Wetfish Town Hall Meeting

Howdy y'all,

It's time that Wetfish started acting more like a cooperative, not a dictatorship. I would like to start holding monthly town hall meetings on Mumble where we get together to discuss the direction of our community.

For years I have wanted Wetfish to be like a virtual makerspace. A community where people come together to make things. In some ways we have done this already; with many members of the community working on projects together. Some of these collaborations have been sponsored directly by Wetfish paying contractors, but many others were simply users collaborating with each other. The things we've built together are awesome! But in other ways we have greatly failed.

The forums encourage us to shitpost instead of write meaningful content. The wiki is full of old problematic memes and drama from last decade. When we were young it was funny and relevant. Now it's just sad.

Recent events on IRC have been polarizing to say the least. A lot has been called into question: The role of server moderators vs channel moderators. How to be more approachable to new users. Who do we actually want in our community, and what is our mission?

If you are interested in participating, please reply with what time (and timezone) works best for you and hopefully we can find a time that works for all of us.

I would like to start holding these meetings on the 1st day of every month on Mumble.

I have a small area/stake in this space, but it's valuable to me and I believe I keep it tidy.

I have a day-job, so best times for me are 17:00-00:00 Québec time (15:00-22:00 Colorado).  I could try getting in during the hour before work starts (08:00-09:00 Québec, 06:00-07:00 Colorado) but I suspect people west of the Rocky Mountains would not agree.

who do we want in the community? hopefully more agorist anarchists. but also i still really like furries and anime people. and i don't want to let go of that. i'm used to doing a lot of shit on my own, and collaboration is usually done when i'm paid to do it. otherwise it doesn't usually happen. i don't see the value in taking things super seriously and i've always wanted freedom in speech and idk. i never saw wetfish as something serious so i just took things into my own hands. i've started instayiff. i've lived in my car and van mainly just cause i really wanted to start a career as a web dev. it's cool to say i started my career here. i'm very tolerant of most people and well, i don't spend my time in politics as much anymore just because none of it really matters, and i have better things to do than worry about an old man sitting in an office. i really like capitalism, and the freedom to hack repair, and create things. i think figuring out how to repair equipment and making tech for living offgrid is great. although in most cases it's easier just to hang out with like minded people or show them the way, and let em walk through it. i think being apolitical and focus on slowly subverting the government is something i'd like to be apart of. but thats me. arguing over what some man in an office should do about a country a thousand miles away is of no interest to me. used to. but i just can't see any value from it.

i'm availible in teh mornings but later i'll be up in the afternoons about 2pm cst later this week. which is 1pm MST.

7pm-1am Eastern
5pm-11pm Mountain

I'm generally alive/awake/within 5 minutes of a computer after 5pm est.

i vote for rachel, if not rachel then snek, and if not snek than what.

USER WAS BANNED FROM THIS TOPIC
Reason: This is not a vote or a popularity contest

"For years I have wanted Wetfish to be like a virtual makerspace. A community where people come together to make things. In some ways we have done this already; with many members of the community working on projects together. Some of these collaborations have been sponsored directly by Wetfish paying contractors, but many others were simply users collaborating with each other. The things we've built together are awesome! But in other ways we have greatly failed."

In a way that is a sign of progress.  As I've learned more than ever the past year, failure is a large part of the exploration of less well-charted waters. 

People say "Edison failed a ton of ways in trying to make the light bulb" or something to that effect but as we know now, unlike our grade school teachings...Edison was more of an abusive intellectual property pimp than anything.   So I'm not sure he's the best thing to mention.

for example

I may not always watch Anime night but I appreciate the fact this community holds one and often tell people about it and occasionally encourage random strangers I pick up from discord communities to check out Anime night.   I've even told some of my IRL friends who I grew up getting a buzz watching Akira or Vampire Hunter D or Hellsing or the classics in basements with that they should check out IRC, at the very least for anime night.   

Permies has been a great channel with some inspirational and informational sharing of knowledge or things just dropped by start a conversation related to permaculture or the planet/environment.

I see a lot of positive sides to wetfish and it's community despite the issues. Is like cute girl in nice dress with snaggletooth, not flaming vomiting poop emoji.

https://doodle.com/en/
^ this is how i schedule social events with busy people hth

are you guys gonna have an agenda & parliamentary rules or just yell at each other? will there be minutes recorded?

wetfish has interesting parts but my small attempts to contribute have been foiled so i've stopped. i was using the forums as a bit of a meme archive but i've stopped even that..

i still visit and i still send super weird people your way but i don't think any of them stick around due to the paradox of every easily accessible low-regulation space: noise drowns out signal. anime night seems to have high signal:noise but i don't talk to anime fans (behead those who defend anime, etc)

i've learned a lot about the world thru wetfish and never what i expected to. rachel has been very generous with her time to me. i just don't know any ways i personally can give back. and it seems like i care a lot less about wetfish than most of the people involved in it.

also the idea of a forum where any OP can ban anyone from their thread is a mindblowing game changer i look forward to it showing up all over the web in the next decade.

I should be good for any time this Tuesday, as long as it's after noon EST, because I'll be sleeping before then.

are you guys gonna have an agenda & parliamentary rules or just yell at each other? will there be minutes recorded?

