16 Reader Responses

1. pete Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 8:35 pm

   # What comes to mind immediately when you think of Pop Occulture?

   Well, first of all. . .I think of how clever that name is, and how much I wish I had trademarked it a few years ago…to be honest. I guess the second thing I think about is how much I look forward to checking out your page today because I know you’ll have new updates with interesting questions that actually matter to me.

   How would you describe this website to other people who have never read it?

   A community for exploring the deep, mysterious, and mythical nature of the universe, along with touches of Gnosticism and Philip K. Dick for good measure.

   What are the benefits that you get as a reader of this site and as a participant in the conversations that go on here?

   The first, and most notable benefit I get from this page is that I finally have a forum in which to convey my ideas without sounding ridiculous. This is the first page I have found where minds like mine have congregated to tackle not only difficult subjects, but also the mundane, while always remaining entertaining and welcoming to newcomers. I also feel like over time and after having a lot of conversations, there’s the opportunity to become friends with the people who leave comments on here and network with a community of people I’ve felt were always esoteric and elitist, until now.

2. skip wiley Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 10:01 pm

   I’ve been coming here for almost two months now (wow), and the thing that has fueled my interest during most of that time is the insanely vast amount of archived posts you have organized. The random psot generator (”on the left”) is awesome, as well as the “5 related articles” at the bottom of each post (which I thought were ads for a few weeks). The “best of” section kicks serious ass, too. I cannot count how many posts I’ve read that left me feeling angry I missed out on the comments when the thread was current. Those are my initial thoughts.

3. Quoter Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 10:30 pm

   I have been visiting the site since the summer. I like Pop occulture because it approaches spirituality from an open ended perspective, it is not so much about finding an answer but simply exploring the creative, eclectic, multiplicity of the forms and contents of life. I never personally have anything to add or articulate but the thoughts I read from the posts offer a form of food for my own mind.

   Frankly in the end I enjoy the site because Tim Boucher is a brilliant essayist. SO that is key- all else is secondary.

4. Drew Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 10:45 pm

   i think about finding things that are tied into what is going on in the world of pop culture-movies, music, books, t.v. ect.. and i think about speed and relevancy. for instance, the v for vendetta discussions. they’re about alot of broad and deep topics, but it uses a current popular event that everyone knows about as a jumping off point.

   i think it’s a good way for someone, like me for instance, who has never read a phillip k. dick book or has not studied gnosticism in depth, or whatever, to find an accessable “in” to the discussion. pop occulture makes me think that i’ll find subjects that are discussed with language that’s easy to understand by people who might not be in the “know.”

5. Sean Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 10:49 pm

   1. On the Title:
   Occulture is too esoteric to have any immediate impact. If you wanted to choose as cerebral a word as possible - a word removed from any gut, emotional reaction - Occulture is a good word to use. Pop Occulture I’m sure is very clever, but is nearly meaningless except to a very few.

   Your previous title, Occult Investigator, on the other hand, did describe what you did and on what subject.

   2. Describing this website:
   Tim writes about how the roots of philosophy, religion, and myth are still very much a part of our modern daily lives.

   3. What are the benefits?
   I feel the answer might have something to do with investigating the nature of philosophy, religion, and myth which can’t be done in today’s churches or popular media.

   If I were on your marketing team, I’d tell you that the answer will depend on who you ask. I’d develop personas of typical visitors and develop content that would be beneficial to those types of people. You’re probably lacking hard info, but I bet you have ideas about why your visitors come based on who leaves comments and who links to you.

   Good luck on your endeavor.

6. Fatima Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 11:25 pm

   1. Conspiracy theory, the script under the script of current “pop” culture.

   2. Tim Boucher roots out the “occult” scripts under apparently neutral and everyday cultural facts & events. Shares his thoughts on topics of all kinds. Draws on esoterism, gnosticism, religion, conspiracy theory, politics… Nothing and nobody spared.

