Development progress log for this website

From Anthroposophy

This page keeps track of the origin and development of this site and Mediawiki content database for future contributors.

Phase 1: 2020-2025

This starts as a personal story in March 2020 (remember the 'covid lockdown'). A usual we take seven year periods. The period 2013 upto 2019 (both years included) was a first period of study. The period 2020 upto 2026 (both years included) is a period of publishing the fruits of that work.

As in every seven year period, the first three years 2020-21-22 were laying the foundation, to reach a point in 2023, from which the next three years can improve the whole to maturity (see 2024).

before 2020: the intention

  • period March 2018-March 2020
    • The domain and first page was created in March 2018 (hosted by SiteGround). The initial intention was a pilot: to set up a site to support a learning process around the theme of the Christ Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha. Besides some early prototyping and unfortunate disruptions end 2019 due to security holes and bots, nothing much happened until March 2020 (when it was moved to a dedicated virtual server hosted by Contabo). The new techical environment had a new wiki version, framework and skin, also finally allowed the use of visualeditor .. all thanks to our technical support person A.

2020

this was the COVID lockdown period; the site was created in three months March-April-May (over 260 topic pages and 300 Schemas)

  • March 2020
    • creation of structure of the FMC project and three main study themes (with dedicated menus), and creation of placeholder pages - to be populated incrementally in due time.
    • initialization of schema repository and its implementation for consistent illustration references on this site; publication of V1 (22 schemas)
    • cleaning up existing pages of pre 2020
    • decision to move off blogger and include the relevant content on this site in a section 'early essays'. In 2013 I started a test with the site progressiveinsight.blogspot.com to write two posts per year, typically end december. However due to the length of these posts and the completely unreliable style and layout of the environment, this did not prove workable and I had given up. The idea was to post the essays in PDF format, which I never did.
    • contents topics worked: etheric formative forces (incl eg potentization, transmutation), worldviews, underlying topic pages for Modules 4 and 5 in 'Christ and MoG'
  • April-September 2020
    • April-May: two months of daily progress building the logical backbone structure with chapters and topics
    • June-September: hardly any work and very limited progress in this period (only five days)
    • => by 1 October 2020: 280 content pages or topics, enriched with approx. 300 images and 30 PDF files, schema numbering upto FMC00.235

2021

  • notes for this year
    • slow continuous work on refining contents (incl cross links, literature references) on existing pages, and adding topic pages and schemas
    • contributions by people via mail are added as Q&As, Discussion Notes
    • users: (huge surprise) .. In six months April to September 2021, the site was accessed from 109 different countries. Most users and visits come from the United States, followed by the UK, Australia and Canada.Then follow China, Netherlands, India, Germany, New Zealand and Brasil; followed by Italy, Spain, Norway and Taiwan.
  • April 2021
    • V2 of the FMC Schemes upto Schema FMC00.290
    • technical maintenance upgrade of all softwares (OS, PHP, Mediawiki, Chameleon skin), new backup and analytics monitoring tools, and addition of the URL for the project initiative name freemancreator.org
  • August-October 2021
    • good progress in the period June-September (three months effective)
    • the topic came up on whether to extend large Discussion notes or subtopics, or to split the scope of broader topics by creating more pages, and separating subtopics onto their own page. Eventually the latter was done: as the site extends it would create confusion to have very large pages with many subtopics. The whole point of mediawiki is to have topic pages with an outlined scope. Trade off: proliferation of more pages leads to dilution of contents and increase in work effort to provide sufficient coverage, and more links to navigate around, and hence integrative work in our soul again of all these granular pieces of the puzzle. Examples:
    • => by 1 October 2021: 420 content pages with approx. 485 images and 70 PDF files, schema numbering upto FMC00.390
  • end of 2021
    • 2021-11-09: User registration has been activated to make the site more interactive, including personal homepage
    • 2021-12-16: Version 2 (2021) of the FMC schema reference PDF file is now available on the FMC schemas download page, together with an inventory list of the 500+ schemas. Worked update of FMC Schemas download page (now with counter) - taking stock of what is there (cleanup with checks of consistency and completeness before publishing), up to Schema FMC00.400

2022

2023

  • enriching and polishing existing contents, slow continuous addition of Schemas
  • some important sections were added to the site with clean Schemas. Given the variety of topics, it takes revisiting and getting into the topic again to find back existing tables and drawings and update and select the materials for integration on the site. This includes updating, improving and redrawing schemas in digital format. By the end of the year a major step forward will have been taken vs the end 2021 version (then up to schema 400).
  • May 2023
    • such nice words coming in via mails from readers in 2021-22 that I put in online on a page to also Thank you ! I never expected this when I started the site during the covid lockdown three years ago as a personal initiative (initially intended for my own use only).
  • end of 2023
    • narratives: focus this year, in terms of personal ambition, has shifted in trying to go one level up to Developing narratives (lessons, essays). So the goal is not to get many schemas or topics, or the most exhaustive coverage, but to build on the foundation what is there, and use it to deliver something new that adds to what is available. Feels like it may take years, quite fine to take decade. Like a next step along the journey. It feels embryonic, a seed that needs to develop still.

