The new Round Table is up! Episode 5.01 — Intro to Story Games: Chris (“Grog like dice!”) and KJ (“Where my character sheet at?”) don’t know story games; their guests do. Can old dogs be taught new tricks?
Check it out at the House of the Harping Monkey.
miniTotoro used one of my twitter icons as the basis for her latest work: The Code Zombie
Very, very cool, miniTotoro! This rocks. I want this on a t-shirt and a mousepad. 
Here’s the original shot:
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INFJ – “Author”. Strong drive and enjoyment to help others. Complex personality. 1.5% of total population.
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How many social networks do you belong to?
Me? Too many. You could spent all your time keeping up with these things, and man…if you thought MMORPGs were a timesink, you should try to keep up with all the friend requests, zombie apps, etc, etc, etc.
There comes a point where I feel I’ve been social enough, thank-you-very-much.
I’m not the only one feeling a bit burned out by the number and types of social networks out there. [[[Jason Calacanis]]] just wrote a bit about Faceboook in his blog:
…I’ve got too many friends torturing me about movies I’ll never see at this point–I don’t need you to burden me with the movies you want me to see. I want to watch my Kurosawa DVDs again! I want to watch all the Frankenheimer movies I missed… even the bad ones.
Yes, I love Zombies, but no I don’t want to be turned into one.
Yes, I like fortune cookies, but no I don’t want a virtual one.
Yes, I’d love to play Texas Holdem for a couple of hours–but not online.…Frankly I think folks are getting splintered by these social networks. You spend so much time checking off what you’ll do that you never do anything. Why waste your time talking about movies you’re going to watch when you haven’t even seen the classics, the 20 you have in your Netflix queue, and DVDs you’ve already BOUGHT?!?
Good points, all. Using some of these networks is a massive nag-fest. [[[Facebook]]] is pretty bad about this. Ever since they launched their API, all manner of crapola has been shoveled around from friend to friend.
I especially like what Steve Eley had to say in his most recent post:
I’M DRAWING THE LINE. I’m too damn networked. If we’re not hoping to work together or sleep together, please don’t ask me to join stuff…
…My breakthrough today was defining a proper litmus test for “damn good reason.” And that’s what I Twittered above. I may know 70 people in a given network, but the invite is only meaningful to me if I want to work with you or have a relationship with you, and there’s some clear evidence that the network involved will help us get work done or get to know each other better. After that, I’ll probably start seeing the value in it for more casual connections, but why put the work in for every single network when it’s the same fewscore people on all of them?
I’m rethinking my own use of these networks. Facebook has been both fun and annoying, but as I learn to filter out the crap, I can see some redeeming qualities in it. Many of the folks I know on Facebook pass Steve’s litmus test in my book. Other networks, like Pownce, have yet to prove themselves to me. It doesn’t annoy me, but it doesn’t really inspire me at the moment. I find myself using Twitter much, much more.
Still…I’ve reached my limit. Spock, ClaimID, etc, etc, etc…I just don’t use them. What’s another directory? Why is this one better then the last? The noise is becoming so deafening, I’m losing the signal entirely.
I’m off for now…going to head down to the local coffeehouse and talk to some friends. In person. It’s less trying than being “social.”
It’s official…Dave, Tina, and I are gathering together to try to help bring RefreshCleveland back to life.
Rather than interpret for you, I’ll use Dave’s words. He’s British, and sounds so much classier than me:
There’s been little activity here for a while now, but I am happy to report that (behind the scenes) stuff is coming together.
Myself & Chris are helping Tina to get Refresh Cleveland back on it’s feet and, hopefully, start the community of developers and designers around here talking to each other more.
We’ll be starting small with a new look, some more regular postings and maybe one or two informal coffee shop get togethers.
The idea is not to be a rival to the Meetup’s or Web Association, but to supplement them, enabling people to talk about what they love and hate about the web-regardless of employer, project or client.
While we’re not going to compete with anyone, I am still pushing for decoder rings and a treehouse.
Technorati tags: refreshcleveland, web standards, launch
Tags: refreshcleveland, web standards, launch
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