Witchvox Is Shutting Down At The End of 2019

[Annabelle]

I've seen this on social media recently, and wanted to share the news here -- The Witches' Voice, aka Witchvox.com, is shutting down and going offline at the end of this year. 

 

I am deeply saddened by this; when my interest in witchcraft was first growing, I spent so much time at Witchvox reading articles. It has been a wonderful resource for me over the years and I will miss it deeply. But it sounds as if their web traffic had slowed dramatically, and they've decided it's time to shut down.

 

It sounds as if they will save and archive everything from the site, but that it won't be available online any longer, so if there is information you want to keep, it's a good idea to save your own copies now. 

[legendaryelement]

Thank you for letting us know.

:(

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

Shades of Aeclectic Tarot

YahooGroups is doing the same. Gosh the friends I've made over the years there. When it was still alive.

Facebook is probably the root cause I suppose. I've yet to ever actually make a friend in Facebook groups, it is all talking at you rather than to you and the threads move downward so fast picking up a conversation is difficult, and actually talking to someone directly in midst of a thread is seen as rude. 

 

Instagram is probably doing the same to Facebook, change comes to everything. 

[Raggydoll]

I’m sorry to see this trend happening and I agree with you @AJ-ish/Sharyn about Facebook. It’s m simply not set up in a way that promote deeper conversations. That’s why I consider this forum such a blessing. I’ve developed several true friendships here and my life is greatly enriched by the conversations that take place. 

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

I agree and why I always have two forums in my life, current tarot and quilting, to which I subscribe. 

And I absolutely cringe to see a response to a post "look it up on google". Yes we all know google has answers, but it doesn't provide conversations. 

[Flaxen]

That’s such sad news about Witchvox - I also spent many hours there when I first started exploring my path. 

 

Totally agree about Facebook - I’m a member of a couple of tarot groups there but I don’t really participate. The chat mostly revolves around the latest deck craze and they definitely have that ‘buying frenzy’ feel. Any deeper discussions are very hard to follow and drop down the list quickly. It’s a format which really doesn’t work for me although it seems plenty of  people do like it. 

 

 

[Raggydoll]

1 hour ago, Flaxen said:

That’s such sad news about Witchvox - I also spent many hours there when I first started exploring my path. 

 

Totally agree about Facebook - I’m a member of a couple of tarot groups there but I don’t really participate. The chat mostly revolves around the latest deck craze and they definitely have that ‘buying frenzy’ feel. Any deeper discussions are very hard to follow and drop down the list quickly. It’s a format which really doesn’t work for me although it seems plenty of  people do like it. 

 

 

Yes, and don’t you love it when  someone just shared a profound reading and the first response they get is: “What deck is that and where can I buy it?!” 🤦‍♀️

[katrinka]

9 hours ago, AJ-ish/Sharyn said:

 I've yet to ever actually make a friend in Facebook groups, it is all talking at you rather than to you and the threads move downward so fast picking up a conversation is difficult, and actually talking to someone directly in midst of a thread is seen as rude. 

I haven't encountered anyone who considers it rude, but that probably depends on the group. Facebook is a big place. TOO big.

To be honest I haven't visited Witchvox in about 15 years, but I'm sorry to see it go, for the sake of those who do rely on it. I don't like facebook. It's dangerously biased and full of misinformation. https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-donald-trump-dinner-contradicts-political-speech-stance-2019-12 . And the threads do sink into oblivion like you mentioned. Nothing is organized the way forums are, if you want to find a conversation from a few years ago, good luck. The pages take forever to load, they freeze a lot. My notifications are clogged with things like "(Some random person who just friended you) waved at you", which is probably them testing the waters before sending a d**k pic. (If men I don't know well want to interact with me, let them do it on my timeline where their wives can see it.) Facebook doesn't even have a normal PM function anymore, you have to install Messenger to see PMs on your phone and you can't uninstall it, you can only turn it "off". So much spyware and adware.

The only reason I visit facebook is because it's convenient - I have people who share unrelated interests with me, family members, friends who don't know each other (hometown people, internet friends, work friends, etc.), family members, etc. in one place. ALL kinds of people. If I find a weird bug in the house, I have a friend who is an entomologist I can ask. There are coders, dog trainers, musicians, historians, published authors (all kinds), underground cartoonists, old movie experts, you name it. Some of these people are very good at what they do and kind of well known. At last count I had about 1700 facebook friends, and facebook has been a great resource for me that way. But I don't like the place. They don't, either.

I hated to see Myspace go. Yes, the pages loaded slow but it was so much freer and artier than facebook. Facebook is like the WalMart that kills all the interesting little businesses downtown. Now everybody is looking for a better social media platform than facebook. This one looks promising, but hardly anybody is there yet. https://mewe.com/
 

Quote

Instagram is probably doing the same to Facebook, change comes to everything. 

I'm not seeing any real extended conversation or exchanging of ideas at Instagram. It mostly "photo, compliment, compliment, compliment."
It kind of bores me, TBH.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by katrinka

[Mi-Shell]

Yes, it is a shame, that witchvox is closing down.

I do have a few pagans I mentor, that frequent the site. I often went there  to check out the articles.

Over the last few years, I have posted less and less on Facebook - I do not trust it with private infos and I do hate its ever changing layouts and the algorithms.

These days, when we cross the border into the US, the immigration just may ask, if one has a fb site and then check that. I saw a young guy refused entry because of what he has on his site. So for me right now - there are only stories about Animals...... 

I am still on there because many of my clients and also patients are and they use the message system to contact me. 

I am not on instagram or twitter or anywhere else.  