2024

  • technical maintenance upgrades, plus a functional improvement: whereas until now a Schema with text was copied onto multiple pages, making it difficult to maintain, the Schema ànd its text are now bundled so they can be inserted together on any topic page. This greatly facilitates maintenance.
    • We call this 'integrated Schema pages': it means that the header text above a Schema is now integrated with the image itself, and so this text is only maintained once and called together with the Schema, wherever the Schema is used.
    • Secondly, further use of the dedicated Schema Notes page that had already been developed earlier (in 2023) with FMC00.147. The Schema Notes page can be called directly from the published Schema: if the Schema number appears as bold, such a Schema Notes page exists.
  • Feb-Mar 2024
    • approaching and reaching Schema number 600, a sort of milestone after the Schema 400 mark end 2021. Not that there is any meaning to it, it's just a good point to reflect and look back before moving on again. At 400 a recap was held to inventorise and check the basis, resulting in the PPT/PDF pack and XLS inventory made downloadeable end 2021.
    • In these two years
      • between 400 and 600 many important Schemas that were missing were uploaded. Some not in their ideal or final state, but because they are needed as part of the basis
      • many new topic pages were added, existing pages were elaborated and some much improved, others were removed to optimize the structure. Examples of rather well worked out pages are eg Human races and Druidic and Trotten mysteries.
      • with some 530 content pages and 800 schemas, it has become clear it is the all about the quality that matters, not the number of pages. There are a foundational number of building blocks that makes up and suffices to study the whole of spiritual science, at least as an introduction, to provide a foundation. The connections are as important as the text, or put differently: the 500 topic pages have thousands of links, and that is more effective (use of the wiki) than eg 10.000 pages of flat text (in a classical sequential document) with all those connections.
  • Aug 2024 - status and overview on site improvement work
    • this year is about updating pages that were made in the period 2020-2023, working 'closure' on the (site as a) whole and improving quality, consistency and completeness of the approx. 500 topic pages which constitute the core basis. From this point of revisiting, the below describes work areas and ideas for structural improvements that are currently 'in the works'
      • as topics had been created incrementally, links and topic naming were not always available at the early stages. Reviewing old pages allows for including more and updated links and streamlining the overall structure for consistency.
      • the Discussion section
        • Notes numbering has been changed to avoid hyperlink issues with square brackets, thus requiring updates of all the links.
        • quite some notes are on the Schemas, and are to be put on dedicated Schema Notes pages.
      • the Aspects section can be developed more systematically with sub-Aspects levels (a hierarchical taxonomy) .. this was not the case from the beginning certainly for many pages where the number of bullets under aspects was limited initially, but it becomes a logical next step for more elaborate topic pages with many bullets. This is used also alongside with grouping lecture reference extracts under subheadings on a single wiki topic pages, rather than choosing for a proliferation of many pages.
      • continuous enrichment of the site contents
        • of course new topics are still being added, but also the structure is optimized for consistency, so certain initial pages have been removed and integrated or merged with others (eg etheric heart as astral recorder, Golden chain, ..)
        • addition of references extracts, quotes and aspects to all the topic pages remains an ongoing task
      • work on the Schemas
        • integrated Schema pages: updating the accompanying header texts for the Schemas, adding hyperlinks and Schema Notes pages.
        • updates to the Schemas themselves, as in some cases the resolution or formatting was not optimal for early Schemas (as the first 250 topic pages and Schemas were created and uploaded in less than two months Apr-May 2020)
        • an Schema overview reference page with a table with schema information, titles and direct links
    • updates being prepared of existing features/documents:
      • the Schema inventory - to publish all JPGs upto Schema number 600 in a downloadable zip archive
      • great journey of humanity - update of PDF with key Schemas as many new ones have been added
    • furthermore, it has become clear that, within those 500-600 wiki topic pages, one can gather clusters of related pages that constitute a logical bundle; an overall overview with a number of these groupings (study fields) are being prepared to allow another meta or mid-level of navigation for the site as a whole, and also because study often requires spanning multiple topic pages in a broader context than just a single page. This idea was there from the beginning when the wiki was set up in 2020 (re semantic wiki).
  • 2024: another new volume GA265A of the GA2025 was published, containing new materials never available before, and some in process of being integrated on this site, example of which Schema FMC00.629 and FMC00.630.
  • December 2024: the Semantic Mediawiki has been extended to include titles, types and additional metadata for the 850 Schemas on this FMC wiki site, thus enabling more powerful searches (to be enabled in the future for all users). See also the new Schema listing. This was the technical upload on the basis of a normalized XL file.

