Back to the blogs, I think
After nearly a month’s vacation from my personal Facebook account, I think I’m not going back any time soon. I still have my business FB accounts, but personally, I feel a lot less stress in my life away from Facebook.
I think the biggest problem is that FB doesn’t have easy access to organized group discussion. The events are ok, but the groups are basically a disaster when it comes to conversation over time. Mailing lists, USENET groups, and conferences on private forums (like the well) are a great way to organize discussions on topics of interest. These groups can have agreed upon rules, ranging from “no spoilers” to “no political discussion.”
One benefit of group conversations — I can avoid topics where I simply DGAS. I can’t remember the last time where I’ve wanted to discuss sports with anyone, especially in a public place where every fan’s team is the best ballsporter or whatever. So I don’t read those groups and I never have to see any words about fantasy teams or the sweet sixteen.
It works both ways, I do care quite a bit about politics and am involved at the local level. I’m on several vintage motorcycle mailing lists and I’m pretty certain people on those lists have voted for Dotard, but politics has no place in a vintage bike discussion so it never comes up. Same goes for gardening and cooking. I like to do both, and I think I can have a civil discussion with someone who is a vegetarian or who has similar-but-different food allergies and have religion and politics only come up for curious reasons, not ranting/yelling matches.
So, back to words. It’s been a year since I’ve had anything to say about design in a public space, but maybe I’ll give it another go.