Reading Radar

Podcast Island has taken its share of shots by people in the past. Sometimes it’s about the fact that Gary’s not around much (and he’s not at the moment, he’s dealing with RL work), sometimes it’s about the fact that it’s often empty (which it is to a large degree, atm).  The funny thing is that a lot of the people who say it’s empty are the same ones who didn’t want to stick around and help make it not empty.  I heard on another podcast this week that we are boring and stuffy there. My immediate mental response was “how would you know?”

Recently I was told by someone that they didn’t want to live on podcaster island because of all the weirdos. What weirdos? That’s either me, Arri, Rob, Itazura, or Chug, and now Stuart, a lot of times. There is no one else there, remember?  Sure, there are some shops and some presences set up, but I rarely see any of those people.  I’m paying rent on the SW corner and I’ve never been bothered by anyone.  Then again, I’m personally not looking for privacy and seclusion. So maybe I just don’t care if people blunder in. That’s part of the fun.

I guess where I’m going with this is that I stand by my answer to Crap on his “Podcasting in SL” series of interviews.  My answer to the question of is there a podcasting community in SL is no. There are several communities, and people move between them, collaboration takes place between them, sometimes verbal potshots and comments are issued towards the other communities in them, but they are definitely distinct and (for the most part) fairly fluid.

Everyone has their ideas on how things should be run. I have mine. Certainly if I wanted to I could lob a few cheap shots back at people without even having to strain, but I’d rather not. I know people are all limited on time and energy, and I don’t mind if people aren’t coming running offering to help build community on podcast and podcaster islands. Certainly there’s areas where those of us who are there could do a lot better. So that doesn’t bother me. But you’ll have to forgive me if my enthusiasm for helping your communities sometimes dampens for a little while after another snarky remark or a stupid statement. I’m only human.

Update: I appreciated Crap’s response to this post.