2025

  • March 2025 - a short note, five years after the start of the FreeManCreator wiki in March 2020
    • a few statistics figures contain the story of the work done those five years: 26.400 edits since the site was set up, or an average of 14,9 edits per page. And this on the current 562 content pages and 1060 uploaded files (mainly reference Schemas but also PDFs). Coincidentally, this is also an average of 14,5 edits per day over the 1825 days of those five years of my life.
    • also .. for those who would be interested in this, and have an appetite for rigorous study .. I have updated and bundled what I believe is an essential cornerstone for a good understanding of the spiritual worldview, centered around a picture Rudolf Steiner used on at least eight occasions (maybe more, let me know). See: Lemniscatory time and space#physical reality as a projection. If one puts the seven Schemas listed next to eachother, and studies the various lectures (in full, in depth), something ought to dawn 🙂 It is about: infinity in the physical world: the ouroboros, alpha and omega (IAO), Pi .. from which follows an understanding of light, time and space. (indeed - an amazing 'big ticket' scope). Such exercise is also a nice example for gaining respect for the depth of a symbol used for no less than six millenia in the ancient Mysteries, and that was part of so many different cultures of humanity that we have somewhere been part of.
    • what else?
      • certain pages have proven double-up, so have been included/merged with other pages as they didn't fit the overall structural site logic
      • multiple 'stub' pages have been started that have mainly been initialized but not developed further
      • in hindsight, the square bracket numbering for Discussion Notes was removed, requiring many link updates in references
  • review of first five years:
    • foundation has been established, both in terms of stable platform, contents architecture/structure/design, and base contents with some 560 topic pages, 900 schema images and 150 PDFs .. that is truly an extendeable working foundation, meaning it works for users and for content management: it is scaleable for gradual further continuous enrichment
    • areas of improvement (work for the years ahead, to develop the FMC wiki resource further)
      • clean up the narratives (prev. called: 'lessons') that are now embedded in the Discussion Notes, and not worked, mostly they are first drafts still to be truly developed structurally (in terms of didactic flow) and edited. These also could do with the long anticipated multimedia movies as a 'guided walkthrough' with voiceover over schemas and key contents sections
      • topic pages
        • aspects were dynamically developed as the content developed organically, but never structurally reviewed for consistency .. a common taxonomy or streamlining in the use of levels might be useful
        • also as focus has been on developing the contents underneath, references and schemas etc .. the topic text itself is not really optimally written or tuned, and could be greatly improved.
        • note this work requires a revisiting of several hundreds of pages in a systematic way, needs to be planned project-wise, and given all the other work, this is why it did not happen naturally, but we work make small incremental improvements
      • develop the study areas (also an idea since the very beginning of the FMC work, but not yet implemented on the wiki)
      • the question remains regarding page titles vs contents covered
      • further improvement work needed
        • not all Schemas use the SMW referencing on the pages (still schema descriptions from page(s) to be added to SMW)
        • inconsistent support of 'trials' such as Music section on pages
        • updating the approach of Study Modules (to be linked with study areas and narratives/lessons)
  • April 2025
    • message via email and personal facebook page:

      I hereby want to launch an invitation and open request to readers and users of the Free Man Creator wiki. To those who would be willing to kindly spend some of their personal time to contribute by providing feedback. I am interested and looking for people who would be willing to act as proof-readers for some of my writings, more specifically the narratives and discussion notes on the Free Man Creator wiki. Due to circumstances, I had the opportunity lately to have been writing a lot, and also reviewing the work of the first five years. However there is so much work on the FMC wiki, and I am putting down quite a lot as train of thoughts, without any editing or polishing. Therefore readability is most probably quite suboptimal, limiting future broad useability as building blocks .. and I lack feedback whether what I wrote is at all clear and making sense as intended. This is the kind of feedback I am now looking for. To get both general impressions and very candid honest feedback and reader advice to constructively improve these building blocks as work in progress. Why? there are now two years left to conclude the first seven year phase on the FMC wiki. In this time I would like to aggregate and bind together much that has been developed .. to reach a form of closure. So it can form a decent resource that can be used in the future. .. well I guess I need to say a few words about this then .. From a personal perspective, my journey has been that I got acquainted with and studied anthroposophy in the period Jan-2013 to Jan-2020, so seven years. I did this rather intensely and systematically, and in the next seven years wanted to give something back. That is this period Mar-2020 to Mar-2027. In the next seven years I would like - as a vision - if life allows, to take a next step and lecture or teach using this resource and all the materials developed, in other words bring this live and interactive. That is, of course, on the assumption that I'll be able to use the building blocks, and the narratives and discussion notes are the embryonal stage for this. There is a feeling of wanting to come full circle in this personal vision with three cycles of seven years. With this, I wanted to also give you the personal reason underlying this question. That this is not a selfish but a selfless request, as the intent and goal is to give back to the world.

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