Over a year ago, just when I started blogging, I got involved with a Flickr group called Project365. It’s a collection of users of the on-line photo posting group, from all over the world and of all different photographic skill levels, who commit to taking and posting one picture a day for a full calendar year. Now, heading into my second year of the project (you can start at any time), I have to say the project was transformative in more ways than I could have imagined.
The group is a mixed bag and people join it for different reasons. Some people are committed to creating art every day, some just wanted to improve their skills, some wanted a structure to get themselves back into photography and some people just did it for a laugh. What quickly happened is that subcommunities developed, one of which I joined which was for people committed to also commenting on other participants’ photos. Again, the motivations and the ways participants used the group were all over the map. Some people were just curious about other people’s lives, some very good photographers acted as mentors helping the amateurs along, and some people just acted as cheering sections.
It didn’t take too many months to feel you were involved in each other’s lives. We saw one participant pack up and leave an empty nest of 25 years and downsize to country living in another state. We followed another participant through a difficult in vitro process. Others through surgery, health set-backs and recovery. At least two participants, I like to think buoyed by their Cyber Support Group, crossed the line from amateur to professional in the fields of writing and photography. And of course, we all got to know and love each other’s pets — because when you are taking a picture a day, a cute puppy or kitten is a good stand-in for a day when you have no inspiration.
Halfway through the project, I attempted to set up a half-way “real world” meet-up (which unfortunately fell through as schedules and distance made it increasingly impractical).
The camera doesn't lie. And apparently, neither do the InterWebs.
That’s where Andy sounded the alarm:
“I don’t want these people in my house. You don’t know them. They could be nuts or psychos.”
Well, I didn’t think so. I’d been “inside” so many of their houses. I’d seen snaps of the kids. I knew the layout of half of their workplaces. But many of us knew or had even recruited other members that we knew from “real life”. And slowly some of us met those known only on the Internet and vetted them to others. There was never a case of someone who seemed like a great person on-line who was a creep in real life.
Today marked my “crossing over” from Cyber Friend to Real Friend. Two good friends of mine, known by their Flickr handles Noe Knit and Drive-Design, had met two other Flickr members who also lived in San Francisco, (again with the Flickr handles) MyBlueMuse and The Other Martin Taylor. Drive and Noe were enthusiastic: “They’re a great couple. Another Brit/Yank combination. You’ll love them.”
Today, we finally met for brunch over by the Cliff House.
And they were just as fun and funny and talented and interesting as they seemed on line.
As you can imagine, the talk also turned to other Flickrites. We found we’d all had the same odd, hesitant feelings about a few hangers-on who dropped into the group photo pool every now and then. There was nothing you could put your finger on, but you know the feeling, someone who’s too clingy too soon. Who seems a little off-kilter. Who just gives you those “I better back off” vibes.
And it occurred to me that the InterWebs haven’t changed much. It’s just a new Town Square in which to meet people. Not that I’m advocating that young kids or teens should be making friends on line. They don’t have their antenna attuned yet and are fair game for the users and abusers. But if you’re over thirty five, you’ve met a wide variety of people and you know the signals.
The Internet doesn’t seem to shield anything. A creep is a creep on Main Street or on-line.
Bonding at Sutro Baths. Like good Flickr Buddies, Drive and TOMT look for good angles in the ruins of San Francisco's Sutro Baths.
And Good Peeps is Good Peeps wherever you find them. In fact, Good Peeps seem to shine right through the computer screen and be easily recognizable. Like MyBlueMuse and The Other Martin Taylor.
Glad we got together. Be seein’ a lot more of you.
What a wonderful post, Lisa. You’re so talented with your words and it makes for very compelling reading. I hope Martin and I get to meet Andy. Us Brit-Yank couples need to stick together. Maybe we’ll have you over to dinner, of course promising to pack away all our knives first. We want Andy to feel at home and not like he needs to come packing heat. 🙂 So lovely to meet you and I hope we meet again soon.
We should meet over here where Martin and Andy can have a jam session in the Pub. And Andy is secretly Gordon Ramsay’s younger brother by another mother and loves cooking for people. We’ll just tell him you’ve both been out on parole for awhile and the courts have deemed you are no longer a danger to society.
I worried when I first made my foray into the world of cyber communities. I am not always the best judge of characater as I can be a little naive. However I have yet to be bitten! but then I have been wary. I will never use my real name on any forum or on my blog. As long as you are aware of the pitfalls of cyber communities then you can make some very good friends.
I think that for the genuine people (which I think the majority of the folk are) the internet is a place where they will probably be far more open with others they haven’t met than they would be in real life.
*off to sharpen my knives now*
MA
That looks so much like a great fun day.
😀
The few people I met in real Life were as great as they were online. So far I was lucky 🙂
hello again, have tagged you for a meme – 6 things that make you happy – check out my blog.
MA
Awesome (don’t tell JT I am using this word when leaving a comment) that you got to meet some of your flickr friends IRL…I hope to do that someday with the great peeps I have met blogging…Your husband’s comment “I don’t want these people in my house. You don’t know them. They could be nuts or psychos” is exactly the response I would get here if I invited some of them to the house! My husband always thinks there is a good chance I am communicating with deranged beings. hmmm…on second thought we are all a bit deranged in our own “special” ways 😀
You really are a talented writer. I had to comment on this story. 76 and 78 were not really excited that I was going to be meeting “sazzy” last year whlie visiting SF. Same concerns as your husbands, what if she is a stalker, don’t give her your real name, don’t meet her at Ricks house, etc, etc, what a hoot! She did meet us at my husbands friends’ house, because she lives near Atherton, and it was close. What an absolutly wonderful person she is and I also got to meet Patty (mybluemuse) too. I think flickr people are some of the nicest in the world. 78 just walked into Noeknits shop and luckily met her last year. The interesting thing about this is that both of my daughters met their husbands online….76 through MySpace and 78 through Match.com. Go figure! We will be in SF in May and I hope to meet up with some Flickrites then. Keep up the good stories.