The Ultimate Guide to the Vampire Church
The Vampire Church website is an amazing tool. Through the talents and dedication of a single man, Damien Daville, the site has come to archive the writings and articles of many. Nowhere on the planet will you find as much information and as many available resources on real vampirism.
When I first started reading the Vampire Church website, I was impressed. Much later, when I became a VC Council member, I made it a point to re-read the whole site and the amount of information blew me away. That was almost two years ago and the Vampire Church site has grown considerably in almost every way since then.
This month the website review column presents a guide to this working, growing resource …the Ultimate Guide to the Vampire Church.
Dogma Free Graphics Zone
http://vampire-church.com/pageweb48.html
Right from the password-protected front door, you can tell that this is not just your average vampire website. The site layout is clean, well organized with the links clearly labeled and all working. What you don't see impresses me as much as what you do see. You don't see the dogmatic use of Halloween imagery. No spinning skulls, no flaming ankhs, no blood of Dracula dripping type fonts and no over use of the colors black & red. The site is thoughtfully laid out and indexed with just a hint of a masculine style. While currently a dark twilight gray, which my old grey eyes find a restful color, the VC website has been several colors in its various incarnations, including all white.
FAQ's - Membership - Philosophy - Associates - Council
http://vampire-church.com/purpose.html
Right underneath the title block headers on the site is a horizontal listing of some of the most inquired about topics on the VC website. Membership - Philosophy - Associates - Council. The links found under these headings act as the FAQ section of the Vampire Church website. The Philosophy page is particularly interesting. There is no heavy list of rules on what to do or believe. It simply and elegantly states the purpose of the site, asks that you keep an open mind and do not harm. Here again what you don't see is as important as what you do. There is no imposed power structure, no heavy list of do's & don'ts and no listing of who is or is not welcome, etc.
The other areas are a bit more on the informational side. Many want to know how to become a VC member or Associate. The Council section answers the who's who inquiries laying out a simple guide of who the current Council members are and what each has for duties.
THE Index
Down the left side of the page is the index of the VC website. Consisting of 47 links to other pages, there are some genuine gems here. The VC index is an incredible resource tool! Anything and everything is there. I encourage exploring it in depth.
Want to find a local group in your area? Contact the offline representative local to you.
http://vampire-church.com/offices.html
Maybe thinking of joining the Vampire Church e-list? Both a link for the list is here and so is the link for the e-list posting guidelines.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VampireChurch
http://vampire-church.com/rules.html
Where can you get a Vampire Church t-shirt?
http://vampire-church.com/tshirts.html
Or maybe you want to post a Personals ad?
http://pub25.bravenet.com/classified/show.php?usernum=2133926250&cpv=2
Everything you always you wanted to know about vampirism and more is here within these links. I encourage you to explore each to its fullest.
Vampirism Info Info Info
Main E-List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VampireChurch
Message Boards
http://p078.ezboard.com/bvampirechurch
Lets face it what you probably came to the Vampire Church site searching for is information. Well the VC has much to offer. The archives on the Vampire Church website are in a word incredible. There is so much information and discussion on real vampirism archived on the various parts of this site it is simply amazing. The VC main e-list alone has nearly 65,000 post on real vampirism archived. That is sixty-five THOUSAND!! And that does not include the several thousand posts all categorized by topic located on the Vampire Church Message Boards. Wow.
Then there are the archives. Here you will find some real meat of the information on the real vampirism. Not just one archive either - three different locations all giving you a hefty does of real info.
Vampirism Help
http://members.tripod.com/Darksyre
Over thirty articles on vampirism basics all written by Damien Daville are archived on this portion of the Vampire Church website. With such titles as Understanding Vampirism , Health for the Vampire , Misconceptions of Vampirism , Safe Bloodplay and more I am sure you will find much information of interest. Here is my advice … visit here often. Read everything - its worth the effort.