   3. Parts my ribs from time to time, opens my mind most of the time.

7. channel null Says:
   March 22nd, 2006 at 11:29 pm

   Pop Occulture: first, this site. second, “occulture” makes me think of culture around the actual occult, i.e., people listening to coil smearing bodily fluids on sigils OR middle-aged men and women dressed in renaissance fair outfits. “Pop” makes me think of bubble-gum music, japanese girls text messaging, etc., but I’m in the minority here. next to occulture, it sound like these practices have a pop element to them, that they’re widespread… which isn’t true. The Pop Occulture identity causes a lot of cognitive dissonace for me

   How would I describe the site: Tim posts about ten times a day usually discussing threads related to the mysticism, xian gnosticism, the occult, and pop culture, usually all at once.

   Benefits: you provide a forum to discuss things that often aren’t discussed, which I suspect attracts not necessarily the marginalized but folks of “divers interest”. Do what you will with that. I can’t talk about this stuff at work, well, I can, I just don’t want to handle consequences. I can talk about it in a bar in that HST-hippie-with-guns & coked up way, but that usually just gets blank (not bad, just blank) looks. Your regular content update helps to ensure traffick & frequent returns. I’ve only clicked an adlink once: how do you get paid for those?

   Second, you take a relatively soft approach–it’s accessible. While sometimes this can be annoying, in that it losses depth, it’s something of a necessary evil. On the other hand, you mention PKD a lot. As in, much more than, say, EGINA: you might try some identity work based on the PKDian Gnostic avenue.

   Personally, I like “Pop Occulture” but am not as into the puffy font; I feel like a serif font might add some weight while showing a willingness to stop and examine details, maybe with some curves to indicate a playful side. Good skull, though.

   A worthwhile avenue to approach might be to look at which posts are most commented. My suspicion is that it’ll be your “Are all Wiccans Really Fat?” ones moreso than the more worthwile topics, but maybe not.

   I think that Kylark was right about the Google AdSense: damn, it’s slow. But what else are you going to use, these smart ads beat super-random mortage/penis pill ads? That’s a questions that it’d be good for lots of people to have an answer to. On the other hand, I think that the in-text ad services compromise a site in an awful way, it seriously degrades the value of hyperlinks… blah blah blah.

8. Tim Boucher Says:
   March 23rd, 2006 at 12:09 am

   If I were on your marketing team, I’d tell you that the answer will depend on who you ask. I’d develop personas of typical visitors and develop content that would be beneficial to those types of people.

   Wait, what do you think I’m doing asking people? But actualy, these comments are really helpful for me, so thanks everybody. Keep them coming. It’s like, I know what I’m trying to do and I know what I think about it, but it gets hard to see how much of that comes across and how people relate to it at times. There actually hasn’t been a single comment above that I haven’t agreed with on some level, and it’s always a matter of trying to balance out these various pulls and directions.

9. Tim Boucher Says:
   March 23rd, 2006 at 12:15 am

   PS. As far as question #1 goes, I’m not so much interested in “what do you think of the name of the site” as in “what do you think of when you think of my site.

10. lillax from EU Says:
    March 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 am

    Practical advice:
    ask the guys at www.theoildrum.com.

    Their blog is exactly what you want to make of yours.

    ;)

    PS Agree about the font: when I saw it the first time, I thought this was a sort of teenager blog!

11. PlateOfFood Says:
    March 23rd, 2006 at 8:28 am

    I more lurk than particiapte but I’ll surface now to say ‘thank you’ and keep on keeping on - this is such a valuable site and I get so much from it. I would answer questions 1, 2 and 3 with the phrase, ‘original insight into deep subjects.’

    Original insights into deep subjects are pretty rare in this culture, which makes this site very valuable to my mind!

