So the old ball and chain, after having taken 90% of all the profits of her authors, wants more. That's understandable. In a book on how to write a book by the author John Braine, he writes that it is quite often those that renounce materialism are in fact the most materialistic of all. I had this with the Commie Café I used to work at as a musician, and now with these people. I have issued my ultimatum, Vlad the Invader style. She'll just have to accept it, or not.
My old school coder friend got back to me, which is awesome - despite his conspiracy nonsense - (security is a big issue, not to mention years of technical knowledge - university trained). This brings some more options to the table.
The chances are, the old ball and chain won't take the bait. This is not actually a big issue. The way things are going, the chances are that Taiwan won't even exist soon (certainly in the form it is in now), so that's a bonus, in an odd kind of way. There will be a vacuum, and no one there to fill it.
I'm not up for this nonsense, about how it's perfectly okay to drain the very life blood of any and all authors, just by merely formatting books and putting them up on Amazon. It is not a University, it's just another piggy back scheme.
They've already made up their minds, and idolise this person as (I quote) 'their queen', and envisage themselves as knights, unofficially, of course - they are not titled, for they belong to no nation and are not patriots - illi mundani sunt. I know full well the whole thing's a non starter. Even if they had the technical expertise to host and maintain a secure site with a front end and database behind it, they still have all sorts of legal issues, especially regarding international laws, about the issuing of qualifications.
If everyone did as this other guy did (the long haired hippie guitar player with nothing but a high-school education - for the record, I have long hair, and have been a hippie guitar player for several years - before becoming educated) there would be no schooling, no college or university education. Home schooling is actually non schooling. I would go so far as to say that having an uneducated, uninformed teacher is actually worse than having no teacher at all. No background and no bottom. All hot air.
Besides, there are other things to think about, such as policies and procedures, the actual legal side of the business, being able to be a proper bona fides official university. These things are far beyond these people (that spend most of their time meditating). It's something called the real world. It's just business. It's neither right nor wrong, it's just the way it is. The immutable bye-laws of business: the world is a college of corporations. Never mind Rainbowland and scams. Let's talk business (in accordance with the law).
Speaking of which, there's this guy behind the scenes, and he has his own school already (two, now) - again, completely uneducated, knows all about one particular Latin author without ever having to bother to learn Latin itself! Anyway, he has a student, who is homeless. I spoke to him (he called me up) and one of the things he said was that he felt like he was giving and giving and giving (paying his dues) and receiving less and less in return. The guy's living in a van for pity's sake. He should be prioritising a deposit on a place, not paying some uneducated pretender to tutor him, and at the end of the 'course' receive no formal qualification. The whole thing's a scam.
Well, it's not actually a scam. It's fair. (Like I say, they do a lot of meditating). Yet it is not education so much as personal development coaching. It is unofficial, outside the fold.
I remember when I first contemplated going to university, and said to a friend that I'd like to become a teacher in ancient history. He said, "You don't even need a degree. All you need is a teaching qualification." (Many of these people in this 'school' have neither, by the way - though some have one out of two). To my mind, this is the opposite way around. Knowledge, having a sound knowledge base, is first and foremost primarily important, an essential criterion of being a teacher, knowing the subject matter. These people will talk all about the difference between knowledge and wisdom, yet none know the actual meaning of either word, because they have not studied languages at university. What is knowledge? Knowledge is a common noun, in actual fact. (My Germanic etymologies are about as good as my Ancient Greek: which are nowhere near as strong as my Latin or French, anyway).
In many ways, what these people do is good. It is a very deep subject, with a myriad facets. The only trouble is, it's like Latin: it's for poor people, beggars, slaves, because the people that run the show are essentially materialistic while pretending not to be. Who can blame them? Well, me, as a matter of fact. That's why I'm going 'indie' (publishing my own books, cutting them out of the loop): with a master's degree in Classical Latin: there's everything to play for (even if it is essentially a £15,000 piece of lavatory paper).
Max.
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