- Joined
- Nov 19, 2009
- Messages
- 4,859
- Reaction score
- 408
- Location
- Home Sweet Home
- Website
- bookewyrme.straydreamers.com
This is just something I tried, and worked for me. But, maybe you should join one of the "ongoing" threads, such as the Blue Bordello (erotica) Comedy Cabaret, Horror Hounds, Jed's Newbie Cafe, The Old Fart's Bar & Grill (in Office Party), etc. They're like microcosms of the greater AW ecosystem, but with a much smaller number of users, and of course it's just one thread. Plus, you can really tailor it to your specific genre/writing type interests (or just hanging-out type interests, but knowing you'll be hanging out with writers), so you're get an even better chance of finding like-minded folks. The folks who hang out in those specific threads also tend to stay relatively similar (barring the usual gradual ebb and flow of course) so it's easier to get to know posters as individuals, and eventually as friends.I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for. "Community" is too vague. I've never quite gotten the hang of forum sites like this one. Too easy to forget to stick my nose in for weeks at a time and then I feel like a stranger wandering into someone else's party (which makes me less likely to participate, which ... well, you get the idea).
Mostly I want a context where I can talk about writing (and researching, and publishing) with people in a similar place, so I don't bore my non-writing friends to death. I really miss the old usenet group rec.arts.sf.composition before it was murdered by self-serving ...well, never mind that. Nothing has really replaced that group in my own private mental ecosystem.
I found it really helpful, and made some very close friends that way, who I now even interact with in other parts of the Great Trackless Interwebs. Because I definitely felt like a bit of an outsider looking in to start with too. There's just so MUCH! Which I think is a good thing, but it is overwhelming sometimes.