Clojurians Log v2

We all know borkdude for his great piano playing, but he also, on the side, and you may not know this, but it is true, does dabble in Clojure.

I'm most known for my progressive rock history https://www.flickr.com/photos/pictureofthemoon/598896745/in/photostream/ so I always have to explain to people on the streets in The Netherlands that I pivoted to Clojure

(totally kidding of course)

Awesome glam shot!

Great talk yesterday!

Thanks 😊

Was that you talking about the fact that you publish piano recitals? I’m looking forward to hearing the talk!

Readability is such a lovely thing to optimize for, in my opinion

yes, this is why lambdaisland.cli uses vectors to define flags and subcommands. It also accepts maps IIRC, but with the vector syntax you can control the order in the --help text that things show up

@otfrom So helpful! Summarizing so far: 1. Consistently show up at the same place. 2. Keep it lightweight, so the burden is low and gathering actually happens. (eg. lunch, dojos) 3. Involve those who care about the event. Line up their effort with their interests. Help them with what needs to get done. 4. Don't hang on too tightly as an organizer. Keep space for others to have freedom and add their own energy. 5. The more people that are actively involved, the less depends on any one person to keep it going.

Sounds about right

And beware, because it is easy to do it can be easy to do too many times and an organiser might burn out (as happened to me)

And make sure it is fun. If it is fun then people will come back and magic will happen

Ah yes! Fun and light. Not too frequent.

I think there are other people here who are pretty good at community building too. Let's talk about the things that work and what can still be frustrating or difficult

@slipset what did you find that was useful? (As you were the one who kicked this off) 💖

Your trick of just showing up at the same place and say «Hi»

The single most effective way of building community

But I figured you might just have some other tricks up your sleeve that @neumann could benefit from.

Doing a lightweight thing and being in the same place is a big thing. It shows someone is there. I like code dojos for the same reason. They are really lightweight to organise (just turn up somewhere with at least one laptop tho preferably one each)

Jeaye Wilkinson had a section on this in his talk about sticking with your projects. My memory is hazy on what exactly he said (Friday morning feels like forever ago) so that's a talk I want to watch again...

That was a very good talk, but I think that was more a community around your project, and IMO is a bit outside of this context, which is more perhaps about a geographic community?

the other thing that worked for me (in more geographical organising) was making anyone who complained about a missing event into an organiser and helping get them lined up with all the things they needed to do what they wanted to do. This was how London Clojurians went from dojos only to having talks as well

and also I hope what kept it going over the years. If I'd held on to the reins too tightly it might have died w/my burn out, but instead there were already people organising things who were able to carry on w/o me needing to be there

hey, just coming across this thread now. Good stuff! A dynamic I've seen play out multiple times in various volunteer groups (tech or not) is that there are lots of people who want to help, but very few people who want to do the "management". It's easy to find people who will pick up a predefined task if they have some time, it's harder to find people who figure out what needs doing in the first place. So the bigger the thing gets, the bigger the burden on the people who originally took the initiative, until eventually they burn out or leave and the thing fizzles out. I guess one answer is to keep it small and lightweight so you don't really need that structure and responsibility, but are there other strategies to get past this?

two examples that come to mind: clojurebridge berlin, and my local "folk kitchen" group. With clojurebridge we came to a point where we still had dozens of people who wanted to help or coach, but workshops were no longer happening, because the people who originally took the initiative were exhausted... and nobody stepped up take over the initiative, find a location and a date, do a kickoff meeting... with our local voku group it's two friends that started it, they're good cooks and socially active, they're also very frustrated cause they feel they don't get more help... but they're terrible managers, so no one really knows what needs to happen, and everyone feels unsure of taking initiative themselves because the others are "in charge"