Optimism at the End of the World 0 : BE AWESOME - A new community based around a desire for deeper connections and shared values
I came to steemit looking for a place to share my writing but more than anything, I want to connect with others based on similar ideas and similar approaches at making the world more accurately reflect our passions and our dreams. I have found many people who resonate with what I have to say. The chats have also added an extra dimension to all this. But I am always looking for new ways to connect, cooperate and bridge the gap between idealism and realism.
steemit.chat rooms
The steemit.chat is a really fun way to shoot the shit with other steemians and meet new people. But for all the different channels, most of them are for post promotion, and the few channels reserved for chat (minnowsunite being the one alternative to the general chat that I know) are also tied together by the fact that there are steemit users. It's kind of like a popular bar. It's nice to go and have a beer and see what kind of randomness occurs. I've had really great conversations there, no doubt. But it's all chaotic and unfocused.
Discord chats
The discord chats are more focused around specific purposes. I love the people in whaleshares, they were some of the first real connections I made here. @officialfuzzy has helped me tremendously in understanding how steemit works and my own place here and regulars including but not limited to @jphenderson @rondonson , @patelincho, @akrid are some of my favorite people on the platform. The Minnow Support Project (or the cult of @aggroed as I call it :-P) is full of good intentions and nice if you are lost and confused as a Minnow. I am still getting to know those at Steemspeak and that also seems like a really great community, @skyochica has been really helpful the few times I've run into her in other chats.
A New Alternative
These are all great places to meet others, no doubt. But they all revolve around specific projects, not necessarily around ideals. So I'd like to organize a new community based around the ideals that I try to express in my Optimism at the End of the World series, spirituality and the values of the occupy movement. That is not to say that they will be entirely centered around me or my posts, on the contrary, I would like to create a strong community based around shared ideals without any hierarchy. I will simply be working to consolidate a group of people who share those ideals to a large extent, this is my role. At first I thought of making the group private and entirely word-of-mouth. But I think that would be hard to sustain at this point, being that steemit is still a young community with young connections.
I hope the chat will become like a cafe or a bar where you know the regulars are all awesome people that you'd like to know more about, where you know good things can happen, but we have more in common than just steemit.
Here are the ideals I'm speaking of, feel free to discuss your opinions of them in the comments:
A desire to make real connections with others through deeper conversation
A desire to find a place where idealism and realism meet, where selfishness and selflessness don't contradict.
Cooperation to solve problems through direct and casual means.
Dreams and a drive to realize them, share them and help others with theirs.
Spirituality, I am personally interested in discussing the law of attraction and how to make sense of it, but any form of spirituality is invited as long as it's not preachy
Artistic expression - painting, music, sculpture, dance, writing, you name it
some of the values of the occupy movement (consensus, avoidance of hierarchical relationships, equality, freedom, as few rules as possible, experimentation)
a place for some of us who stray from the mainstream can feel at home and help each other out
Money and competition taking a backseat to honesty and cooperation
Those who are looking to become the best versions of themselves
no bots in this chat. Obviously no spamming either, as much focus as possible on deeper topics of conversation, of course there will be a place for sharing posts but I hope post promotion really takes a backseat here!
The goal is not to bring in as many people as possible but to build a tight knit community, or even a bunch of tight knit communities.
This chat will be in no way competing with existing chats, you do not have to choose one community or the other!
No ass kissing
For now we will have one general chat. In the future we could add different sub-channels for specific topics, anything from "psychedelics" to "gift economy" to "Christianity" to "conspiracies", but only once there is a group of 3 or 4 people looking to chat about such things, the main purpose always being chat and connection, not self promotion. The chat may be a little quiet at first but stick around :-D
Many new members have asked me how to do well here at steemit, there is a long answer but the short answer is simple 2 words: BE AWESOME. @chiefmappster helped me realize the power of these words, they basically sum up everything that I'm about. I thought it would be a good name for the chat and what it stands for as well.
So come and BE AWESOME:
seems it was the wrong link before, here is a good one.
Please comment and share your ideas and opinions!
