Vid chats poll
I have had Many Thoughts since posting about vidding fandom. One main one has to do with vidding chats.
For those new friends who may not know, I ran a series of chats about vidding in my journal. A bit of history about them: vidding chats began because I wanted to talk to other people about things to do with vidding (pretty simple!) and because I'd recently realised a few other friends wanted to too. We originally polled for interest on them here. Once they got started, I personally underestimated the interest from a wider group but it was really cool to have people from different backgrounds and experience levels pop up and share their thoughts. I tried hard to make the chats welcoming and inclusive, but I'm also aware that my own biases (including a propensity to crap on!) came through. And I became more self-conscious over time about the limitations of me being the OP. I'd always hoped people would talk to each other as well as to me, and this did happen a bit but there was still definitely an extent to which it felt like I and other people were commenting into a vacuum. Also, there were many great suggestions for topics but I didn't always feel I would be the best person to host them. For instance, some people wanted more of a focus on newbie issues, but I can't get around the fact that after three years of vidding I'm not really a newbie any more. And some people wanted more technical or high-level (for want of a better word) discussions and I thought 'ohhh, that would be cool! I'd love that too!' but wondered how to host them because I wouldn't necessarily have much to contribute to a discussion myself. Of course, I could have hosted both (and sort of did) by being honest about the perspective I was speaking from and encouraging others to share their thoughts.
The other issue was simply a time one: I got very busy at work and still am. Some momentum with them was lost. So... I've been wondering for some time whether vid chats should have their own community. And following recent discussion, that seems even more desireable to me. So that they can be seen to belong to the wider community, so that they seem more welcoming because it's not just one person hosting and so that there can be more chats covering more areas.
Of course, I have no idea if other people agree! And it would totally depend on whether there's enough interest and whether other people would be willing to host chats some time. Personally I feel there would have to be other moderators of such a comm, other than me. While I can't imagine never hosting one again myself, I think it'd be really important to have people from a range of backgrounds and experience levels host. I'd absolutely love feedback on this. So! Poll.
Poll Vid chats
Please feel free to comment with any other thoughts!
For those new friends who may not know, I ran a series of chats about vidding in my journal. A bit of history about them: vidding chats began because I wanted to talk to other people about things to do with vidding (pretty simple!) and because I'd recently realised a few other friends wanted to too. We originally polled for interest on them here. Once they got started, I personally underestimated the interest from a wider group but it was really cool to have people from different backgrounds and experience levels pop up and share their thoughts. I tried hard to make the chats welcoming and inclusive, but I'm also aware that my own biases (including a propensity to crap on!) came through. And I became more self-conscious over time about the limitations of me being the OP. I'd always hoped people would talk to each other as well as to me, and this did happen a bit but there was still definitely an extent to which it felt like I and other people were commenting into a vacuum. Also, there were many great suggestions for topics but I didn't always feel I would be the best person to host them. For instance, some people wanted more of a focus on newbie issues, but I can't get around the fact that after three years of vidding I'm not really a newbie any more. And some people wanted more technical or high-level (for want of a better word) discussions and I thought 'ohhh, that would be cool! I'd love that too!' but wondered how to host them because I wouldn't necessarily have much to contribute to a discussion myself. Of course, I could have hosted both (and sort of did) by being honest about the perspective I was speaking from and encouraging others to share their thoughts.
The other issue was simply a time one: I got very busy at work and still am. Some momentum with them was lost. So... I've been wondering for some time whether vid chats should have their own community. And following recent discussion, that seems even more desireable to me. So that they can be seen to belong to the wider community, so that they seem more welcoming because it's not just one person hosting and so that there can be more chats covering more areas.
Of course, I have no idea if other people agree! And it would totally depend on whether there's enough interest and whether other people would be willing to host chats some time. Personally I feel there would have to be other moderators of such a comm, other than me. While I can't imagine never hosting one again myself, I think it'd be really important to have people from a range of backgrounds and experience levels host. I'd absolutely love feedback on this. So! Poll.
Poll Vid chats
Please feel free to comment with any other thoughts!