Heuristics

Heuristics - one of my favourite words.  I’ve long fancied having a business card that said “Heuristician.”  Maybe now I’m retired I should do it?  What the hell.  

Whilst convalescing I did some occupational therapy and contemplated Blip’s past and its possible future.  Today’s image is one of my attempts at fulfilling the 1st January ‘brief.’  I didn’t like the questions - too marketing oriented, too jolly, too directive.  A bit patronising.  What would you do to encourage someone to join blip and get the same experience?  

Honestly?  I wouldn’t encourage anyone to join Blip at the moment, not until we’ve made it the place it could become.  And, if someone did join, I’d want them to have their own unique experience.   I hope the buyout succeeds and that we find a sustainable way forward.  But it’s not just about the money.  Obviously if we don’t raise enough cash then it’s game over and there’s no discussion to be had.  So that’s a priority. 

But now that I’ve committed some money to the pot I feel more comfortable voicing my thoughts about the site’s future.  I so lament the lack of a functioning forum, I probably only ever left half a dozen comments in total on the old forums but I used to skip through them maybe once a week to get a feel for where the community was at.  Since they were removed there has been no public space where the community can make its  voice heard.  It's a wonder any sense of community survived.  Without a forum  any discussion is scattered and fragmented within individual journals and on the single-track road of the BlipCentral journal, or behind the scenes by email or on FaceBook - without the rubric of 'excellence'.  None of that is conducive to building community, to healing community.  The  BlipCentral posts are a VAST improvement on the silence of the last months and I am truly grateful for the efforts of the four Blippers who are trying to keep the show on the road.  I personally could not do what they have done in putting together the crowd-funding campaign, I would not know where to start. 

But about the future, where we’re headed - the thing I really want to say out loud is that NO-ONE KNOWS how to run a community-interest social media site.  As far as I know, it’s never been done before.  So that’s no-one on the planet ever before.  Not the founders, not the fab four who are giving us a shot at it.  We’re the first people to attempt it, we are pioneers without a map.  A COMMUNITY of pioneers - what a thing!

So it’s all HEURISTICS - trial and error, intuitive best guesses, LEARNING and communication every step of the way.  We need a functioning forum and we need it soon, otherwise I fear we’ll find ourselves recreating the very culture that brought us to where we are now - for good and ill.   Perpetuating a culture that struggled to manage diversity and change, to fully engage ALL the members of the community.

So please let us learn from the past, let us strive to be wise, kind and brave, let us listen to each other, let us respect our differences, not airbrush them out of existence.  Let us remember always:

Good judgement
Comes from experience

Experience 
Comes from

Bad judgement
                     Dave Dobson

There’s a heck of a lot of experience in this community.  Wisdom too and love, expertise of all sorts.  I do so hope that we can create a climate where it is all welcome, all contributing to the greater good.   THAT would be really something.  THAT I’d enroll people in - in a heartbeat.  That is my dream for Blip’s future.

You know what to do:  https://www.blipfuture.com 

Let’s make it a happy new year, that IS in our gift.  Now.