[jupiter]

16 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

I’m sorry to see this trend happening and I agree with you @AJ-ish/Sharyn about Facebook. It’s m simply not set up in a way that promote deeper conversations. That’s why I consider this forum such a blessing. I’ve developed several true friendships here and my life is greatly enriched by the conversations that take place. 

So well put, and exactly why I love being here 🙂 Facebook is like the fast food of communication, where this place is like a Michelin fine dining experience.

[gregory]

And still we have people saying forums are on their way out, and are So Old Fashioned. It's sad. Quite often I will explain to FBers why they would be better off setting up a forum, and they simply don't get it.

 

I was in two yahoo tarot groups that have moved over to email groups, but they are a nightmare, and I may just quit.

[Raggydoll]

17 minutes ago, gregory said:

And still we have people saying forums are on their way out, and are So Old Fashioned. It's sad. Quite often I will explain to FBers why they would be better off setting up a forum, and they simply don't get it.

 

I was in two yahoo tarot groups that have moved over to email groups, but they are a nightmare, and I may just quit.

Forums are here to stay because they can ground and nourish you after you’ve been subjected to social media (or just to life in general ☺️)

[Mi-Shell]

I just hope this forum stays open.

...I think, I found a home here!

[Mi-Shell]

another thing is, a lot of people on FB cultivate a "persona" a character  of their own creation.

Here - and on forums, with more intimate and serious talk, it is difficult and tedious to maintain these "personas" (lack of a better word) and then they usually quickly fall apart, revealing the real person.

I am only interested to talk to real persons.

[Flaxen]

22 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

Yes, and don’t you love it when  someone just shared a profound reading and the first response they get is: “What deck is that and where can I buy it?!” 🤦‍♀️

I know! It’s frustrating when that happens. One thing I have noticed with the rise of Facebook groups, is that tarot forums don’t seem to attract the more casual visitors anymore. 

 

I do slightly mourn that I’m not so up-to-date with the latest releases but the plus point is much less temptation! 

[Aaryn]

On 12/1/2019 at 1:01 PM, Annabelle said:

I've seen this on social media recently, and wanted to share the news here -- The Witches' Voice, aka Witchvox.com, is shutting down and going offline at the end of this year. 

 

I am deeply saddened by this; when my interest in witchcraft was first growing, I spent so much time at Witchvox reading articles. It has been a wonderful resource for me over the years and I will miss it deeply. But it sounds as if their web traffic had slowed dramatically, and they've decided it's time to shut down.

 

It sounds as if they will save and archive everything from the site, but that it won't be available online any longer, so if there is information you want to keep, it's a good idea to save your own copies now. 

The Wayback Machine on Archive.org has extensively cataloged the site since 1997; it's a shame to see the site close, but it also appears there is more than one way to go back and see what you need and want to.

[Annabelle]

On 12/8/2019 at 6:36 AM, Aaryn said:

The Wayback Machine on Archive.org has extensively cataloged the site since 1997; it's a shame to see the site close, but it also appears there is more than one way to go back and see what you need and want to.

That's good to know! I'm sure that sometime a year from now I'll think "now, what was that article I read on Witchvox ages ago" and will want to go looking for it . . . 

[Zorba]

That sucks - I'm not "witchy", but I am a Pagan (Hellenic), but I mostly stopped going to WV when "Wren's Nest" was inexplicably transferred to facesuck. I won't bore everyone here with one of my frequent and infamous rants about "that site", but suffice it to say that I feel so strongly about it that I actually block links from there to my own website - obviously I wouldn't be caught dead on it, TWITter, or similar. What was then the world's largest Belly Dance forum got sucked into that black hole as well.

 

Sigh...

[gregory]

I couldn't agree more about what I refer to as Fartbook.... There's no chance of serious discussion over there; you are just bombarded with garbage. I know very few people who still go except to keep in touch with family, and several who have closed out. 

[Little Fang]

I'm in a bunch of groups which do have serious discussion and it goes quite well actually. 🙂 that's why I keep it around 

[Little Fang]

Also it's a shame, that now I'm getting into witchy stuff, they'd be closing. Funny timing! 

[Raggydoll]

13 minutes ago, Little Fang said:

Also it's a shame, that now I'm getting into witchy stuff, they'd be closing. Funny timing! 

Yeah, but maybe it’s a sign that our witchcraft section needs expanding? ❤️

[gregory]

13 minutes ago, Little Fang said:

I'm in a bunch of groups which do have serious discussion and it goes quite well actually. 🙂 that's why I keep it around 

I'm happy for you. But I know several people who've been in groups (especially Lenormand) who said that they were more vicious than anything they'd ever seen on forums. I admit I have no direct experience, but that startled me.

[Raggydoll]

4 minutes ago, gregory said:

I'm happy for you. But I know several people who've been in groups (especially Lenormand) who said that they were more vicious than anything they'd ever seen on forums. I admit I have no direct experience, but that startled me.

For some reason even the groups can quickly go downhill and I’ve seen lots of mob mentality as well as people normalizing behavior that is clearly damaging. But when it works it can be really nice. I have two groups I’m on, but it’s very limited. I don’t interact like I do here. Forums are the way to go for me. 

[Little Fang]

I've seen both bad groups and good groups, depending on the people involved and the staff.  For instance, the group I have for my career is full of immature mob-like kids who were probably the preps in school. (Heh.)  While a few of my spiritual groups are more mature, laid back, and easy to have a discussion in.  And then there's the cult-like curly hair group that I won't speak of but I keep it around for the info in the albums!

 

And Raggy, perhaps it is!  I could expand it a little more. 🙂