talkmagic.co.uk

As the wonderful allmagic website has been mentioned in other threads, I will pose this question to TalkMagic members.

This week it is the "Which? online" website of the week.

Now that begs a question that is this now getting close to exposure?

Don't get me wrong. I love the allmagic site, it is one of the best looking sites, and has some great routines, hints and tips in it, but should it be promoted in a non magic arena such as "which? online".

My personal feeling is that it is doing no harm, and people not interested will soon forget anything of interest that may spoil watching magic for them at a later date. On the whole I'd rather it not be publicised in a non magic arena, as for selfish reasons I want to be the only person in the world that does any magic. But in the great scheme of things I dont think it does much harm...

I'd aggree with you there and I think the fact that it has now been "exposed" to the non-magic world is justified by the fact that is a site designed and maintained for magicians and our art. It isn't one of these disgusting "Magic Revealed" websites that simply publishes secrets.

The fact that it is now in the non-magic arena is not as big a deal as some may have and I aggree that many people who access the site will not remember the things they learn on there. Also most of the content of the site is of no use to any "lay" people because it deals with complex or technical issues of magic.

Well, my personal take on these things is that the majority of people just aren't interested in the exposure anyway.

Take for instance the Tommy Cooper shop on the main drag in Blackpool. There's a myriad of magic stuff in there, however, people were more interested in fake dog poo and rubber chickens.

The exposure aspect assumes that people will look there to make themselves magicians.

However, casual onlookers won't bother searching for long.

EG...

Don't know how many of you got this from Stuartst51@aol.com, labelled HELP in your email box
IM ONE OF THOSE NEW MAGICIANS I NO THE MYTH DONT TELL YA SECRETS TO ANY ONE BUT PLESE CAN YOU TELL ME SOME GOOD TRICKS LIKE THE SECRETSA TO THAT MAGICIAN STUART MACLEOD TO KICK ME OFF.LIKE SAY IF I HAD NOTHING IN MY HAND THEN SOMETHING CAME WITH A FLICK OF THE WRIST SAY AN OBJECT SAY A TEDDY,ROSE OR  ANYTHING .HELP ME OUT YOUR THE ONLY ONE ON THIS SITE I THOUGHT WAS HELPFUL TEACH ME PLEASE. SEND TO HOTSAUCE32@HOTMAIL.COM PLEASE I WILL BE AWAITING YOUR REPLY UNTIL I GET ONE PLEASE HELP FROM BEN C.J



I am getting tired of being asked to expose things now.
The fools who are asking are usually after a quick fix. The magic community need not worry TOO much about it I think.

It's the 'wholesale' of pirated material which I am worrying about more these days.

I think it's slight;y disturbing that it is being publicised to the non-magical populace, but I also don't think that it will not hold much of interest to the secret hunter as it doesn't reveal how TV magicians do their stuff.

nickj wrote:I think it's slight;y disturbing that it is being publicised to the non-magical populace, but I also don't think that it will not hold much of interest to the secret hunter as it doesn't reveal how TV magicians do their stuff.

The whole debate on what's right and wrong to speak about in public has many avenues. And being fair, a lot of them lead to one route—which is inevitably a dead-end.

Exposure to the public of the allmagic site really shouldn't do any harm. After all, it doesn't expose anything which could be of a great deal of use.

As mentioned, it's technically comprehensive for starters. And secondly, it's also put together in magician's 'geek-speak'.

Amazon sell much more revealing stuff than this, and a simple Google search would be of more use to anyone interested in finding secrets.

A doubled edged sword or what? Nice to know you're the site of the week or whatever but I share the concerns about advertising this resource any wider! Since the only things they 'reveal' are their own original routines and ideas, they aren't actually doing anything iffy. If they made it a hidden site or had some sort if password system then their advertisers would be more than peeved.

As has been mentioned the public at large won't be all that interested as a lot of it is in trade jargon and, unless you're into magic in the first place, you won't get a lot out of it except the very short and momentary knowledge of how something is done. Their Reviews and correspondence pages are always worth reading so long may Allmagic continue but perhaps 'Which?' ought to leave them alone for a couple of hundred years!

mmm...

I'm caught on this one.

I agree that this kind of resource is, to our industry (or profession or hobby or whatever) a bit of a nightmare, what with revealing secrets etc. I think that we are however pretty safe, in that, as said before in the thread, it is written in our 'geek speak.'

BUT, secrets revealed or not, this kind of exposure to the mainstream may be seen as a good thing for magic. It's a professional site - not a 'secrets-revealed' or 'Masked Magician' type site. There will be people that look at allmagic and admire it for what it is, a great website; there will be others that look, find out a few secrets, show their mates this new-found magic, but badly, and so do no more; and there will be those who, as a result of seeing this fantastic site, take a genuine interest in magic, the secrets within and get involved in this wonderful magic community that we all know and love (to different extents!).

Personally, I think those wanting to find out secrets don't last too long before they either give up or are hooked properly like us. Those admiring the site will simply click back to Google and find something else that interests them, and the others, well, they become fellow mages, and we welcome them with open arms.

Spread the word, brothers and sisters!!!

(by the way, I apologise for the use of semicolons in this post. My old English teacher will be ever so proud...)

For those who visit Allmagic each week for the latest routine, this week there are two of them - must be a seasonal bonus!