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Posted: 10-07-2002 14:35 Post subject: Charles Fort Institute?

What the heck's happened to the Charles Fort Institute? It was such a brilliant idea, but the website doesn't appear to have been updated since 2000. Has it been scrapped due to lack of interest/funding?

Posted: 17-07-2002 18:45 Post subject: CFI

The last I heard, CFI was applying for charity status as an educational institution, but I suppose it never came to be...or is taking a while. Maybe they're dogged down in paperwork...

Posted: 15-08-2002 02:03 Post subject:

I was just looking at the website, and I was struck by the same thing - It talks about updates "very soon" but has just been left, like a giant ozmandias in the san- roll eyes (sarcastic)

It seems a little sad that the website and presumably the institute has just *stopped*.
If there were a charles fort institute i would most definitely visit it... wherever it was

(oddly enough, on this page: http://www.forteana.org/aboutcfi/logocomp.html, not only are niles calder and justin anstey named as having had they're designs rejected, but so is someone sharing the name of my former headteacher. the -my- mind boggles)

Posted: 15-08-2002 19:07 Post subject: CFI

I think the CFI will get completed, but will take time. And money. Perhaps if Bob Rickard received more £heque$ made out to CFI, we'd get there quicker?

I suggested a frog for the logo of CFI. Pretty much sums it up.

''We shall know an existence by its frogs!''- Fort

Posted: 11-10-2003 04:02 Post subject:

Another year ticks by and no further update....

Posted: 11-10-2003 04:06 Post subject:

convinced its dead dead dead.

edit: i mean effectively.

Posted: 11-10-2003 04:11 Post subject:

I reckon when more people are ready to accept fortean studies as more of a science than a fun weird hobby then yea, it will come to pass.

Posted: 11-10-2003 04:25 Post subject:

I wonder, though, when David Sutton took over the editorship of FT I note it said Bob Rickard was pursuing other "long term projects." I've been meaning to ask what these were.

It's a shame if this really has stalled because it's something I've thought for a long time would fly.

Posted: 11-10-2003 15:37 Post subject:

Ian

Posted: 11-10-2003 15:50 Post subject:

In the meantime, it would be useful to support the Fortopedia concept that's currently being worked on. More info here Smile

Posted: 11-10-2003 22:43 Post subject:

*looks around, blinking*
Someone call my name? Ah yes, CFI. No dear Yithian, it's not dead and won't be as long as I'm breathing. We're in a Catch 22 - much time-consuming groundwork to be done and no money to pay folks for time and resources. Sure we can try without the funds but it will take longer ... oh, that's what we are doing.

Trouble is that after 29 years in the saddle, I'm a tired, grumpy old fart and I thought I'd have a break to recharge the batteries. In the meantime some of the people who were helping CFI admin ..er..vanished. So it ground to a halt.

A report was made to what CFI members could be found, but they were few as the membership list was one of the key documents that ..er.. vanished. Incorporation as a charity (worth it for benefits to fundraising) came to nothing as twice our applications never got past the fist scrutiny. (Guess we sound too subversive.) and the legal advice in both attempts swallowed most of the funds.

So the last plan was to continue as a company limited by guarantee and apply for charity status after we have a proven period of activity. Problem: difficulty in asking for membership fees on required scale as we have nothing to offer members..yet. In the meantime, the little funds left are eroded each year by having to file official tax returns. (So I was thinking of un-registering and continuing as a simple band of brothers.)

If we want to get things moving, we need someone to run the CFI website and make those needed updates...start growing the Encyclopedia Forteana.. and (the other big project) ..redesign the 'Fortean Studies' series. (One of my last acts with IFG was to get back the title rights to Fortean Studies for use by CFI.) Because of the problems in costs for the printed book form (never sold more than 100 but needed 300+ sales to break even) my notion of this is now as a series of monographs - undoing the 7 volumes so far into stand alone papers and adding new papers to the series. Free access to members but everyone else pays something (commercial usage pays more).

Wiki (what a stupid name) - yes I looked at that too. My scheme requires a team of editors (*looks at contributors to that thread*) whose job it is to maintain integrity of 1) the word list, 2) various topic areas (date, places, topics, casenames, people, organisations, ideas & theories, religions, mythology, link maintanance etc etc) As always, we must have quality control. It suits our ethos too to have discussions attached to these topics, so like Wiki, there must be a way for readers to add comments. (Although against censorship, we must ensure the project keeps to its purpose to inform and be accesible and to minimise flamewars). I'm suggesting the editors monitor their areas and moderate when necessary. The EncForteana's main entries will be written by specialists by request, selecting topics from the primary wordlist. Possibly the single most important editorial job will be crossreferencing and linking. We will also need a good search engine (i think wiki has one). Off the main entries will be submissions from readers etc, with expansions, corrections, commentaries, lists and whatnot. I have wondered whether entries should be flagged for a 'belief' rating (from believist and credulous to sceptical and sketptical) but mebbe that will be obvious.

Well, that's it for now. I just wanted to say that while CFI may have stalled, it is not dead. You know, I look at the enthusiasm, wit, erudition and vitality of your contributions to these threads and I think the future of forteana is in good hands. It is where is should be, in the hands of the folk who love it ... and that's loving without precondition.

Some of you contacted me when we were talking about putting the backcatalog of FT on CDs. While that is an IFG project, the CFI is ours. Mebbe a few of you demented souls can join me in making it work.

Skyward ho!

bobR

Posted: 11-10-2003 22:58 Post subject:

Hey there Bob - I think the Fortopedia thing could lead into and onto the Encyclopedia Forteana, which I can tell is not dead (it just loves kipping on it's back and is pining for the fijords...). It might be a first stab into the whole area of developing a system of classification and reference - basic sketches at first, that in time lead onto more detailed stuff. The whole area of Forteana is so diverse that from the outset some sort of simple but efficient design is needed from the outset, which I think the wiki could cover.

The good thing about the internet and this message board is that it's become what it is by people getting together and applying their own time and knowledge, a labour of love. I'm sure this braintime could be used to make the Encyclopedia work. Just see us as something like the SETI screensaver Wink

If you want to add any opinions to the Fortopedia thread, that would be great. We're not trying to undermine the EF, but try and make an intial stab into the whole process of categorisation. I think the need for discipline is already there - you'd need it to get the wiki to work properly from the outset.

Posted: 11-10-2003 23:04 Post subject:

Posted: 12-10-2003 01:37 Post subject: Uhm...

Posted: 12-10-2003 02:12 Post subject: Re: Uhm...