I’m now the site administrator for neopagan.net, both its web pages and its blog Views from the Cyberhenge.
The site consists of web pages written by Isaac Bonewits. He was an author, ritualist, lecturer, teacher, composer, and general “Big Name” in the Pagan community.
He passed away in 2010. The neopagan.net web pages remained and were maintained by his widow, Phaedra Bonewits. It was under her watch that the WordPress blog Views from the Cyberhenge was added to the site.
The site has remained moribund for the past several years. Phaedra wanted to maintain it, but strictly speaking it was operating under the auspices of an organization who did not want to put effort into supporting it. Indeed, it was only a matter of luck that they hadn’t pulled the plug on the site before this. I made the offer to Phaedra to host it, and she accepted.
(I’m not going to mention this organization by name. It’s not that I have anything against them (I think they’re great!), but Isaac’s legacy with them is complicated. I feel it’s best that I don’t potentially add to those complications.)
Neopagan.net is now hosted on the same server that hosts argothald.com (you’re reading it now!) and my Wicca group site acorn.garden.
What has changed?
As I type this, nothing!
I want to help support Isaac’s essays and help keep them from the mists of obscurity. Most of them are still relevant today, perhaps even more relevant than when Isaac first wrote them. I feel his essay on the ABCDEF is required reading before anyone joins any religious group, including mine.
My task is preservation, not revision. Any significant changes made to the neopagan.net site or the blog will come at Phaedra’s discretion.
Really, nothing has changed?
One thing has changed, but it’s subtle.
I have a very low tolerance for spammers, hackers, and other cretins and criminals.
When I block an IP address on my site, I do it server-wide. Such a block affects all the sites on the server, including neopagan.net.
If I see attacks coming from a range of IP addresses, I block the entire range.
It is just barely possible that someone who’s interested in reading Isaac’s essays won’t be able to do so, because their Internet Service Provider (ISP) or VNC provider hosts many attackers, and that has caused me to block that entire address range.
I’m sorry. I just don’t have the resources to deal with a successful hack on my server.
However, if I’ve blocked your ISP or VNC network, you’re not reading this page. Perhaps my apology is meaningless.
What of the future?
Let’s be blunt: These three sites (neopagan.net, argothald.com, acorn.garden) will last as long as they’re paid for.
No, I’m not asking for money. I’m fortunate enough to be able to handle the fees.
What I mean is that if I become unable to pay for them… Okay, let’s be blunt. When I die, unless someone has the technical skills and the will to preserve these sites, they’ll go away.
Let’s not be grim, shall we? They’d also go away if I run out of money. There, that sounds better, doesn’t it?
Isaac understood that nothing lasts forever. He wrote a song about it.
Who’s this guy?
If you’re coming here though the link in neopagan.net, you may ask that question.
Well, my connection with Isaac is…
You know, I find that I don’t want to tell that story, at least not now.
At Isaac’s first memorial service, as I listened to folks speak, I got the impression that many of them were trying to elevate their influence on Isaac’s life.
I don’t want to repeat that. It would be hypocritical of me to inflate my role in his life if I’m irritated by other people doing the same.
This is part of what led me to offer to write Isaac’s biography (a still-unfinished project). I wanted to tell his story, not his story filtered by others. (I’ve since learned more about the art of history, and now know that’s impossible.)
Let’s just say that I’m a sysadmin whom Phaedra happens to know. I’ve got the knowledge and resources to do this, and Phaedra’s permission to do it.
That will suffice.