"Follow the description of each forum-section!"

But so far, I think every single post made forum members did follow this unwritten but obvious rule...!

(Though of course, this fine start is no guarantee that future postings will always continue to follow the descriptions)


Dear Sue,

Thank you for publicly explaining why you had to make your decision. And I agree that the PI forum has not failed at all - for sure a great example in the management of this forum so far.

Regarding the colors & look of this forum ... it was sort of chosen in the democratic way with the help of Lynn, Patti, Kenneth & Anu_d!

Thank you for your enthousiasm & support!

[anu_d]

Martijn,

It would be pity if all your efforts fall by the wayside if this forum allows certain nefarious elements to wreak havoc (yet again). Yes, I'm being purposefully abstract here. YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I MEAN! IMHO, you (or someone else) will have be ruthlessly efficient in rooting out the "wrong element" from this forum.
--- TS

Hello truthseeker,
welcome!
what is meant by nefarious elements? althouhg you put it in shouting letters....I don;t think most of us undertsand what you mean.
regards---a_D

[curiosity]

Hi all.. and Hi Sue!
I had just become a member on the PI forums when you shut it down... I was so enthused and then could not log on. I was wondering if I was being blocked. :(

I'm sorry to hear it was not working out, but happy to see the new forum. What were the nefarious forces at work anyway? Dare I ask? I walked into the room right as someone was being bad?

[Patti]

Hi Sue, it's nice to see you here! Glad you like the colors. Lynn and I swayed him away from the neon red board with flashing lights.

[Upendrasingh Bhadoriya]

Respected All


When I think “What I have done for palmistry ,I feel guilty
nothing else” Hence all those who have done something for palmistry are the great
for me”

[anu_d]

Respected All


When I think “What I have done for palmistry ,I feel guilty
nothing else” Hence all those who have done something for palmistry are the great
for me”

Dear Upendra,
Good to see you posting again.
Hope your son is doing well now
Regards

[Tobias]

Hello Martijn, congratulations on this new forum - and a special hello (and a huge hug) to Sue and Lynn,

I can only re-endorse the comments made by each of you, and others, that this forum will be strong only if we make it strong.

We do need ground rules, simple and easy to follow: and thus easy to moderate.

I am really happy to have found this group after the closure of PI. Thanks for the link on the PI 404 page, Sue.

[Martijn (admin)]

Hello Tobias!!

Thanks, and great to see that Sue's recommendation has become useful for you as well.

Yes, I understand your concerns regarding the forum rules.
And yes, I agree that it is preferable to keep them simple.

For the time being, the only (unwritten) forum rule so far is:

"Follow the description of each forum-section!"

And so far this (unwritten) forum rule works just fine!!

I guess that is the basic 'trick': if the structure of the forum is well-designed... people should easily be able to find where to post their questions, thoughts or info!!!



(By the way, Tobias when you have specified suggestions... you are welcome to share them here, or via a pm)


Anyway ... thank you for confirming:

"... that this forum will be strong only if we make it strong."

[asif amin]

Nice to see you dear SUECOM, please do not leave this forum.
Welcome to annu d, upendrasingh, patti, manfred, lynn my favourite one and handresearch as a moderator.

[Patti]

Hi Masif! It's nice to see you here!

Nice to see you dear SUECOM, please do not leave this forum.
Welcome to annu d, upendrasingh, patti, manfred, lynn my favourite one and handresearch as a moderator.

[Patti]

(don't know why that code is in my signature??)

[Martijn (admin)]

(don't know why that code is in my signature??)

Hi Patti,

Obviously that's HTML code (one can only use html codes at this forum where it is explicitely mentioned as an explicite option).


In general, you really only need to use the buttons above your typing screen to compose your 'signature'.
For example, you can try to start using the: 'Switch Editor Mode' button - then you have two types of options to get where you want.


By the way, after switching to the BBCode, in your case you can copy-and-paste the following BBCode to include a link to your website:

[ url =http://www.ireadhands.com][color=blue]www.ireadhands.com[/ url ]

>>> Patti, before copy-and-pasting this code into the BBCode editor... you will have to delete the 4 spaces that I added before and after the letters: 'url' (I did that to make the code appear properly).

After hitting the 'Switch Editor Mode' button again, you will see how this BBCode looks in the visual editor.

But actually, after switiching to the BBCode mode the button can easily provide you exactly the same result!




PS. If somehow you need more assistance, please send a PM or ask more questions in another (more appropriate) forum section.

[Patti]

Thank you!

[princeva]

Hi All,

My name is Chirag. I am from India but settled in US for last 4 yrs.
Was not interested much in astrology and palmistry but few incidents in life and advise from knowledgable people made me turn to this side.
I am trying to learn astrology and palmistry and will be lucky if will be able to help someone anytime in future.

Keep on doing the great job.

[temoor]

Hi martijin,

Its really very very nice to see you as a forum moderator. The colour scheme and look and feel of this forum is really very good.

I was very disappointed when i tried to log on the previous forum i.e piforums.net (after its permanent closing). No doubt, sue did a great job for many many years. I learned a lot from piforums, thank you sue for such a great effort

As for as this forum is concerned, it looks like an advanced version of piforums. I must say, the features and sections which were missing in piforums are well covered and are part of this wonderful forum.
Accept my heartious congratulation for this great effort, dear martijin . I will consider it as your "Master Project".
I think it is always a difficult task to run a huge forum by a single moderator. You did choose a great lady Mrs lynn seal as a co-moderator. No doubt, both of you are knowledgeful, professional and enthusiastic persons.

Accept my best wishes for the future of this forum.

BR,

Ahmad Tamoor (PAK)

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