Postmodern crafty sharing?

[mirz]

Also posted at Glitter.

This may be my final questionary, although I wont promise a thing. This is probably the most important one, so please put your heart into this. If there is something important to say about these lovely crafty messageboards etc. but not listed in my questions, feel free to say it.

Online crafty clubs:

• How did you find this online crafty group?
  
• Do you find its forum partition nice or does some else crafty forum have better partition?
  (I'll look Glitter, getcrafty and Crafster, and the partition is pretty different in these three.. I wonder which is the best.)
  
• Are you part of several online groups?
  
• Do you think these online groups are useful and meaningful to crafty culture?
  
• Does it matter, that these online groups mainly effect visual?
  (Offline groups tend to make you use not only your sense of sight, but your hearing, sense of feeling.. every sense. Please think about this one specially.)
  
• Have you had a meet up with your online crafty friends?
  (Have you made friends? Are these friends offline friends nowadays too?)
  
• What kind of entries are your favorites?
  (Tutorials, rumours, politics, advicing.. you name it, I'll be happy about it.)
  

I found my way to getcrafty by accident, and I'm very glad I find it. This forum has changed my view of world, and it made me change my thesis thema.

Of these three examples Glitter does probably have the best partition IMHO. It doesn't mean that I don't love getcrafty :P I'm part of those three forums, and one Finnish crafty newsgroup. I'm about to start Finnish online crafty group together with my thesis. So these opinions of yours have big, important role while thinking usability etc.

I think that the concentration to visual isn't too bad thing. Of course people may put video or flash or something to net and teach crafts via those and effect to hearing too. It is better than nothing, yes?

Friends I don't yet have made, but you'll never know. I have plenty of friends made in Internet, so that isn't a problem to me.

And entries I love are definitely tutorials with pictures. Of course general ramblings are fantastic too, but I <3 tutorials!

Put your heart into this! Please.
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[mirz]

Pretty please, after this no more nasty questions.
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[lizzymahoney]

I have been on the old glitter, the new glitter, getcrafty and a few yahoo groups related to specific crafts for a long time. I no longer remember where I learned of the original getcrafty's glitter, but I bet it was a site called hissyfit.

I prefer the format of getcrafty. I don't care for Craftster because it's too spread out: too many areas to look. And the new Glitter gets too much traffic and too little of interest to me. Getcrafty is what we make of it while Glitter has a force of its own. Does that make sense? We are a small enough community that each of us has some noticeable effect here. Not so on the other boards. The various yahoo groups get boring and political.

I don't need the visuals, don't actually want them. I have to admit a bit of snobbery. When someone writes in whining for a tutorial on how to hem a pair of pants or turn a scarf into a halter top I wonder at the complete lack of imagination. Some years back I was in brief snail mail contact with an OG expat. She left because she had a small zine with cute ideas, but got bombarded with idiot questions. "Yeah, but HOW do you glue that bead to the barrette?" So she just wanted to sever connections with things that only irritated her. I sort of do that. There are a few posters I rarely read. With getcrafty, I don't edit that way. Sure I can see the poster's name, but it's not as graphic as the same stupid avatar that reminds me that a particular poster is an idiot.

I'm way old, way older than music videos. When we heard music on the radio, we had to interpret the song or place it in a context we could understand. Then MTV came along and I attached someone else's vision to the music I heard. Sometimes it works well, but I think it deprives me of my own imagination unless I make an effort. That's how I feel about visuals in craft fora. Generally. Sometimes a description is not enough.

I have never met any online crafty friends. I do have crafty online people I consider more friends than others, and I don't know that that is reciprocated. That's okay though.

I dislike politics, sniping, spamming, general snarkiness. I hate the feel poppin fresh good threads.

While i may be interested in the personal lives of some folks here, my strongest reason for returning is the creative effort. I like to encourage it, I like to get inspiration, I like to learn of new views on things.

Even where I am accomplished, I can learn from someone who is very new at something. Did you ever go to a theme park with a small child? Suddenly everything looks different because of the child's perspective. That's what inexperienced crafters bring to the boards: that childlike innocence and the asking of "Why?" and an equally valid perspective.

