Edit: votes indicate we're basically fine as is, so I'm not planning any major updates or new directions in focus as written below.
Hey folks, I know I've been pretty quiet on here for the past few months and that's mostly been on purpose, since I've been going through a lot of personal issues lately, and I just needed to take a step back from the StP community and work out some of my own shit.
The short version is that at 43 years old, I'm just not a dirty kid traveler anymore. I don't regret my time being a vagabond and seeing all the things I've seen and things I've done, but I've been feeling like I am becoming more and more disconnected from that world as I time goes on; at the same time, I have no desire to go back to the lifestyle that was such a large portion of my life. Living under bridges and being cold/hungry in my twenties and thirties was tolerable in the pursuit of adventure, but in your forties, you start to have to worry about a body that is starting to break down a little, and you start wondering where to go from here, since going backwards isn't really an option anymore.
At the same time, StP hasn't really evolved beyond the 'dirty kid' vibe, and while I get that, it also makes it hard for me to work on or maintain something I'm not really a part of anymore. It's like being forced to run a basketball website when you just don't have that much interest in it anymore.
And it's not to say that I don't have any interest in StP, or it's associated sub-cultures at all, it's just the dirty kid traveler aspect of it that I feel needs to evolve, or I just need to walk away from it and let it be. This is in combination with the entirety of the anarchist/activist/traveler/punk movement feeling especially dead for the past 5+ years that have really demotivated me in regard to working on StP, as there just doesn't seem to be much of a community left to pull together.
Personally, I'm not done traveling, not entirely, but I've gotten to the point where just about everything in the USA bores the hell out of me; this whole country feels like one big strip mall. Over the past 25 years I've been to every city and almost every major place in the USA dozens of times over, and it's really bumming me out; I feel like the definition of insanity, just doing the same thing over and over again, expecting something will be different this time.
Maybe my passion for travel will be reinvigorated when I get out of the USA (more on that later), but for now I'm feeling pretty stagnant.
I also just quit a job that was extremely good to me for the past three years, had health insurance, and paid great, but I'm just bored to tears of working in the IT industry. I've taken the money I've saved up, and I am spending the next 6–12 months self-training for a new job in 3D environment design, which basically means I'd be making levels for video games and possibly environments for TV/film. I'm very much looking forward to having some kind of artistic outlet through computers, which is something I've been craving for quite a while now.
I've been happy to just let StP float along as-is for the time being, and if ultimately that's the way it needs to stay, then I'll leave it be until I can find someone to take over.
But, the recent disaster with Elon Musk (the shithead-billionaire-man-baby) and Twitter made me take another look into other social media alternatives like Mastodon (for those that don't know, it's an open-source/decentralized twitter clone). Does anyone remember when social media was useful? When you didn't have to deal with a shitload of ads or bullshit articles with questionable motives? When it was just following your friends, so you know what everyone is up to? I think most people have moved to Instagram for that now, but goddamn there are so many fucking ads.
The point is, does anyone remember when social media wasn't a fucking cancer?
Mastodon made me start thinking about some of the possibilities for StP's future. There's obviously a need for social media alternatives out there, and the anarchist/activist/traveler/punk subcultures are no exception. Most people in the traveler subculture have at least heard of StP; why not expand the site from being focused on travel-only subject to a broader, more general social network for everyone?
To be clear, I don't mean for everyone, everyone, like your mom that keeps saying you need Jesus in your life, or your trump-loving dad. But rather a social network centered on alternative cultures as a whole, providing a space free from most of the bullshit you see on the big social networks. I'm not trying to be Facebook here, but I'd like to see a space where we can discuss things relevant to us in a space that isn't trying to sell every aspect of your life back to you in some way or another.
This is all just a long-winded way of saying I've been considering expanding the focus of StP in order to bring together alternative communities around the globe, not just the traveler community.
Not only do I think this is a good step in the right direction for StP to remain relevant, but the idea also maintains my interest in working on the StP site itself.
At this point, you're probably asking yourself what that would actually look like, and how StP would change to fit that model. I'm actually not 100% sure to be honest, but I have some vague ideas, and I'm hoping you have some of your own to share with us as well.
Some ideas:
monetization:
In addition, I would like to move from donations to a patreon-style membership system. Tiers would likely include a $1 and $5 level, with the possibility of adding an optional $10 and $20 tier as more features are added to the website. BUT, I am very intent on providing some kind of value for these tiers, such as the ability to delete edit posts for an unlimited amount of time (currently limited to 7 days), the ability to edit the visual design of your profile (ala MySpace), a custom URL for your profile, special color username in the message board and in discord, and a ton of other stuff. There will never be any paywalls (i.e. free users will have access to all message board content paid users do).
So yeah, those are my thoughts on this right now, and I'd like to know what yours are. I've started a poll to let you all give your feedback on whether this is a good idea or not. Please feel free to vote in the poll and post your thoughts in this thread. Please don't be afraid to tell me this is a bad idea if you honestly feel that way, but also, please be constructive in your criticisms.
Thank you for your time, and I hope that this all proves to be a valuable discussion in bringing StP forward and making it even more useful for people in facilitating in real life interactions.
Hey folks, I know I've been pretty quiet on here for the past few months and that's mostly been on purpose, since I've been going through a lot of personal issues lately, and I just needed to take a step back from the StP community and work out some of my own shit.
The short version is that at 43 years old, I'm just not a dirty kid traveler anymore. I don't regret my time being a vagabond and seeing all the things I've seen and things I've done, but I've been feeling like I am becoming more and more disconnected from that world as I time goes on; at the same time, I have no desire to go back to the lifestyle that was such a large portion of my life. Living under bridges and being cold/hungry in my twenties and thirties was tolerable in the pursuit of adventure, but in your forties, you start to have to worry about a body that is starting to break down a little, and you start wondering where to go from here, since going backwards isn't really an option anymore.
