These are answers to some of the more common questions we’ve heard over the years;
The Circle of Steel has a number of applicable meanings to us. In it's broadest sense, this is the arc described by the tip of a sword held out-stretched as a man turns in place, the extent within which he is the absolute master of his destiny.
When two men stand together, the circle is expanded as each guards the other's back, and a space is made between them for that which they value. It is also the ring of shining steel formed when men stand upon the wall, protecting and maintaining those who shelter within their strength and determination.
It is likened to the unyielding adamant symbol of ownership which adorns the pretty neck of a kajira.
It is the name of our community here, taken for all those reasons and all they imply.
The Circle of Steel Community is comprised of like-minded Goreans who share the same basic understanding of what the Gorean philosophy is, and have determined to live it in their daily lives, and have chosen to stand together. Free men and women, and their property, who are capable and willing to assert their place and build it and maintain it. Not all who visit here are of the Circle of Steel community, but some may well join if they discover that they are of like-mind and mettle.
Yes, with caveats. A kajira is property, her primary instruction should come to her from her owner. If she posts here, she requires the permission of her owner to do so. Not only will she be held accountable for her words, but so too will her owner. To this end, before a kajira can post here, her owner needs to come, look it over to see if this venue is suitable for his property, and drop us a message stating that the kajira has his permission to post here, along with a way to contact him should there be an issue in the future. The collar is a symbol of ownership, and when ownership is taken seriously and actively maintained, the collar has meaning and value. We will accept nothing less at the Circle of Steel.
Certainly! But they should be aware that while unowned, here on the Circle of Steel they are subject to the discipline of every Free person on the site. If they are displeasing, in word or tone or attitude or action, they can and will be held to full account for it. There is one area of exception; the giving out of personal contact information. If an unowned girl wishes to do such a thing, do it elsewhere, not on the Circle of Steel. If such information is requested or demanded, refer the individual to this FAQ, and to the management if they wish further clarification on what "N-O" means. This is not a matter of choice for the unowned girl, it is our policy.
First, because we regard the contribution of one's works to be a binding contract between consenting adults. The Circle of Steel includes the statement, 'distribute', because some works are downloadable in various forms which go beyond a screen display. Second, because when you contribute your work, you are giving your word to the Circle of Steel. We consider this to be more binding than any legal document, and you will be held to it. You are expected to hold us to our word, as well.
The Gor novels were written by Dr. John Lange, PhD in Philosophy. It is worth noting that Dr. Lange was a Philosopher before he wrote the first Gor novel, and during the times when he wrote the first 26 Gor novels. A professional Philosopher, a man paid to think about, write about, and teach, philosophy. That is his context.
A bunch of gamers in AOL devised a 'language' for Gor which they named after a clan of the Wagon Peoples in the Gor novels. Most of the words in 'Kassar' are not in the Gor novels at all, and some of them are just laughable. Well, laughable until Rask of Treve finds out that someone thinks his name means, 'ass' 😉 . Generally speaking, use of any of the 'Kassar language' is an excellent way to proclaim that you're an idiot who was taught by idiots, and all of you were too lazy to pick up a Gor novel and read it for yourself. It serves a useful purpose in this regard.
All of them! The principle is that we uphold and respect the rights of ownership amongst Goreans. This is where the Circle of Steel is going to clear up the issue of copyright, applications, and a few other tricky topics. This can be a pain in the neck to understand, so this is an opportunity to be as clear as we can on it. This by no means complete or even authoritative (copyright law is pretty involved stuff); consult your local copyright lawyer if you find yourself being infringed upon, or infringing (our disclaimer!). The purpose of all copyright, trademark, and patent law is to ensure that a creator is able to be the sole beneficiary of the fruits of their creation, for a reasonable period of time before that creation is wide-spread enough that it is considered the shared property of society. It particularly applies to commercial protection; if you write a bestseller or invent a car that runs on air, you deserve to be recompensed whatever the market will bear. For example, in court, trying to sue someone who has infringed on a copyright is likely only going to be financially profitable if the infringer has made monies that should have belonged to the copyright holder, or has damaged the copyright holder's ability to profit from their own works. Caveats! Also known as 'Fair Use', the limitations on exclusive rights; Public vs Private usage. Public usage of copyrighted material is generally forbidden, while private usage is usually permitted. An example would be a DVD movie that you purchase, the law provides for a back-up copy used for your own private purposes. Another example would be owning a hardcopy book, the law provides for you to also own an electronic copy of the same book, for your own private purposes. This is also known as 'archival purposes'. Commercial vs Non-Profit. In general, you're not permitted to make money from the fruits of another's creation without a specific agreement to permit you to do so. Educational usage. Using copyrighted material for the purpose of education, and 'distance learning', is also permitted under specific conditions. Refer here to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, section 403. Amount of material used. A small portion of a work can be used for commentary, criticism, reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. What percentage is considered 'fair use'? So where does the Circle of Steel fit into this? We're a private, non-profit, educational site and organization. Do