Interaction Is A Good Thing

Introduction

These are just some observations about posts in various groups and how we interact and reciprocate, and what benefits we can gain from that.

While we are all here to write and share our work and hopefully get it read, it is beneficial for us to support others where we can.

Judey Kalchik wrote this excellent article on the benefits of reciprocity, and it is worth you taking your time over it if you have not read it yet.

The song I have gone with is the gorgeous "Dark Therapy" by Echobelly, whose female members included, on vocals, Sonya Madan, Debbie Smith on guitar and Ruth Owen on bass. An incredible song from a great band, and the title might be appropriate for this piece.

Interaction On Facebook And In Vocal

I am not autistic, but I do have some slight autistic traits, which I share in this piece (which has a lot of reads, but not from Vocal Creators). I usually follow rules and guidelines, and I expect others to do the same, but I know I can only make suggestions, not force people to do things or belittle them for not doing things.

In VSS, we have various themed threads that are renewed each week (except the Challenge Entry thread, which is renewed each month), and they are:

• Challenges (1st of Month)
• Poetry (Monday)
• Old, New, Borrowed And Blue (Tuesday)
• Microfiction (Wednesday)
• Dynamic Duo (Saturday)
• Community Adventure (Sunday)

We may resurrect "Fiction Friday" and "Who's Link Is It Anyway?" as well.

While I would like people to use these threads (and a lot do), most people still just drop things in the main discussion thread, and then they just sink down. If I see poetry or challenge entries on the main discussion, I tend to ignore them, but people have said that they don't like threads because it is too much work to find them, although they are on the VSS Marquee bar.

VSS started as being thread only (except in exceptional circumstances) but now allows solo posts and I recently republished this article on the subject.

I do post in other groups, VIM is still thread based, with two posts a day which I stick to religiously although others ignore the rule. I do drop the odd meme though which is OK, because I was told it was fine by the admins.

Great Incantation is for Challenge Entries only, but in the beginning, there were many that ignored that. Now, everything I see in there is a Challenge Entry, so that makes me happy.

I do think groups benefit from threads because otherwise, it is just people dropping their latest publications.

One other thing in VSS, we ask everyone to include a short introduction to the stories, but again, lots of people just drop the link and expect people to read it. I have looked into ways to automatically reject these posts, but Facebook is not very helpful with this (or many other problems).

Administering groups is time consuming, but we do it because we want people to feel safe, encouraged, free to ask for support and advice, and we want the group to feel alive. For that to happen, we have to be seen to be doing things and to be there for people.

Conclusion

I am sorry if any of this comes across as critical of Creators; it is not. I want us all to have places where we can share our work, maybe get a few reads, and the odd cup of coffee.

Thank you so much for reading ad I would love to hear your thoughts.