At the same time, StP hasn't really evolved beyond the 'dirty kid' vibe, and while I get that, it also makes it hard for me to work on or maintain something I'm not really a part of anymore. It's like being forced to run a basketball website when you just don't have that much interest in it anymore.
And it's not to say that I don't have any interest in StP, or it's associated sub-cultures at all, it's just the dirty kid traveler aspect of it that I feel needs to evolve, or I just need to walk away from it and let it be. This is in combination with the entirety of the anarchist/activist/traveler/punk movement feeling especially dead for the past 5+ years that have really demotivated me in regard to working on StP, as there just doesn't seem to be much of a community left to pull together.
Personally, I'm not done traveling, not entirely, but I've gotten to the point where just about everything in the USA bores the hell out of me; this whole country feels like one big strip mall. Over the past 25 years I've been to every city and almost every major place in the USA dozens of times over, and it's really bumming me out; I feel like the definition of insanity, just doing the same thing over and over again, expecting something will be different this time.
Maybe my passion for travel will be reinvigorated when I get out of the USA (more on that later), but for now I'm feeling pretty stagnant.
I also just quit a job that was extremely good to me for the past three years, had health insurance, and paid great, but I'm just bored to tears of working in the IT industry. I've taken the money I've saved up, and I am spending the next 6–12 months self-training for a new job in 3D environment design, which basically means I'd be making levels for video games and possibly environments for TV/film. I'm very much looking forward to having some kind of artistic outlet through computers, which is something I've been craving for quite a while now.
I've been happy to just let StP float along as-is for the time being, and if ultimately that's the way it needs to stay, then I'll leave it be until I can find someone to take over.
But, the recent disaster with Elon Musk (the shithead-billionaire-man-baby) and Twitter made me take another look into other social media alternatives like Mastodon (for those that don't know, it's an open-source/decentralized twitter clone). Does anyone remember when social media was useful? When you didn't have to deal with a shitload of ads or bullshit articles with questionable motives? When it was just following your friends, so you know what everyone is up to? I think most people have moved to Instagram for that now, but goddamn there are so many fucking ads.
The point is, does anyone remember when social media wasn't a fucking cancer?
Mastodon made me start thinking about some of the possibilities for StP's future. There's obviously a need for social media alternatives out there, and the anarchist/activist/traveler/punk subcultures are no exception. Most people in the traveler subculture have at least heard of StP; why not expand the site from being focused on travel-only subject to a broader, more general social network for everyone?
To be clear, I don't mean for everyone, everyone, like your mom that keeps saying you need Jesus in your life, or your trump-loving dad. But rather a social network centered on alternative cultures as a whole, providing a space free from most of the bullshit you see on the big social networks. I'm not trying to be Facebook here, but I'd like to see a space where we can discuss things relevant to us in a space that isn't trying to sell every aspect of your life back to you in some way or another.
This is all just a long-winded way of saying I've been considering expanding the focus of StP in order to bring together alternative communities around the globe, not just the traveler community.
Not only do I think this is a good step in the right direction for StP to remain relevant, but the idea also maintains my interest in working on the StP site itself.
At this point, you're probably asking yourself what that would actually look like, and how StP would change to fit that model. I'm actually not 100% sure to be honest, but I have some vague ideas, and I'm hoping you have some of your own to share with us as well.
Some ideas:
- A re-arrangement of forum sections, probably getting rid of some less-used areas and adding a lot more sections to facilitate discussion on a variety of subjects. i don't specifically know what those sections would be, i'm hoping we could figure that out through community discussion.
- Possibly the addition of 'groups' to let users create their own discussion groups
- possibly adding a community events calendar, so folks can let the world know when interesting events are coming up (like the jamboree or punks in the woods).
- Addition of music and movies catalogs using these two plugins:
Music Thread Starter for XenForo - https://xenforo.com/community/resources/music-thread-starter-for-xenforo.6050/
TMDb Movie Thread Starter for XenForo - https://xenforo.com/community/resources/tmdb-movie-thread-starter-for-xenforo.5655/ - community events not related to travel; an example might be a StP online D&D group or other gaming group organized via our discord server.
- possibly adding a discussion area where folks can start their own group that is divided by area/city for discussions of things going on in that city (i.e. portland.squattheplanet.com)
- a mastodon instance for users to use if they wish, would be connected to the federated mastodon network (anyone can msg anyone else on any mastodon instance) probably using squattheplanet.net or squattheplanet.org.
- Possibly putting the mastodon instance on the front page, and moving the forums to squattheplanet.com/forums
- Use of the StP discord would continue until alternatives like element become more mature
monetization:
In addition, I would like to move from donations to a patreon-style membership system. Tiers would likely include a $1 and $5 level, with the possibility of adding an optional $10 and $20 tier as more features are added to the website. BUT, I am very intent on providing some kind of value for these tiers, such as the ability to delete edit posts for an unlimited amount of time (currently limited to 7 days), the ability to edit the visual design of your profile (ala MySpace), a custom URL for your profile, special color username in the message board and in discord, and a ton of other stuff. There will never be any paywalls (i.e. free users will have access to all message board content paid users do).
So yeah, those are my thoughts on this right now, and I'd like to know what yours are. I've started a poll to let you all give your feedback on whether this is a good idea or not. Please feel free to vote in the poll and post your thoughts in this thread. Please don't be afraid to tell me this is a bad idea if you honestly feel that way, but also, please be constructive in your criticisms.
Thank you for your time, and I hope that this all proves to be a valuable discussion in bringing StP forward and making it even more useful for people in facilitating in real life interactions.
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