I am preparing an agenda for the meeting and will be seeking input from the community on a number of topics that have been raised to me both in private and on the forums / irc.

wetfish has interesting parts but my small attempts to contribute have been foiled so i've stopped. i was using the forums as a bit of a meme archive but i've stopped even that..

how were they foiled?

i've learned a lot about the world thru wetfish and never what i expected to. rachel has been very generous with her time to me. i just don't know any ways i personally can give back. and it seems like i care a lot less about wetfish than most of the people involved in it.

I'm curious, what have you learned about the world through wetfish? I think you're burned out from all the past projects you've been involved with, like your local hackerspace. It's hard to care when you've given so much effort, so many times, into different projects that all end up in the same place.

also the idea of a forum where any OP can ban anyone from their thread is a mindblowing game changer i look forward to it showing up all over the web in the next decade.

Thank you, that is actually one of the things I am planning on discussing. In my mind, it is the essence of wetfish culture. You have the power, moderate your own thread! Lol. When we make a new version of the forums we definitely want to include more features like that for thread creators.

I am open on Tuesday, and any time works for me.

I intend to argue against: Any form of centralized authority for what is considered acceptable (though I of course acknowledge that you, rachel, are the only one with any actual power over this network or any of these servers), any deletion of "problematic" material from the wiki (because we were all 4chan trolls back in the day and there's nothing wrong with that, and we mustn't lose sight of where we came from), any concept that we must worry about offending the excessively easily offended (for instance redheron; I know she was your friend, rachel, but the combination of her incredibly thin skin and her idea that others should shape their behavior around her weakness meant that an inordinate amount of drama was consistently centered on her), and the idea that Wetfish should change to appeal to those who wouldn't fit in with what we are now.

tl;dr I see nothing wrong with the status quo and think that everyone needs to take a chill pill.

I am open on Tuesday, and any time works for me.

I intend to argue against: Any form of centralized authority for what is considered acceptable (though I of course acknowledge that you, rachel, are the only one with any actual power over this network or any of these servers),

i know it sounds great in principle. in my experience the spaces where "everyone has a voice" are not really equally represented at all. Instead, whoever has the time to waste and the desire for petty power - or just has a powerful/manipulative personality - will absolutely dominate, usually by just convincing weaker people to yell for them. The quiet and well thought counterpoints are quickly forgotten in emotional swell. (any Homeowners association or leftist org is a great example of this)

the best communities i've seen have all been benevolent dictatorships.

any deletion of "problematic" material from the wiki (because we were all 4chan trolls back in the day and there's nothing wrong with that, and we mustn't lose sight of where we came from),

this sounds great until you desperately want to forget the night you whipped your balls out and its attached to your "clean" screen name or whatever. i got my wiki article deleted because there was some minor doxxable stuff, i'm very glad rachel obliged me.

i think basic rights to privacy are sorely underrated.

any concept that we must worry about offending the excessively easily offended (for instance redheron; I know she was your friend, rachel, but the combination of her incredibly thin skin and her idea that others should shape their behavior around her weakness meant that an inordinate amount of drama was consistently centered on her),

i agree with a lot of this but there is also a moral obligation of the strong to protect the weak and stupid from the consequences of their own actions. the gentle way to do this is say "okay sweetie we made a special place just for you" and its a heavily censored place where nothing interesting happens. kinda like you would with a child.

idk i've been on the other end of that, triggered (not in a figurative sense) by dumb bull shit and then looked at it a day later and realized i was throwing a tantrum.

the solution to the weaker minds/hearts among us isn't to just piss them off until they grow thicker skin but just put them in a padded room. or sometimes just be patient & kind.

and the idea that Wetfish should change to appeal to those who wouldn't fit in with what we are now.

every community and relationship has to have room to expand. i have been thru two communities that were once a nest of weirdos talking about whatever they wanted, then an in joke about tentacles or whatever became a meme and the only person updating the main site was just posting about tentacles. and that was all the content.

tl;dr I see nothing wrong with the status quo and think that everyone needs to take a chill pill.

why would you want wetfish to be the status quo?

all in all, if you're gonna have cool weirdos around, they're all gonna be different and learn how to tolerate each other. the best communities ive seen all self regulate with a handful (5-10) strong personalities that verbally/emotionally browbeat others into "behaving well" eg replying to cruel insults with better crafted, more cruel insults; adapting to "invasions" by out-memeing the invaders and taking their best. this is however 1) contingent on a core of Good Posters 2) actual Work 3) not actually fun for people who want a quiet conversation 4) chaotic

also i guarantee for every thing you tell normies to chill about there are three things i could find in your head which you are NOT comfortable with people joking about and everyone ELSE is gonna tell YOU to take a chill pill. it is the way of things. also if you don't agree i will rape you till you starve to death.

are you comfortable with wetfish becoming something unfamiliar to you? what if every active, fun to talk to (by your own standards!) poster in wetfish gets really sewage grate photography and thats the new background chatter? would you be okay with that? what would you do?

hth

DIABOLIZER TIPPED 200 CORAL FOR THIS POST

can i get drunk and yell racial slurs at people that i disagree with?

can i get drunk and yell racial slurs at people that i disagree with?

Nope. If you do not act with civility during the meeting your opinion will be disregarded and you will be disconnected from the mumble server.

very well, i accept your terms. I'm most available on the weekends or mondays after 5PM