Getting ready to move in a few months, slowly packing and going through our things, selling and donating what we no longer need, and also accumulating more books in their place which is not helping lolol. I get a lot of free books from where I work, which is such a blessing but also really bad when trying to get ready to move. Most of the books I donate, but I keep most of the romance novels I find for myself, or if a book is really popular, or if it’s a collector’s edition, sometimes I’ll resell.
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I also received such a blessing recently of beads from a coworker who no longer makes jewelry. I was going through a bit of a period where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue making jewelry or not. I really hate doing markets. I hate going, doing the setup, sitting there for hours, I just really hate doing markets. Ideally, I’d love to just sell what I make online. Anyways, this coworker gifted me so many beautiful stone beads, glass beads, pewter, and a bunch of others, that it kind of got me re-inspired and I think I may try my hand at selling them again, but I think I’ll just focus on selling them online.
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In site news, I did some tinkering with The Book Ring this weekend. The most popular feature request in the poll was adding a members feature section showcasing what everyone is currently reading. That is added now and members can now submit posts via a form in the Member’s section of the ring. These posts are RSS subscribable, and each post includes the member’s name and website, which makes this such a great way to encourage more visits to each member’s websites, but also encourage engagement and interactions with people who share the same taste in books. So I’m hoping members will take advantage of it and give it a go. 🤞
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I’ve also been thinking about joining and participating in more small web communities. I’ve been a bit shy tbh. I feel like my site has grown a lot, and I’ve built a solid foundation here on the small web, but I guess I have a bit of insecurity interacting with people on the small web. I hate to bring up that it always seems to come down to this, but so much of the small web, and even the majority of the Fediverse operates on the same echo chamber, and I obviously don’t think I fit into that echo chamber so it’s hard to really create meaningful communication with people these days. People so strongly identify with those echo chambers. In many cases as soon as someone discovers I don’t chirp the same tune on certain matters, even if we’ve never discussed it, that’s the end of communication and sometimes people switch to downright nasty. People let their social/political feelings on certain matters get in the way of having pleasant civilized conversation, it’s really disconcerting that this is the mentality of current and younger generations. I’ve experienced firsthand on the small web and Fedi that if you’re found to disagree with a particular echo chamber, a clear division is created. I come across “DNI” lists often; this is the mentality a lot of people hold now. Your interactions don’t mean shit if you don’t meet a certain criteria, and that’s a load of piping hot BS lol. Mind you, I don’t think this is the entire Fediverse or Small Web, but it’s prevalent enough within both that it really stands out and makes itself known.
We live in a time where everyone has their opinions on blast about everything and nothing’s really neutral anymore. And while I’ve certainly been no stranger to voicing my own views on things, I am also not ignorant to admit that I don’t think this is a healthy trait we’ve developed as a society and that we were much more at peace socially 10-15 years ago when we didn’t put our feelings on sensitive social/political topics on blast everywhere. Back then people didn’t make “DNI” lists or even care much about politics.
I tried out SpaceHey for awhile and was fairly active there, but ultimately left because the majority of the community there was super cringe, lots of young kids on there I think (which is weird because the site is modelled after the old Myspace, which seems more like a Gen X/Millennial thing). It just was not a good fit, and I do see a lot of those same things reflected across the small web, though, the past few months I also think I’ve attracted more folks who are more mature, laid back, and generally just not so uptight via the Free Speech Webring, which I’m so thankful for, and I’ve discovered the Agora Road forum which I really like, so perhaps getting more active there would be a good start. Aside from that though, I also think a lot may be my own insecurities with people and I have just gotten so comfortable in my own space, but I realize it’d be healthy to push myself out of that comfort zone and branch out a bit more. Maybe I’d have something useful to offer in various small web communities. I really do feel passionate about seeing more people creating their own websites and eventually have some kind of program to help people totally new to this movement do that. One step at a time. Anyways, this is just where my head is at right now.