• Community

    From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Friday, January 26, 2024 18:24:58
    What makes a community?

    Been thinking just now about this subject.

    Is it common interests, similar values, just plain on length of time spent together (in person or virtually), other intangibles I can't put my finger on, some or all of the above, or perhaps none of it? Talk about having a bob/dime/cent each way eh? ;)

    But in reflecting on this, and in the context of BBSing, I realise I've been active in the BBS world since 2013 (I think it was) and with old fsxNet that arrived end of 2015 so lordy that's coming up towards 10 years soon-ish..

    And during my time in online BBS spaces and places I've met a ton of nice people via echomail and netmail chat, sometimes over a webcam call, sometimes a voice only one, I don't think any folks in person... New Zealand is a long way away from many places and my jet plan budget is exhausted... well there was never a budget ha! :)

    As some names come and go I lament their departure, others I wonder how they are, doing OK in life, still alive?

    In sum, what *this* echomail and BBS hobby banter is (for me at least) is all rather special and something I'm rather proud to have been associated with over the years.

    They say you should do the things you enjoy, and I'm glad I still enjoy this medium and the social contact (and help when you ask for it on stuff your stuck on in life or tech or... )that comes with it.

    So thanks guys.

    /reflective mode off

    :)

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to Avon on Friday, January 26, 2024 10:33:49
    Re: Community
    By: Avon to All on Fri Jan 26 2024 06:24 pm

    I enjoyed reading your musings on community, and i feel enthusiasm for
    the potential of building community here. Below are some relevant
    quotes from my reading about the nature of community.

    Community is a group of people who observe the individual's growth.
    Being seen and responded to enable a person to behold voices within, confirmed by the voices of the community without. Where mentors and
    elders are lacking, where initiation in one form or another is not recognized, there can be no support system capable of curbing the
    intense sense of aloneness that haunts the psyche of the modern
    person. Purpose begins with the individual, and the sum total of all
    the individuals' purposes creates the community's purpose. A
    community is held together by the emotional ties that result in a
    conscious feeling of connection... A sense of community grows where
    behavior is based on trust and where no one has to hide anything.

    --Malidoma Some

    If we are going to use the word [community] meaningfully we must
    restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to
    communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper
    than their masks of composure, and who have developed some
    significant commitment to "rejoice together, mourn together," and to
    "delight in each other, make others' conditions our own."

    The facets of community are interconnected, profoundly
    interrelated. No one could exist without the other. They create
    each other, make each other possible. What follows, then, is but
    one scheme for isolating and naming the most salient
    characteristics of a true community.

    * Inclusivity, commitment, and consensus
    * Realism
    * Contemplation
    * A safe place
    * A laboratory for personal disarmament
    * A group that can fight gracefully
    * A group of all leaders
    * A spirit

    --M. Scott Peck

    One of the strongest needs of the soul is for community, but
    community from the soul point of view is a little different from
    its social forms. Soul yearns for attention, for variety in
    personality, for intimacy, and particularity. So it is these
    qualities in community that the soul seeks out, and not
    like-mindedness and uniformity.

    Loneliness can be the result of an attitude that community is
    something into which one is received. Many people wait for members
    of a community to invite them in, and until that happens they are
    lonely. There may be something of the child here who expects to be
    taken care of by the family. But a community is not a family. It
    is a group of people held together by feelings of belonging, and
    these feelings are not a birthright. "Belonging" is an active
    verb, something we do positively.

    -- Thomas Moore
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Ben Collver on Saturday, January 27, 2024 11:28:16
    On 26 Jan 2024 at 10:33a, Ben Collver pondered and said...

    I enjoyed reading your musings on community, and i feel enthusiasm for
    the potential of building community here. Below are some relevant
    quotes from my reading about the nature of community.

    Thanks for the kind feedback. I was in a ponderous mood when I penned this.

    taken care of by the family. But a community is not a family. It
    is a group of people held together by feelings of belonging, and
    these feelings are not a birthright. "Belonging" is an active
    verb, something we do positively.

    -- Thomas Moore

    This one resonates with me.

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Nigel Reed@21:2/101 to Avon on Friday, January 26, 2024 17:18:56
    On Fri, 26 Jan 2024 18:24:58 +1300
    "Avon" (21:1/101) <Avon@f101.n1.z21.fidonet> wrote:

    What makes a community?

    Been thinking just now about this subject.

    Is it common interests, similar values, just plain on length of time
    spent together (in person or virtually), other intangibles I can't
    put my finger on, some or all of the above, or perhaps none of it?
    Talk about having a bob/dime/cent each way eh? ;)

    Safety in numbers :)
    --
    End Of The Line BBS - Plano, TX
    telnet endofthelinebbs.com 23
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (21:2/101)