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by whatamIdoing from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Good on ya @whatamidoing and to @minnowsupport for getting behind it.
that's an auto spambot :-P
There are so many good things about what you are trying to do here. I wonder if the chainbb tool might yield more focused discussion, certainly on specific topics. Once communities comes out on Steemit, perhaps both will be valuable and help you realise your goal. I would be honoured to be involved and a part of such a community. I've been trying to help and do something positive in crypto for a while now. I found a home in supporting dan's projects and the communities that have sprung up around them. It has been difficult though. Time has always been a limiting factor to the level of commitment I can make and the amount of involvement I've been able to have. I've not been able to get directly involved in many incredible efforts, like fuzzy's Beyond Bitcoin for instance. I've just kind of done my own thing along the way. It's no great loss as far as I'm concerned because i do not contribute to the code, the tools which make all this possible. I just try to help people think how these tools can change things for everyone.
So with that said, I'm in for as much as I can be if you'll have me. ;). I would dearly like to meet someone from bitshares or steemit one day! That is one way that I would feel more connected. I need to see faces, to shake hands :). With my work and home life at the moment, that is not possible but one day!
I have yet to check out chainbb. I will get on that. Reading this got me thinking that maybe this chat can become a supplement to the communities function, or a place to hang out before it takes off.
The coders need people like us to help them to realize their visions. We are coders in a way too, we code the social environment to try and bring out the best that human nature has to offer.
I'd also like to meet a whole bunch of people from this community. Meeting through the internet is strange, sometimes we get even closer than we are with people in our 3D lives and there is still so much that we can't feel because we can't see the other persons eyes and expressions.
That is on my list of reasons to do well for myself on here, so I can go meet everyone. And you are high on my list of people I'd like to meet :-D
I've been thinking, as well as having a general chat room where people can dip in and out, what you need is some kind of trigger for a chat with a specific subject matter that can act as the fulcrum around which those interested can get to know one and other. So perhaps you make a post about a date, time and subject matter (maybe a brief summary of the last discussion) so that everyone can meet in the chat room and you do that maybe once or twice a week.
On chainbb, the discussion will be stored in the blockchain which is a benefit but is less of a direct chat which is less appealing.
Gladly will join :)
I agree with idea! I came to Steemit too to find same thinkers, Lighworkers..looking forward for more @lavitaebella
This place is for you! I hope we can start a more tight knit community :-D
Sounds legit. I'll check it out
Thanks, we would love to have you. I enjoyed our chat the other day, it's part of what inspired me to do this.
Great to see someone promoting the idea of further interactions than simply upvoting and commenting on posts.
I would like to interact more, and I try to drop by the chats once in a while, but somehow I'm not the best at initiating conversation. I want to get better at it though lol :)
The funny thing about humanity is that there is always something more to be done :) At least it never gets boring! I have been meaning to join the chats too, I need to get on that!
Exciting time to be alive too, right? Check out all of them including this new one! They all have something different to offer. I enjoy banter in the steemit.chat too sometimes.
The community function is being built now for steemit but I thought we could already get started building communities in the form of chat rooms with that intention. There's will be others who initiate, don't worry :-)
This is an amazing and self-less initiative that i am definitely going to be a part of. Everything you have in mind sounds like it will bring all to a point where maybe we'll understand ourselves better. Good job bro.
P.s. love the "psychedelic" room :p
Wow what an incredible article, I got goosebumps reading it. I really like the ideals you listed, maybe one day Steemit will have a list of community ideals (this list you created would work perfectly). But thank you for the shout out, joining the new discord channel now. keep doing great things :)
It'll be slow at first but hopefully we get together lots of people who want to do more than gossip, banter and look for ways to personally benefit, not that there's anything wrong with all that, I just think there's enough of it already.
Thanks for your words man!
you're welcome buddy. and I agree with ya buddy. can't wait to see what has the universe has in store for us
I am fairly new to steemit and was introduced to the platform by a close friend of mine. I do realize that there are so many people like myself out there looking to connect and share. I look forward to expanding my community of friends and connections with the world and challenging myself to grow.
Way more than I ever imagined...I mean I knew they were out there but I never knew they were open about it, and already coming together! It's a good place to be, there will be days where you get disillusioned but you'll always find a reason to stay positive if you stick around
I have found a lot of like minded people on here so far and am looking to meet more. Today marks the 7th day for me on Steem, which is pretty cool. I think it is interesting, especially so, when you consider that today it the longest day of the year and focused on the sun. Solar energy, manifestation and all that good stuff. I do subscribe to a similar view as the law of attraction, though I think the 7 hermetic principles are more complete than that. I think I have a blog that now needs to be written ;)
I've only read little bits about those, the law of attraction is supposed to be 1/7 laws? I think my understanding of it includes more than just one though. Any good place to learn about these?