VC Magazine Archives
http://vampire-church.com/zinearticles.doc
http://vampire-church.com/zineinterviews.doc
Archived in this section of the website is every article and every interview every written for VC Magazine. Here is the cool thing - not only are there years worth or articles - they are indexed. Yup, that is right no having to wade thru year after year of back issues. You can easily find what you want. Need to do some study on meditation? There are many different views and articles available to help. Or maybe you want to know more about one of the VC Council or Associate members? What better way to learn more than to read their own words as they are interviewed? These two areas of the site are truly wealthy with information.
Let's Talk
One of the driving forces behind the Vampire Church is the encouragement of communication. The VC fulfills that goal in a variety of ways. Offered are 2 chat rooms -a Mini Post Board for quick messages - 3 different e-lists open to the public - an e-list for under 18 discussions and Message Boards where subjects are broken down by an extensive list of topics. Wow! That is a lot of opportunity to talk about vampirism.
Mini Post Board
The Mini Post Board is easy to find - that is the one on the right hand side of the main page. It is a place to post a quick message or hello for all to see. It is kind of like sticking a virtual Post-It note on the VC front page for all to see that day.
VC Chat Room
http://www.network54.com/Chat/34192
The VC Chat Room is a great place for light discussions and you never know will drop by. It is a good place to meet a few friends for a quick discussion or find a Council or Associate member and ask them a few quick questions. You do need to register in order to participate in the room, but with several hundred registered users, I am sure you will come to love the place for quick group chats. There is no need to download additional software here, this chat room is build directly into the VC website. Login and you are there.
mIRC Chat Room
http://vampire-church.com/mirc1.html
This the larger of the Vampire Church chat forums. It runs on the stable Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chat system. It can accommodate large groups of users logging in via different servers from all over the world. You will need to download a free some free software to use this room but it is more than worth the effort. The Vampire Church chat room is located on the Undernet servers at #vampiretopics This is the place that all the VC discussions, meetings and classes are held. The info link on the VC webpage give you downloading instructions, meetings and discussion class times & topics. This also is another place that you will find VC Council members and Associates on a regular basis.
Arts & Balance
Before you think the Vampire Church website is all heavy and serious, take a look at its softer side. The VC has long supported the arts. A talented poet, writer and visual illustrator, webmaster and founding guru Damien Daville built into the site venues for the self expression of others. What this does is add a complex layer of grace and balance to the VC site. There is an e-list just dedicated to poetry, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VCPoetry as well as a poetry section to the VC Message Boards. There is also a poetry galley section http://vampire-church.com/vcpoetrygallery.html and sections of VC Magazine dedicated every month to original poetry and short stories. http://www.vcmagazine.net
Visually you will find much richness as well. There is a permanent art galley section http://vampire-church.com/vcartgallery.html , an original art galley section and original cartoon in every issue of VC Magazine and the cover / background work for the magazine is all original work. Not to be left out, in this rich layering of the arts, is music. Every month VC Magazine reviews some of the best dark original music out there today. The reviews always include live links where you can sample the sounds of the artists. In the mood for some soothing relaxing sounds? The main page of the Vampire Church website may have just what you need. There under the heading Select Music you will find thirty-one clips of darker relaxing classics.
Fine Details
There is so much more on the Vampire Church website that I would need to go on for many, many more pages if I wanted to just briefly touch on it all. But for the sake of space I will just encourage you to explore the whole site in depth. I am going to leave you here with some links to what makes this site stand out as unique - it's the small details that count.
Free Dark Fonts that can be downloaded
http://vampire-church.com/fonts.html
Regional E-Lists for Texas & the Mid-Atlantic
http://vampire-church.com/TVA.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/M_V_A
The Purpose and Philosophy of the Vampire Church - in Spanish
http://vampire-church.com/spanish.html
Information on Community
http://vampire-church.com/organ.html
The Vampire Church website is truly a unique resource and tool, given as a gift the vampire community by one man. Thanks Damien for devoting so much of your talents and efforts to making and keeping the Vampire Church a haven and resource for all that come through your web doors.
Until next time.
Veritatem dies aperit.
LA. Judge