Background: Why the Access Restriction?

It is important to note that the purpose of STRUG is not to become 'exclusive' or anything like that. It has come into existence out of necessity. It's a combination of a number of developments that made this move painfully inevitable, and I'll cite below two major ones...

1. Etemenanki has experienced a chronic plagiarism problem - people basically taking texts/ideas from Etemenanki and present them elsewhere as their own. I'm not sure why, but apparently Etemenanki has that 'something' that makes some people want to just go ahead and take advantage of the place. This being the wild wild Internet, I've been quite tolerant of such bad manners. But there is certainly a limit. For me, the limit was recently not only reached but shattered into thousand pieces. This was when I found out that there was a radio host - not some obscure internet radio but a bona fide, metioned-in-Wikipedia radio station - who had gone WAY BEYOND mere plagiarism. He was stealing my material like there was no tomorrow! So extreme, in fact, it boggles the mind... it boggled my mind for sure.
   
   Turns out, this unbelievably unprofessional host (to put it mildly) had been using my writings and ideas on his own weekly show, presenting them as his own ideas and words. Hours upon hours of airtime filled and sold by him reading directly from my articles, often word for word! AND he was inserting just enough extra comments so as to transform the information into his propaganda piece, quite divorced from the original spirit of the information. I couldn't believe my ears - but he was doing this and I have recordings to prove it. (I plan to post them soon.) In a recent show, this parasite read my articles on the air verbatim (with some propaganda comments inserted) for two straight hours - and not once did he even hint that he was reading someone else's words/ideas (or for that matter that he was even reading). He was actually doing his best to pretend that those were all his words! Worse, he's been doing this for months! (At least...) This is clearly illegal, and yes, I have contacted him and the radio station, and their response so far has been shockingly unapologetic. They were making money off my original work and they didn't seem to care much that I found out. (And I need to thank one of the listeners who notified me of this activity.) Apparently, I am - Etemenanki is - just a weak, minor figure asking to be taken advantage of.
   
   Well, that was it. That definitely crossed the line for me. If posting more information online means feeding this parasite and the like, and their agenda, can you blame me for feeling less like sharing?
   
   I mean, what would you expect? It's a miracle that I haven't sued him (yet). Remember, this guy was/is illegally making profit off my labor, using and twisting what I have written. They saw an obscure website with way-out-of-the-box ideas and they decided to take advantage of it. They decided it was to be used for their own agenda and deserved zero respect.
   
   Now being fully aware of this situation, and realizing that this is a clear enough trend that will just continue on, I knew it was time to make some changes. Time to go more 'underground'. Parasites out there trying to feed on Etemenanki... No, I refuse to take this disrespect. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, as Newton once said... and STRUG is the natural reaction to the mind-bogglingly disrespectful action. STRUG is here so that eventually I wouldn't even have to think about utter ugliness like this.
   
   To be sure, Etemenanki will certainly continue its activities despite the parasites, but perhaps in a more filtered way or somewhat less frequently. The important thing is, now there is a place where information can be shared more privately and easily without worrying about parasitic activities.
   
   

2. Another major reason for setting up STRUG arises from the 'way-out-of-the-box', multicontextual nature of Etemenanki and the intensification of the 'Super Torch Ritual' reporting.
   
   First of all, I'm a slow writer - especially when writing a lengthy piece. Second, due to the aggressively multicontextual nature of the findings, even making one small point would usually have to involve a lengthy discourse on all the underlying, interlocking contexts (which are growing more and more in complexity). Otherwise new visitors wouldn't be able to understand or, worse, many of them would quickly conclude that Etemenanki is just a mindless, one-dimensional 'connect the dots' sites. Third, these days I'm having to write increasingly more often in order to keep up with all the developments.
   
   Combine all that, and you have an unsustainable situation. Too time-consuming; too repetitive; too little financial support; and just too... much. And did I mentioned parasites?

A members-only format, in the form of a companion site, has thus emerged as an effective solution to all these and other developing problems. It may even be the only way to deal with the situation. And so all in all it was a no-brainer. This was needed - thus we now have STRUG in existence. Simple as that.

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