I’ve been reading Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, and he keeps mentioning a “Seance and Science” brigade. I love terms like that, where it’s not really clear from the name just what the thing is, but it really makes you want to find out more. The web is inundated with people who are pandering for your likes and attention, but how much more fun is it to stumble upon a “Stonecutters lodge?”
If we decide to do something like a blog, I like the idea of it being inwardly directed. The commenters are both the contributors and the audience. The focus would be on the quality of the community rather than pulling in traffic that we’d then have to think about how to monetize (though it would grow slowly as people find it on their own).
In theme and name it would presumably have to be broad enough to reflect the varying interests of the contributors and evolve over time. The one thing we all have in common is that we like what BoingBoing publishes…but there already is a BoingBoing.
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I’m a fan of IRC and other open source solutions. Are there any open source WebRTC server softwares out there?
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Videochat could be a useful addition to the media pallet as it were. I can imagine both the pros and cons but I still like the idea.
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I’ll I’m sayin’ is, I have the software to put this up right this minute and it’s already paid for. If it’s popular and I get some massive bill because of it, or we find out we need other features, we can look around for other options. I will say this, Zoom has great connections. I’ve played around with some other programs and it works great.
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Mattermost might fill that need.
https://about.mattermost.com/
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Wunderkammer. A cabinet of wonders. I love the way German words are created.
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A great resource for ideas about creating community - to expand our horizons and open us up to new options.
https://experts.feverbee.com/
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Curiosity Cabinet ???@tinosroho another option?
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That’s allot of great stuff!
But, damn, those round avatars are everywhere.
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Given what brought this space into being, I wouldn’t rule out anything on the grounds of hypocrisy. He’s already leaning towards us being damaging to his brand. In a space where he can’t bring out the ban hammer?
Besides, is he really the anti-SLAPP guy, or is that more Rob and Corey?
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That remind me. I have used Rabbit with an anime group to have a weekly movie night. Once the dust settles down that could be a fun activity.
For those that haven’t used it. Everyone that signs up (free) gets a room? In a room you have a virtual web browser and a chat window. Invite people to room, use the browser to load a movie from any web based source and chat away while the movie plays. Control can be passed from the room owner to any of the guests.
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Moved discussion of name to its own thread; What's in a name?
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The other thing about it being a Stonecutter’s lodge is that that lends itself really well to a subscription-based model where members divvy up the costs of maintenance (and maybe a buck or two?) instead of resorting to banner ads and native advertising. For a Stonecutter’s lodge, it’s easy to say “Congratulations, you’ve found us, but if you want to be in on this, you have to be interested enough to support the site.”
If that doesn’t scale, then so be it. The purpose is just for us to have a gathering place where the members are in the driver’s seat.
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As long as it doesn’t become obligatory.
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The board I modded had a chat feature and that always got weirdly flirty for any M-F interaction. There was one woman who had 4 men who independently revealed to me that she was their “true love.” No idea what was going on when they got on the Chat. But I think video kind of adds a layer of reality to it that makes it less prone to the oddness. I use Zoom a lot in my startup business. Just adds so much fun to a long distance talk to be on camera.
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@LockeCJ, do you have paypal? i’m just wondering how i could pay you a small amount to help defray expenses.
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Read Get your Vapes and Headphones here for an active discussion of how we are going to fund this site.
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I do, but I’m not sure how I’m going to handle that yet. We’re having some discussions about that. I’ll keep you posted.
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