Unfortunately due to health issues and lack of time, I am going to have to shut down Tulpa Network these coming weeks. We've had some bot issues in the meantime I'm afraid, but we have managed to log lots of IPs to report and block so at least something good came out of that!

You guys have been great, even some of the bots that were about to develop sapience during this site's lifetime. Wouldn't want a thing to change, everything was amazing and I'd do everything again in a heartbeat once I got the time to manage a forum again. Maybe another site will be happening eventually and I'll be sure to contact anyone interested if you PM me a way to contact you outside this site!

I might clean up the place before we shut down so it's nice when archived. You guys might want to grab some posts and stuff you like and make copies too, so you don't lose any of your work. I'm gonna give you all plenty of time.

Again, thanks for sticking with us! We'll probably meet again in the future and I'll make a thread in Forum Discussion for anyone to say whatever they want about this situation. We'll get through this.


-Sands

So, tulpas are so last year by this point, so we have decided to change this forum from tulpas to the real thing anyone cares about: cats! We'll be deleting what is on this site after this weekend, so we decided to give you some warning so you can copy whatever things you want so you don't lose them.

Cat Network will be having the following features:

• Talk about cats and nothing but cats!
• Share images of your cat(s)!
• Have a subaccount or two or six for your cat(s)!
• Help on choosing your new cat(s)!
• Where to adopt or buy cats!
• Tips and guides on how to raise and train your cat(s)!
• How to make toys, clothes and other cat accessories for yourself or your cat(s)!
• Funny cat images and videos found on the internet!
• Cat art!
• Ads that target your cat-loving ways: toys, litter, food!

We can't wait to roll over to our new website, and I'm certain you can't either! If you wish to tell us more about your feelings, please head over to the thread here for comments!


Thank you for staying with us this long, now onto something newer and better.

-Tulpa Network staff team

MFW I have no face

Do it.

We have had a problem with strange spambots recently, as you might have noticed. While they don't post links, they post random nonsense that doesn't add anything. They have been able to get past our security questions even though they have been changed, so it seems like there might be a person behind them. Whatever it is, the best way to stop new spambots from coming in is to ban IPs.

A person affected the ban will get a message with a way to appeal and contact us if they wish to gain access. We're sorry for the inconvenience, but when spambots wanna spam, everyone loses.

Pretty old, but. All you people having trouble, enjoy.

Hey people, we made a little change you should know about.

We've had a ton of spam during the last few days and while we could sort it all out, it doesn't look very good to leave it there while we're gone. To battle the spam, we changed how users are allowed to link. Every external link now requires you to have at least 1 post before it lets your post with a link through. Seeing how the spambots we've gotten this far acted, they start linking right away and not allowing their first post through would make it impossible for them to get the required one post to be allowed to post links.

Unfortunately this is going to hurt our users a bit, as some might want to post an external link as their first post. Not much we can do about that using this system, but luckily there are easy ways to get that one post you are required to have. You could introduce yourself in the introductions thread, post a little something in the chat thread or maybe even write what you think about this forum's themes.

This affects both parent and subaccounts. Even if the parent account has the required posts, the subaccount can't link to an external site. They too would have to make a post before that, but hopefully it won't be too annoying. I am hoping that the solution we're offering is less annoying than the actual spam.

Image tags work, so your first post could have an image in it.


To battle spambots being able to register accounts, we have added security questions instead of captcha. It is simple, you just need to write the plural of various words, including "tulpa". If you don't know the answer for that particular one, I suggest checking Wiktionary.


Hopefully this will stop the post graveyard and moderation reports getting multiple entries from spambots every day. If there are some bugs in the changes, please contact waffles as soon as you can so it can be fixed. Telling him what theme you're using and any possible error reports will help a lot, along with other detailed explanations.

For a cleaner, better, Tulpa Network, right? Thanks for sticking with us through the spamstorm.

Hey guess what, it's time for some words again.

There was that time ages back when it was thought that a tulpa will absolutely no questions asked take hundreds of forcing hours to become vocal and thus, sapient. Everything that happened before that was parroting and not a real response. Obviously, the doubts hindered both the tulpas and their hosts. When a response was deemed as parroting, similar response after the supposed time of them becoming vocal would also be parroting, then. Because it would be identical to "parroting".

Then people started screaming "believe". Believe no matter what, it is always your tulpa. If you don't know, it is your tulpa. It was decided that doubt is the killer, so obviously the exact opposite is what would help the hosts and the tulpas the most and fast progress would be made.