12. slomo Says:
    March 23rd, 2006 at 9:29 am

    I’ve been coming here for about a year. I usually describe this site to friends and family as a site dealing with “alternative spirituality” (that’s usually enough to prompt a change of subject). I don’t have much more to add to the comments given above.
    In particular:

    The first, and most notable benefit I get from this page is that I finally have a forum in which to convey my ideas without sounding ridiculous. This is the first page I have found where minds like mine have congregated to tackle not only difficult subjects, but also the mundane, while always remaining entertaining and welcoming to newcomers.

    and

    you provide a forum to discuss things that often aren’t discussed, which I suspect attracts not necessarily the marginalized but folks of “divers interest”. Do what you will with that. I can’t talk about this stuff at work, well, I can, I just don’t want to handle consequences. I can talk about it in a bar in that HST-hippie-with-guns & coked up way, but that usually just gets blank (not bad, just blank) looks. Your regular content update helps to ensure traffick & frequent returns. I’ve only clicked an adlink once: how do you get paid for those?

    One thing I like about this site is that it is upbeat and cheerful. Most of the sites I read, ranging from mainstream political (e.g. Kos, Eschaton, Americablog, CunningRealist) to parapolitical (e.g. Rigorous Intuition) are rather depressing, even when there is humor (which is typically rather dark). Most of the news out there is bad, whether your interpretation is conventional (Democrats vs. Republicans) or speculative (elite cabal controlling everything). This site provides an opportunity to contemplate the “meaning of life”, including both mundane and fringe topics, without getting bogged down in dispair. It’s rare to remain upbeat while addressing these topics with honesty and without denial.

13. Tim Boucher Says:
    March 23rd, 2006 at 12:06 pm

    ask the guys at www.theoildrum.com.

    What about their site do you feel I should use as a model? PS. I’m still not *yet* looking for advice, just answers to the above questions. One step at a time!

14. Ant Says:
    March 23rd, 2006 at 12:14 pm

    1. My first thought is about the eclectic discussions we have and how so many people come from different perspectives on the matter, which is a nice change from daily life where seemingly everyone takes a liberal/conservative stance on things. This doesn’t include college students. Also, it’s generally mature discussion and I don’t feel like I’m being “judged” so fatally, since we’re obviously debating opinions and perceptions rather than arguing facts and presenting biased questions. It’s also really nice when one discussion leads to another, so the site is very organic. I also think of that skull up top, which reminds me of the Unsolved Mysteries theme, and it always gets stuck in my head and makes me shudder a little. Most recently too, I love Traces from Beyond, although I wish I could contribute more. I think that page needs to be promoted somehow.

    2. I think it’s definitely a word-of-mouth website at this point. Any time I encounter a discussion in real life that reminds me of something we’ve talked about on Pop Occulture, I point people here. I would describe the site as “a freeform, philosophical examination of all of those outre topics that we want to know more about but are afraid to bring up. A place where those things can be brought up and treated as if they were normal, everyday things.”

    3. I think the biggest benefit comes from knowing that I’m not the only one who has weird experiences that can’t be explained with the usual means. It’s nice to hear some sort of validation that we’re not just crazy. haha. But maybe we are. Plus, I think it allows us to have a really decent collection of thoughts as a point of reference. Not many places have a nice multidimensional, analytical view of subjects like this. I mean, like you said before, go to a conspiracy theory site, and it’s the most annoying-looking thing ever, making it a little bit hard to believe…

    I’m a little stumped though as to how this site could generate revenue… hmm… Well, best of luck on figuring that one out.

15. Fell Says:
    March 24th, 2006 at 2:18 am

    “occulture” makes me think of culture around the actual occult, i.e., people listening to coil smearing bodily fluids on sigils OR middle-aged men and women dressed in renaissance fair outfits. “Pop” makes me think of bubble-gum music, japanese girls text messaging, etc.

    Hahahaha

16. Zeno Izen Says:
    March 25th, 2006 at 10:50 am

    Tim-

    I emailed my answer to you via your contact page. Of course, I can post it here if you’d rather, but it seems like this page is getting sorta full up.

    -z