the math. It's important to understand that there's more than one degree of copyright protection available, and you have the option of choosing which is appropriate for you and your works. [b]Copyright © 2006 John Gorean, All Rights Reserved[/b] This label placed in a document indicates the most strict degree of copyright protection, and the one which most people are familiar with. What this means is that you retain full control over your work, no one else can legally copy it, modify, display it elsewhere, etc, unless you have made a deliberate agreement with them to permit them to do so (posting in the Circle of Steel constitutes just such an agreement between the author and the Circle of Steel). This is the ONLY form of copyright protection which is enforced by specific copyright law. The other category which the law enshrines is public domain. The public domain means that the work is freely available to anyone to use as they see fit. In copyright law, it's all or nothing. While this sounds nice in theory, in reality it may be a lot more than what's necessary for your work. The originators of copyright law never envisioned the modern media age and the internet, the vast wealth of information and knowledge at the average person's fingertips and the need to keep from 'reinventing the wheel' a million times over, each year, for each new work. U.S. copyright law hasn't come to grips with this issue yet, either, so a group of private citizens got together and created the Creative Commons contracts. Creative Commons. You're going to see the Creative Commons licensing more and more as time goes on, this is a really great idea and it's exactly what we've needed for modern information control. It's even being embedded within web pages, showing the reader exactly what use they can apply to what they've found. So what exactly is it? The Creative Commons website makes it very easy to understand and even easier to generate your own contract license for your work, by answering a few simple questions. The Circle of Steel strongly advocates the use of the Creative Commons licensing method for authors. The Creative Commons license permits you, the author, to decide exactly what rights you need, and under what conditions you will permit your work to be used by others. I know there's a temptation to say, "I want total control, I will relinquish no rights, no one can touch my work!", however, when we're speaking of material that's meant to teach and share ideas, especially in today's modern electronic environment, that attitude is not only very difficult to enforce, it's also selfish, self-defeating, and destructive. Creative Commons has an excellent, easy to understand website explaining how it works, how to get a custom-tailored license, and how to apply it. Additionally, you can find a good explaination of the Spectrum of Rights available to you, as well as another explaination of How it Works.
I am called LionHeart, which is the literal translation of my actual name. I am a man who walks the Gorean path.
We'll stick to the relevant parts of this little bio. I first read the Gor novels in 1978, when I was 15 years old. They were great SciFi/Fantasy reads and they began impacting my psyche and understandings from that point forward. I was 20 years old when I first met people who lived by the Gorean philosophy. They were the some of the men and women of the Tuchux, and I was adopted into the Wolverine clan. Further exploration of Gor was shortly interrupted after that by military duties and a marriage. When I resurfaced, about 10 years later, I had an incident which brought Gor flooding back to me and I embraced it, re-reading all of the books and putting everything I could to the test in reality. Almost all of it worked perfectly and made perfect sense. I count my days as a Gorean man from the time when I began to actually live by those ideals and principles in the philosophy; March of 1996.
On February 14, 1998, I decided to visit ircGor for the first time, as a gift to my kajira who had been cajoling me for a year to come see how people were playing it as a game. After some initial drama, The nickname I chose was 'Navarre', and I founded #Port_Kar after concluding that irc was a good medium to help people learn about Gor and the Gorean philosophy, particularly after seeing how so many were failing to understand what they were doing. In that spirit, I formed the House of Kar, and the Family known as Karians was born. The Gates of Port Kar remained open for 3 years, before I closed it down to push all of it's members to move forward on their own to continue to learn and grow. I included myself in that number, and that is when I set aside 'Navarre', for 'LionHeart'.
No.
Port Kar was a different community with a different purpose, geared towards teaching and training people who knew nothing of Gor other than on-line roleplay, in the hopes that they would discover it was more, and begin to live it.
The Circle of Steel is for people who already understand that there is a Gorean philosophy and are striving to live by it's principles and values. In that regard, perhaps it could be regarded as Phase III of the process of becoming Gorean. That which came before is acknowledged and accepted, but we're well beyond those early steps now.
The short answer is, no, it is not. If that's a problem, I wish you well in your internet explorations... elsewhere.
The Circle of Steel is inspired by the Gor novels. It does not seek to replace them, but rather, use them as our foundation and springboard into the reality of living our lives by the Gorean philosophy. The books, as important as they are to obtaining a foundational understanding of Gor and what it means, are bound within the fantastic imagination of John Norman. A fantasy world with fantasy species and fantasy cultures and fantasy language. The point of all that fantasy is to provide a setting to illustrate a live-able philosophy and demonstrate the value of that philosophy to us, as human beings. This is a crucial thing to understand; a philosophy is independent of culture (or world), and even of time period. It's based on principles and values which transcend the cultures which interpret those principles and values in a fashion that works for them. And that's what we do here. If something makes sense to borrow from the fantasy of Gor, we gladly do so and enjoy it's meaningfulness. If it doesn't, there's not much point in handling it other than to note that it's a fantasy artifact that has no value in the real world.