Snake Byte #1 : Communities and Responsibility.
Hey guys, looks like I am writing a blog post. I could have sworn they said never to let me do this, but here goes.
What I want to talk about is communities and responsibility. Not only on Mixx or our beloved Mixxingbowl community, but everywhere on the interwebs.
Everyone knows that internet + anonymity creates asshat. But, at the same time you are not always as anonymous as you might think. Thanks to Google you can just about find out anything about an internet user by his handle. Don’t believe me? I offer you mine, go ahead…Google me. I bet you can find out a ton of stuff about me. So unless you post as anonymous, then you are putting yourself, your family, and your professional life out on the web.
We have all read the Myspace / Job place articles. You know, the ones where the intern or new employee is seen by his boss on Myspace or Facebook half naked at a party. Well, this rings true for even a community you belong to online. Why would you go to a potential employer, and have some easily figured out online handle and the next thing you know, they see you belong to a bestiality community. I do not think that would bode well in your professional career.
If you belong to communities you also want to follow the rules of the road. Sometimes they are written, other times not. In such cases it is always good to lurk for a while. Lurking lets you become more educated as to what you should or should not be doing in a community.
Being the new guy can be a little uncomfortable. So maybe a long time member of the said community (if you happen to be one) should take in the new member and make them feel welcome. This is where the responsibility side comes in. Being a pillar or long time member of the community it is your job to help out the new people. Doing this improves your community. You may get better quality, content, and members by saying ” Hey, I see you are new around here. Let me show you what all we are up to in the community or site.” This makes the new people feel welcome and already a part of the community, they will want to stay, contribute, and everyone benefits.
Content submission to a community falls under rules, and responsibility. Posting knitting content to a tech community isn’t the best idea. People join communities for certain reasons, not for you to bombard it with what you alone are interested in. That is never a good idea, you might find yourself banned from your new really cool community.
So short and sweet of this is: follow the rules, take in the new guy, and be excellent to one another!
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