Community spells are spells and rituals, usually done by candle light, in which several members of a community participate on certain days, for a specific cause. Either on the same day, or everyone on a different day trying to cover the week. The cause is usually something important to all,such as the well being of the forum members, a cause the forum is specifically interested in (a shared god/ess, protection of nature, getting more active forum members). Some elements of those spells are always the same, like a candle, some incense; but every member adds their personal stuff to their version. When you are done you describe in a few words how it looked like for you. The cause can change over time of course.
Spelling Bees usually take up their own forum or one person to host them. In the first case several members post the spells or rituals they want to try with the help of the community, in the other case one person posts those and takes suggestions and opinions in another thread.This is usually stuff found in books or the net, but can be someone's own stuff. So for example, I want to try out a Tarot spell found in a witchy book. I will post the details, including which book it is from, and then several people try out this spell during the next few days and post their thought and possible results, including how difficult it was to get the components,or what they substituted when they could not get all that was asked for.
The idea behind this is that there are so many nice ideas in books but mostly we do our own thing anyway, which is of course how it should be, but you can also learn so much from the way others do stuff. Additionally, the stuff in books might have been tried by many not-so-experienced casters. This might give it additional flavor, as every sincerely done spell ever done leaves some imprint somewhere.
This would all be easier to do in a separate subforum,as that way everyone can post what they want to try out, but it might also get too confusing. Additionally, it may be needed to screen the spells and rituals a little, there is some nasty stuff out there which looks ok at first but when you think about it is rather vindictive.
Just some ideas.
