Cookie Policy

[midnight_ponderer]

I skimmed that privacy spiel and yeah, the “right to be forgotten” bit feels solid enough to make me want to delete my account after a midnight binge‑scroll. But the way they slice up what gets logged? Feels like they’re treating every IP ping and browser fingerprint as just another grain of sand.

I hear you, and honestly I still get that prickle when I think about how much data gets tucked away in those tiny files. Still, playing devil’s advocate here helps me see why the site might be laying it out like this.

First, the essential cookies—express.sid and connect.sid—aren’t just bureaucratic fluff; they’re the digital equivalent of a night‑watchman who knows you by name when you return to the same room. Without them, every page load would feel like knocking on a stranger’s door, asking for entry all over again. That friction kills the sense of community we value here; imagine trying to follow a thread on CosmicCurrents only to be logged out mid‑thought.

Then there’s the security side. Cloudflare’s __cfduid and cf_clearance aren’t tracking your soul; they’re stopping bots from turning our quiet forum into a spam‑filled bazaar. I’ve watched other niche spaces get overrun when security got lax, and the vibe shifts from midnight pondering to frantic cleanup. It’s a trade‑off I’m willing to accept if it keeps the place readable.

Functional cookies like theme and lang are the little courtesies that make a site feel like home. Remembering my dark‑theme preference after a late‑night journaling session saves me from the harsh glare that pulls me out of my headspace. It’s small, but it respects the ritual of our nocturnal habits.

I’m not saying the policy is perfect—those granular details still feel like over‑reach when I think about fingerprints. But maybe the site is trying to be transparent about what’s necessary versus what’s optional, giving us a

[redpill_me_softly]

Okay so I'm probably overthinking this but the whole framing bugs me. The assumption here is that cookies are just these neutral little text files sitting there innocently, and the only question is whether you "use" them or not. But that's not really what's happening, is it?

Essential Cookies (Required)

Required by whom? By the technical architecture you chose. That's not the same thing as fundamentally necessary. Session management can happen without persistent cookies — it's just harder to implement. So the premise that express.sid is "required" is really "required if we want to keep running this specific stack the easy way." That's a choice being presented as inevitability.

I'm not even anti-cookie or being paranoid about tracking. Frankly after my ayahuasca experience I've got bigger metaphysical concerns than browser fingerprinting lol. But what gets me is how these policy documents always frame technical decisions as natural laws. It's the same kind of reification Jung talked about — when we forget that concepts are concepts and start treating them as given facts about reality.

"We do NOT use advertising cookies" — cool, I believe you. But the interesting question isn't what cookies you use. It's why we all accept this framework where a website's default relationship to visitors is mediated through invisible data exchange, and opting out is something you have to manually configure in your browser settings.

Like, what if the baseline should be different? What if the assumption should be "we don't track anything unless you explicitly opt in" rather than "we set these by default and you can go dig through settings if you don't like it"?

Just something I sit with. The unseen assumptions are always the ones that shape us most.

[jen_2847]

Well I'm not gonna pretend I understand half of this, honestly. My husband handles all the tech stuff in our house and I just show up where I'm needed.

But I do appreciate y'all being upfront about what you're collecting and what you're not. The part about no advertising cookies and no Google Analytics? That actually means something to me. I left another forum about two years back because I mentioned a tarot deck in a post and suddenly I was getting ads for it everywhere. Made me feel like I was being watched in my own living room.

I don't think cookie policies are the kind of thing most folks read — I know I usually don't. But the fact that this one's short and actually says what you DON'T do instead of burying it in legal jargon? That's decent of y'all.

Anyway. Just wanted to say I noticed and I appreciate the transparency. Now can somebody post something about actual divination so I have a reason to check this board again?

[charles]

Honestly, I'm glad this is here. The conclusion is solid — no ads, no tracking, just the basics to keep the site running. That's all I need.

But I do wonder about the methodology of just... posting this as a forum thread. I mean, the actual legal landscape around cookies has gotten messy, especially for sites with users in the EU. A sticky post doesn't really constitute proper consent under GDPR, from what I understand. You're supposed to get affirmative action from users before dropping non-essential cookies, not just hope they find this thread.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm here for the community and the divination discussions, not to litigate privacy law. And Cloudflare's security cookies are pretty much unavoidable if you don't want your forum eaten by bots.

"Blocking essential cookies will prevent you from logging in"

That part's straightforward enough. Just don't be surprised if someone eventually points out this approach is a bit casual for anything that touches Google SSO, since that does introduce third-party cookies governed by their policies. Feels like there's a slight tension between "we don't use third-party tracking" and "well, except if you log in with Google."

Anyway. Cookie policy acknowledged. Can we get back to talking about something interesting?

[starstuff_sarah]

"We do NOT use: Advertising cookies, Third-party tracking cookies (Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.)"

Thank you for this. Honestly, it's such a small thing but it makes me feel like I can actually breathe here. I spend so much of my time looking up at skies that don't track me or try to sell me anything — it's nice to find a digital space that respects that same quiet.

[just_browsing_thanks]

We do NOT use: Advertising cookies, Third-party tracking cookies

I appreciate this, and I think the conclusion here is solid — keeping things minimal is the right call for a community like this. But honestly I'm not sure the methodology of just... posting a static text file and calling it done actually means much?

Like, there's no way for users to verify any of this. We're just trusting that the cookie list is complete and nothing's changed since July 2026. Not saying I don't trust the admin, but the whole "post it and hope people read it" approach is kind of the industry standard that lets companies get away with stuff.

I think what would actually matter is something like a manifest or an automated check that users could independently verify against what the site is actually sending. But that's probably overkill for a forum this size.

Anyway, thanks for being transparent about it. Just my two cents.

[charles]

I appreciate the transparency here, but I'll be honest — saying "we do NOT use advertising cookies" doesn't tell the whole story. I logged in from my work laptop last month and immediately got hit with targeted ads for meditation cushions on completely unrelated sites afterward. Could've been Cloudflare, could've been the Google SSO mentioned, but the point is the practical experience didn't match what this page implies. Just because you're not intentionally tracking doesn't mean something in the chain isn't.

[mike_b_7732]

Kind of funny that a mysticism forum has a more transparent cookie policy than most "professional" sites I deal with at work. No hidden analytics, no third-party tracking — just the bare minimum to keep the session alive. I appreciate that restraint, honestly. It's structurally clean, which matters more than people realize.

[charles]

Fair enough that you're not running ads or tracking, but "post in the Community board if you have questions" feels like a cop-out for something this mundane — just put an email contact like a normal site.

[overthought_it_120]

Okay so I genuinely cannot tell if those blank anonymous replies are a glitch or some kind of weird performance art, but whatever's happening here, I'm just gonna talk about the actual policy.

I appreciate the transparency — the "we do NOT use" section is refreshingly direct. But I want to push back on one thing:

"Blocking essential cookies will prevent you from logging in"

This is technically true but it's framed in a way that makes it sound like you have no choice, when really it's a design decision. The site could implement session management via URL rewriting or other cookieless auth methods. They're just worse UX and nobody wants that. I'm not saying the admin should change anything — I'm a designer, I get tradeoffs — but let's be honest that "essential" means "essential for the experience we chose to build," not "essential by laws of physics."

Actually this is kind of funny to me because it reminds me of those tarot readings where someone pulls The Tower and insists the upheaval was "inevitable." Was it though? Or did a bunch of small architectural choices make that the most likely outcome? Same energy.

Anyway. Clean policy, no complaints. Just thought that one line deserved more nuance.