[mirz]

[lizzymahoney]

One of the post types I really like about glitter and getcrafty is the "What do I do with ___?"

Someone starts with an item that just seems like it should have other uses, crafty or utilitarian. I know I can dominate those threads so I try to just read them and not post... A few others, like wisheveled for one, can also go on and on and on with many ideas and off the wall brainstorming. I love seeing someone else's mind work that way.

I'm cleaning up after Hurricane Frances here. I see small tree branches in the huge amounts of tree limbs and leaf litter and think, "Oooh, pretty! What can I do with that?" A chunk of roof shingle, broken glass, tons of spanish moss, lots of palm fronds: I can think of uses for all of it. Hmm, maybe not tons of it, but some anyway.

When we do that in a thread here, we build off of each other's simple suggestions. While the end result may be the work of a lone crafter, the idea may be created from the minds of several.

[CraftinFool]

Hi Mirz: here's my 2 cents

How did you find this online crafty group?
I joined getcrafty around 2001, I believe. I honestly can't remember how I found it but I think it was after reading an article about Jean in the Utne Reader.

Do you find its forum partition nice or does some else crafty forum have better partition? (I'll look Glitter, getcrafty and Crafster, and the partition is pretty different in these three.. I wonder which is the best.) I likethe getcrafty partition fine. I can't think of any other categories I would add, except maybe one to do with specific subjects like work or home life.

Are you part of several online groups? Yes, I am, but I'm most active in getcrafty. I tend to be a lurker on my yahoo groups and craftster.

Do you think these online groups are useful and meaningful to crafty culture? I think they can be, certainly they have been for me, but they're not for everyone. I think it does seem to be a younger culture that gravitates to the online crafty groups, like I couldn't see my mom, who is crafty and in her late 50's, into getcrafty like I am. Partly because she's less into being online a lot like I am.

Does it matter, that these online groups mainly effect visual?
(Offline groups tend to make you use not only your sense of sight, but your hearing, sense of feeling.. every sense. Please think about this one specially.) I have never thought about this. I guess I am mainly a visual person so it hasn't bothered me.

Have you had a meet up with your online crafty friends?
(Have you made friends? Are these friends offline friends nowadays too?) I haven't met up with any online crafty friends. Partly b/c not many have been in my area of the country, partly b/c I am pretty busy offline with work, school, husband and house. But time to time I have wanted to try to do a stitch and bitch or meet some of the online folks. Like, a big international getcrafty party once a year would rock.

What kind of entries are your favorites?
(Tutorials, rumours, politics, advicing.. you name it, I'll be happy about it.) I like almost all of the topics. My favorites, though, are ones where folks have shared a project idea they came up with, or are looking for advice on something that I feel I might be able to share some thoughts about, or the food ones. Also the bookworm thread!

Best of luck, cf

[mirz]

[felt]

I liked Craftinfool's format, so here goes..

How did you find this online crafty group?
Can't remember. But I'm very new to this kind of thing. I'm a graphic designer and when I started freelancing last year I manage to free up some time now and then. I spend it creating things, crafting. I guess I started to look to the internet for help on some things and somehow found my way here.

Do you find its forum partition nice or does some else crafty forum have better partition? (I'll look Glitter, getcrafty and Crafster, and the partition is pretty different in these three.. I wonder which is the best.)
I do like Craftster's partition better. Even though it's big in volume, it's pretty easy to weed stuff out within the categories. On a separate note, although I feel like Craftster has more active/productive crafters than Get Crafty, they seem to me a whole lot 'younger' which makes it not so much the place for me and why I'm not a member. What I mean by 'younger' isn't so much about age but more about maturity. Same for Glitter, it seems to lack the cozy feel that Get Crafty has. I also appreciate Jean's statement about the 'shoulds' factor in crafting (see 'What's Get Crafty All About' on the homepage).

Are you part of several online groups?
No.