That's where we are today. Many people in tulpa communities have decided that skepticism isn't healthy and you should always blindly believe that it is always your tulpa with no chance of it being you parroting or puppeting them. Who can blame them, many of the old tulpamancers doubted too much and many didn't get anywhere because they couldn't believe, waiting for the proof that never came. Many tulpas were ignored when they tried to communicate, because it felt exactly like it did early on, before they possibly could have been sentient. So of course it must've been parroting.

Compared to that, always believing should be good for both, right? Well, in my honest opinion, I disagree. I have seen firsthand how a person believed in their tulpas and was hoping to go further down the rabbit hole. But as time passed and not much progress was made other than having a mindvoice coming from the tulpas, an ugly problem reared its head. To the person, the tulpa just felt like themselves, just as if they were parroting. But the host believed and didn't doubt, because it would get better, surely. But it never did. The feeling of the tulpa just being the host didn't go anywhere and now even worse doubts became a part of them. Because the host blindly believed and hadn't questioned anything at all, nothing was left once they started doubting those responses they first thought were real. It was easy to believe in the start, but became impossible later on. They never got over the hurdle where they truly could believe in the tulpa after a lot of work, thinking and dedication, because they thought they never had to jump and the jump would be made for them later on. And once the host got to this point, the jump no longer was possible in their eyes.

And now, the host no longer has tulpas or is a part of any tulpa communities.

That is just as bad as doubting constantly, isn't it? So, let's get to the actual point of this post and discuss another look at tulpas. Instead of doubting until proof is presented or blindly believing, I think the best way to approach this phenomenon is the absence of disbelief. It might sound like just "belief" to you, but it's not quite that. You don't just believe, you just don't worry about it much. You think you got a response from your tulpa, but you're unsure? Why do you have to decide if it was them or not right now? You can go far accepting that you might have gotten something and it might have been your tulpa, but knowing if it was or wasn't for certain isn't necessary when you're still early in the tulpaforcing process. Trust is something that comes with time and shouldn't be forced to happen, or it will feel unnatural and possibly lead into tons of problems later on.

Just like the Schrödinger's cat, you won't know for sure if the cat is dead before you take a look in the box, 50/50 chance. When it comes to tulpas, you can't really easily check to see if it was them or not as no response doesn't mean they aren't sentient, so why not stay in the state where it is and is not your tulpa, at the same time? You can have enough skepticism to calm yourself and say you don't blindly believe in everything when you have no reason to do so, yet at the same time you do pay attention to what you think you just got from the tulpa, not ignoring it but not believing it was them for sure. You give your tulpa the respect they need in case it was them, but you also don't force a response that wasn't them on them. You can tell them you got the message if it was them and perhaps act on it, you could also apologize if it wasn't them and you misunderstood, if you wish to explain it. It hopefully would satisfy your tulpa's need and make them realize they can contact you and you do listen to them, even if you haven't thrown all the doubt and skepticism away. It is important for the host to figure many things out on their own pace, so it's an excellent compromise in my eyes. A healthy way of thinking to lead you closer to the right mindset to have a bountiful tulpa journey of your own. One day, you will find something to really believe in, but you don't have to disbelieve until you get there.

In a way, this is what I think the whole "treat your tulpa as if they were sentient" mindset came from, before it was corrupted into "your tulpa is sentient from the start". Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but we can't know for sure and some tulpas don't seem to be sentient from the start according to their words. Treating them as if they were sapient, however, means you respect them and don't treat them as non-sapient when they might very well be sapient already, but you haven't just noticed it yet. That, and you probably have to think that there is something actually listening to you or there is no reason to keep talking to your tulpa, right? But treating them as sapient doesn't mean they are that right away. You don't know for sure, so you might as well be respectful. Don't blindly believe, but don't ask for proof when you can't get it. You don't have to make a decision yet, it will come.

Those sure were some words. To sorta summarize, I think both not believing and blindly believing in your tulpas to be just as dangerous depending on the situation, but the absence of disbelief would be an excellent tool in helping new tulpamancers. Think of the state of it both being and not being your tulpa, not worrying about it and just rolling with it. Ignoring a tulpa's response isn't good at all, but skepticism is healthy and you can listen to your tulpa without fully believing it was them if you are having doubts. Blindly believing won't get rid of those doubts when they surface, but doubts of course are natural. Just don't let them take over or try to cover them with pretty words.

There's been a plenty of talk about how HOURCOUNTS ARE TULPA POISON and such. Or how doubt is a tulpakiller. But the person in my head often wonders if such words are host poison and if it will seriously hinder their process.

Absence of disbelief, people. Strive for balance instead of extreme beliefs. Also discuss, if this post made you think - or better yet, actually helped you - my job is done.