February 2010

There has been some interesting conversations going on at make and meaning - articles on fostering community, finding your creativity, on the topic of “Free” in the creative community (sister diane and paul), on comments and readers, articles about how to spot genuine people, and others on ditching the good vibe suckers from your life, some lighter stories about what to wear while making, and about the creative process in making, others focused on craftivism, articles on ironic craft - or the lack of … What an incredible bunch of thoughtful, well written and inspiring articles. I was engrossed for over an hour and was really inspired by the comments and readers who are interested in and involved in this wonderful crafty community of ours.

Some of the more recent articles are themed around instructing us how to blog – to be genuine, to not copy, to be ourselves, to not be negative, to give away stuff but not too much stuff … I was left sort of feeling a bit paranoid. Seems like we have built this amazing crafty community, and everyone wants in and some people are not prepared to the take the long road and follow the rules (yes every community has rules, it might just take a while to figure out what they are). There is a yucky taste in my mouth, and I am not sure where its coming from. However I am glad that make and meaning are honestly talking about these [unspoken] rules.

From push by dudecraft

We push and promote and market our way to mediocre results, time after time; following someone else’s joyless formula when we could be blazing our own trail.

On (Blog) Fame by MeetMeAtMikes

Blogging for fame is just down-right shallow. Hatching a plan, developing a persona, carrying out a strategy, strings-attached linking, prolific commenting, all zero-ed in on Blog Fame, … It clogs up the internet with Little Faux-Peeps…

Joining an established, cool and interesting community takes guts and determination, and trying to have a voice in that community takes hard work and honesty and genuineness, I am pretty sure there are plenty of fakers out there but such is life, and expecting our enclave to remain pure is naive. Seems that these topics are really hitting a nerve and making people think – and that is never a bad thing. If you want to use your blog to make a bit of money on the side – go for it, if you want to join and be part of any community (and the crafty/design online community is no different) – then be honest and open and you will be welcomed. So don’t be afraid, (although even I am a little afraid now), don’t be put out – show us what you have got – the wonderful thing about the internet – is that it is a freemarket of ideas and memes – the good ones will rise to the top and the rest will either adapt or perish. So if you are feeling a little weird about your beautiful blogging style, nervous about courting fame by leaving comments or submitting your posts, or paranoid that you doth protest too much – don’t – just be true to yourself.

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