...a few thoughts on communities

[john k-n]

I wrote a fairly lengthy post on Ello about the Ello Ambient community - my past involvement with communities back to usenet and mailing lists - and point people to here at Ambient Online as well as Hypnos as good places to be.

If you have thoughts, comments, etc... and you don't use Ello - no problem - post them here. I like it here, too.

https://ello.co/johnkochnorthrup/post/JKwqMj1qrt3wAP6wzBkrsA

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

Good stuff! Read your post twice, for clarity.

You've definitely got your finger on the pulse...that's for sure. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds!

You wrote all that on a lunch break? Your stream of consciousness to print speed is pretty high, I must say!

Cheers,
-S1gns

[john k-n]

I wanted to put a screenshot of here in the post - but it looked similar to Hypnos so decided not to.

Sadly - I can't find any screenshots of the ning at work - I think I purged my photos! (I have some at home).

I'm rather excited to see a post from Anna - as she's the head of the communities at Ello.

I've decided I'm just going to spread myself around more... I used to only focus on the rM.ning and pretty much nothing else. I have friends on twitter who won't move... friends on Hypnos who won't move... etc...

...and like you and I have both said over the years... it's really one big huge community with outposts here and there - like here at AO and over at electro-music and the various people on facebook - and some that love soundcloud.

Yes - I write far too fast and far too much!

John

[DarkenedPines]

Never heard of this before, but ill join an ambient community. Its the only way for me to discover other artists and see whats happening in the world with ambient music.

[synkrotron]

I have a general problem with "communities," in that, I prefer to stay in one place and find I spread myself a bit thin if I try to "fit in" within lots of different ones.

Some communities are damn hard to settle into... Some appear to be more friendly than others.

This is the first time I have joined a forum based on a specific genre of music. So far, so good... It's a bit quiet, but I actually prefer the quieter forums because it is easier to keep up with things. And there is still plenty of inspiration here. I've created more pieces in my short time here than at any other time, and that has to be good.


As for ello... I'm not sure I get it. I mean, I like the look of the place, from what little I have seen it since it has been mentioned here, but is it like a blog? Perhaps I should join up and just see what happens...


edit:-

Okay... I've signed up with ello... What happens now :biggrin:

[Sky High Diamonds]

Okay... I've signed up with ello... What happens now :biggrin:

Very little in my experience of Ello! I struggle to navigate it too. I don't find it that user friendly :frown:

[john k-n]

It's admittedly a little hard to get around Ello at first. Try to remember the first time you used Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, etc... it takes a little getting used to.

If you click your profile picture and click the "wtf" link... there's a ton of help there. Here's a direct link: https://ello.co/wtf/

Or - just ask me.

Key thing - just like on twitter ... if you don't follow anybody - you'll just see a stark white screen.

[synkrotron]

I'm trying to get into ello... I guess it's a time thing for me... Val, (my wife) can get so annoyed looking at my back while I'm typing away on my keyboard "all day." Either that or I'm in Sonar de-composing . I need to manage my time, and I'm not doing that very well at the moment...

[sup909]

Nice post over there. I have not heard of Ello until just now. Perhaps it is worth looking into.

Communities is a complicated issue. I was an assistant admin over at Serious-Sounds.net when it was in its hayday and before that at Samplecity.net.

The success of any community comes down to the personal nature of the members in it. Over at Serious-sounds.net I made some true friends online that I am still in contact with to this day. In part is was because the community was able to mimic some of the social interactions one would have in a real life social setting. We held live sunday DJ broadcasts with a shoutcast channel while we would all hangout in an SLSK chat room sharing samples and just talking. We would play games on Xbox live together.

No other community has been able to mimic that and I think that core development of social interactions, not just the "doing business" method of Q&A that most forums do is what really lead to the creation of some musical relationships in those communities.

[aoVI]

One of the most joyful online communities I have been involved with was in World of Warcraft. My son and I played from his early teens right up into his twenties, and eventually even my daughter joined in. I spent years playing and just semi-retired a couple of weeks ago.

(apologies for those not familiar with Warcraft)

I was part of the administration for an all-Tauren (basically minotaurs, culture similar to native american) casual roleplaying and world PVP (fighting other players, campaigns, etc.) guild for about 7 years called Thunderhoof Clan. For our server, we were the Tauren nation. We ran our guild adhering to a set of principals called The Code of Honor. We were known for honorable battle and respect for all, even our enemies.

I spent years as the guild's Minister, responsible for everything from the guild forums to recruitment, to liaison with other guilds, including the dirty alliance. In time I took up the Chieftain's headdress and after a couple of years, have turned it over to another, as is tradition. I was the fourth Chieftain of Thunderhoof. I played a Shaman.

I think the focus of our organization being honorable play and fair and open-mindedness made me so much more aware of it in an online setting. It colored who I am as a person, and I believe much for the better.

One of the reasons I like this community is it is similar in its atmosphere. People serious and intent on what they are doing, yet having fun, being civil, and helpful. Taking an interest in each other's goals and experiences.

[Sky High Diamonds]

It's admittedly a little hard to get around Ello at first. Try to remember the first time you used Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, etc... it takes a little getting used to.

If you click your profile picture and click the "wtf" link... there's a ton of help there. Here's a direct link: https://ello.co/wtf/

Or - just ask me.

Key thing - just like on twitter ... if you don't follow anybody - you'll just see a stark white screen.

Thank you but I just don't seem to want to pursue Ello. I will stick to Fb and Instagram where I am on familiar territory!

[synkrotron]

Okay... I've signed up with ello... What happens now :biggrin:

I have just deleted my ello account.

For starters, I was getting fed up with their weekly spam anyway.

I logged on today in order to see if I could turn off the spam and, you can.

But while I was there I had a look at my notifications and I had apparently started following a load of people. Since first signing up to Ello I followed a couple of people from the AO forum, and that was it. I can only guess that someone had hacked into my account there.

So, for that reason I thought, "I'm outa here..."

[john k-n]

OH sheesh - I just found this. :-)

I went inactive on Ello for nearly a year - but ended up going back to it. I also tried using Nimzy (BRIEFLY!) as they went toes up literally 10 days after creating a "new relaxed machinery community" there.

I've decided to join in here and make Ambient Online my community home. Yeah - I'm not running things and have no say in it - and that's perfectly fine. I think S1gnsOfL1fe and the admins and mods here are excellent and I respect what they've built up over the years.

I still like Ello though I'm not a fanatic like I was... And it's heavily heavily HEAVILY weighted to visual creativity... I still curate https://ello.co/elloambient - mainly just because there's a group of people there I've come to like talking to - and i've recommended they come here.

Also - the original founders of Ello pretty much left. All the people I loved at least. It's not the same. synkrotron 's experience is common.

[synkrotron]

I've decided to join in here and make Ambient Online my community home. Yeah - I'm not running things and have no say in it - and that's perfectly fine. I think S1gnsOfL1fe and the admins and mods here are excellent and I respect what they've built up over the years.

That's good news John and this place is a real nice place to set up shop, for sure

[seismic1]

Three of my last 4 followers on Ello have been stunningly attractive ladies, apparently. They never post anything except for a profile pic, and usually disappear within a couple of weeks. Almost like real life.