Do you think these online groups are useful and meaningful to crafty culture?
For sure. I'm continually amazed at how much help and advice is given on Get Crafty alone. And not to mention the flow of ideas that pass through Glitter and Craftster. I wish graphic designers were as generous with their secrets/tips as this bunch.

Does it matter, that these online groups mainly effect visual?
(Offline groups tend to make you use not only your sense of sight, but your hearing, sense of feeling.. every sense. Please think about this one specially.)
I think it's equally important in all senses. Although pictures are not crucial in explaining something, it certainly helps no doubt. I personally prefer one or two visual guides.

Have you had a meet up with your online crafty friends?
(Have you made friends? Are these friends offline friends nowadays too?)
No. I live in Holland which makes it a bit difficult. There is a craft group that's available to me here but I never make an effort to go. Mainly because I have this dumb notion (on my part of course) that they're just a platform for gossip time and not much fruition. Plus the kind of craft I do isn't very portable either. I have a few crafty girlfriends and we talk about our crafts once in a while but it's never the focus of our relationships.

What kind of entries are your favorites?
(Tutorials, rumours, politics, advicing.. you name it, I'll be happy about it.)
I especially like the ones that ask for craft advice. I also very much enjoy posts with tutorials and tips. On the other hand I don't care much for posts that have topics like bikini waxing or corrective surgery. They don't bug me, I just don't read them.

I hope this helps.

[baltica]

mirz, interesting questions. What's your thesis going to be about? What sort of program are you in?


How did you find this online crafty group?
A fellow knitter sent me a link here, as there was a good example of a project we wanted to do being discussed here.

Do you find its forum partition nice or does some else crafty forum have better partition?
(I'll look Glitter, getcrafty and Crafster, and the partition is pretty different in these three.. I wonder which is the best.)

I don't know Glitter at all. Craftster...I don't know, there's almost too much going on there. It's overwhelming. Plus I HATE those little pictures next to people's names, I feel like I'm on some teeny bopper website.

Are you part of several online groups?

Yes, a couple of non-craft related ones. They're becoming less and less interesting to me, though. Why? The same old topics always resurface, people are more interested in discussing Hollywood gossip and what they ate that day than things I actually care about, etc.

Do you think these online groups are useful and meaningful to crafty culture?

Absolutely! I often feel very isolated in my crafty pursuits, as I tend to work alone rather than try to work with my lovely but VERY flaky, unreliable friends. (Plus some things just tend toward isolation...I can't very well tote my 45" floor loom around!) It's just cool to have access to ideas, be able to bounce ideas off people, get questions answered, etc. Not that I've taken much advantage of these things yet, here...but give me time!

Does it matter, that these online groups mainly effect visual?
(Offline groups tend to make you use not only your sense of sight, but your hearing, sense of feeling.. every sense. Please think about this one specially.)

Sure it matters, but if it's all you have, it's better than nothing. I highly prefer someone live showing me how to do something, but web tutorials have been lifesavers in many circumstances. I don't know any very experienced knitters, so when I needed to know how to do a 3 needle bind off at 11pm one night, and my knitting instruction books came up short, I turned to the web and voila! I found a step by step photo tutorial as well as a video.

Have you had a meet up with your online crafty friends?
(Have you made friends? Are these friends offline friends nowadays too?)

Don't really know any yet. I have met people I've met online in the past, though.

What kind of entries are your favorites?
(Tutorials, rumours, politics, advicing.. you name it, I'll be happy about it.)

I pretty much dig it all. I don't really care about what you ate for breakfast today, though.

[mirz]

[mirz]

Hey, just wanted to thank all of you who participated in threadsCrafty heritage, Offline crafty groups and Postmodern crafty sharing?

I have now graduated and got 4 (out of 5) from my thesis. Especially they liked my interviews in which you have participated by talking in these threads.

So, thank you very much.
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[kindarana]

Congratulations!

[lizzymahoney]

Thanks for letting us know, Mirz. I've been wondering. Are you pleased with your effort? And what will you do now?

[baltica]

mirz, that's wonderful!

(hehe, I completely forgot about this thread and was about to reply to it again.)

[mirz]