IRC is ridiculously fun. It is also ridiculous.
My apologies to any voices that went unheard or questions that went unanswered. Further apologies to any Scotch, wine, or beer that went undrunk.
There were 8-15 people on IRC from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and probably later. It seemed to reach some kind of critical mass. I kept getting thrown off and several people couldn't get on. At one point, we were in two chatrooms at once.
Once, after being thrown off, I came back in the middle of an AA meeting. "My name is thenewgreen and I ..." with everyone confessing to various fake bad behaviours.
My apologies to all serious conversations about science, population growth, music and others that were interrupted by frivolous conversations. All these conversations happen at once. For those who have never tried Hubski IRC, it's like chatter, but first lines only, one after another, and if you blink you miss it. You know there's a thread maybe somewhere, but can't follow it.
On the other hand, stories were told, for example, galen told us bathroom "privileges" at his school had ceased until the mirror-soaping culprits came forward. Who knew that going to the bathroom was a privilege? The alternative seemed to be peeing on the slides in the kid's playground.
nowaypablo kept changing his name. elizabeth offered to host a meetup in beautiful Montreal. eightbitsamurai promised two more chapters of the Hubskina saga were on their way. Too many of you to mention by name kept me giggling. Thank you all for showing up.
Question: What does showing up for IRC mean to you in terms of building hubski community or anything else?
Those mentioned above and camarillobrillo c_hawkthorne thundara am_Unition _refugee_ ButterflyEffect humanodon flagamuffin blackfox026 onlythelonly CashewGuy and everyone else who visited
Can it happen again? Because I'm in Europe and found out after it happened.
Yes, it would be better if the IRC chat was on a day when I didn't have to work the next day. Weekend IRC meetups or Friday nights are really fine by me! I had to leave early because I needed to sleep for work the next day.
For the record, that was a lot of fun and it was great seeing everyone. "seeing." Also, for the record, none of my confessions were "fake," they were all real. Hubski in Montreal would be wonderful. I have a good friend and business partner up there. I could likely drum up an excuse to be there sometime in late 2015. elizabeth also mentioned rekindling the photo challenge...... But yeah, it was a blast. I'm glad I was able to join. As for what it means for me? I think it's nice how comfortable I feel in the IRC with all the names/personalities there. I genuinely feel like I know most of you and that's an unusual thing in an online environment. It's nice to see people encouraging one another, goofing on one another etc. You know, the things friends do in life.
25% of the Hubski team members are Canadian, that's got to count for something. Also, lil. She counts as like 125%. She's awesome. Oh and scrimetime. And... We could go on.
That was fun. I haven't done chats like that since the AIM days. It was refreshing seeing all of you relaxed and the stream of consciousness was entertaining. lil tried to keep everything on track, nowaypablo revealed his alteregos and galen warned us all about the dangers of soap. There was sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. I don't know if you veterans realize this but Hubski can be very intimidating to us newcomers. The bar for content is set high (and rightly so) and you all seem way more educated than this college dropout. So for me it was a chance to see you let your hair down and remind me that this really is a community of freethinking, amiable intellectualists. Can't wait for the next round.
I am a newcomer but I don't see Hubski as intimidating. I like it here and everyone seems very friendly. I am definitely staying for the long haul.
Whoever proposes the next IRC, get the best link from flagamuffin. AnSionnachRua, maybe you and Cumol can agree on a time -- I guess it's too much to ask for the two of you to be up at 4:00 a.m. Sunday night a10 or 11 in Europe would be Sunday afternoon or morning here, although it's unlikely to be an alcohol-laced time slot. I imagine a few people could put in an hour. We would probably prefer it to be 6:00 a.m. your time and midnight here though, or maybe midnight your time and 6:00 p.m. EST and earlier for those further west. It's all kind of awkward
06:00 my time works for me, as long as it's a weekend morning and I can get drunk. ;) I'm away for the next month and a half, though, so I expect I'll miss the next one.
IRC was amazing, not even a bus passing me by could make me miss it. IRC is more direct than any forum post - being forced to talk to each other directly than sort of conversing "over" a forum post feels more personal. Ex: That's the most conversation I've had with Poobs in a while. This Hubskina Chapter is already twice as long as the (book? multimedia story? absolute bullshit?)'s longest chapter, which is Chapter 3, clocking in at 1,500 words. Never again. Except for when I do it again at the next milestone.
IRC is always great. I love that we can talk about whatever's on our minds rather than discussing things in the context of individual posts (which is also why I dig Pubski): I think it really contributed to the nature of Hubski as a community rather than just a forum.
You guys need to stage a "sit in" (shit in, maybe!) in the bathroom to restore your dignity and human rights. Just because there's a dumb ass or two vandalizing doesn't mean everyone else should suffer. That's called collective punishment, and it's against norms of war even. School is like jail, but gets better as soon as you realize that you're a real person and not a farm animal.
Sometimes the administration needs to be reminded they're only nominally in charge. We had a lunch lady slap a girl across the face in 6th grade for no good goddamn reason. She was piled on by an even dozen 6th graders. The principal had to pull a few of us off. Strangely enough, the lunch lady was dismissed and nothing ever happened to any of the kids. The Principal apparently decided to just let the sands of time forget... but the lunch ladies were a lot more circumspect for the rest of the year. My wife led a protest against one of her professor in med school. They wanted the professor to stop belittling and insulting students in the middle of lecture. The professor was given an ultamatum: take your meds or face dismissal. Things were a lot more pleasant for the remaining years; my wife even TA'd a couple of the professor's courses.
Absolutely. Kids seem to not understand that power is mostly illusory. Go to the bathroom whenever you want. WTF is anyone going to do about it? Don't be a willing participant in your own encirclement. I don't want to blame the victim, but sometimes the victim needs to be shook violently to remind them that it's ok to be yourself.Sometimes the administration needs to be reminded they're only nominally in charge.