A new outlook, deteriorating state of social media
I've been thinking a lot lately about what an unmitigated fucking disaster social media has become in the past ten years or so. While I'm sure there will be some folks that will say 'I told you so', I don't think any of us really knew how bad things would get. I foolishly assumed that social media would basically remain something in the ethereal of the internet, but boy was I wrong. The bullshit of social media has bled straight into our everyday lives and just created a huge shitshow.
The only good part is that I think some folks (mostly millennials and younger) are finally starting to grasp how harmful all that shit is to our mental health, and I think (or mostly hope) that people are going to start pulling away from the big tech companies' 'communities' and start seeking out smaller, niche communities that aren't trying to constantly trick you into doom scrolling till the end of time.
It seems to me that StP is in a good position for those interested in rewinding back to a time when the internet didn't kind of totally suck balls. A place for us to hang out with each other, using technology to bridge the gap between our communities, and help those all alone out there find a tribe of their own.
I've been reading a lot lately about how our generation is the loneliest one on record. People are feeling more alone than ever, and I think we all agree that isn't good for our mental and spiritual health. Personally, I've felt more alone in the past five years than I have at any other point in my life; I figure it's about time we all start doing something about that and helping those around us do the same.
In addition, I think we're also going to be looking at a potentially rough few years ahead politically, and possibly financially, as corpo fucks race to ruin everything in sight for maximum profit. I honestly believe that we'll be the first generation to not have any kind of social security at all, and no one really holds out any hope of not having to work until they're dead. That is, of course, unless we do something about it, which I will discuss in more detail below.
StP's slight pivot towards general networking
The first pivot in StP's goals was back around 2010; up until then, it had been almost exclusively centered around train hopping (something I'd been doing for nearly eight years at that point), and I decided there was more to life than just one form of travel (this also coincided with my recent move away from train hopping and going into the skoolie lifestyle). I added most of the additional forum categories you see on the site today, and I think most folks would agree that decision made StP a much more interesting and diverse community in the years since.
With that in mind, I think it's time for StP to broaden it's horizons once again.
In this post I will be proposing massive changes to the message board, the community itself, and a general pivot away from being a website exclusively about/for traveler communities, and making ourselves available to folks outside those cultures.
I know this might upset some folks (the first pivot in 2010 certainly did), but let me be very clear that I am looking to add to this community, not take away from it. This means adding some new spaces for folks to discuss things not exclusively travel related, and consolidating a lot of the categories into a small handful as we prepare to move to a tag-based forum software instead of our current category-based system (which has over 40+ categories), but I'll go into detail on that further on in this post.
Town Hall
I'm hoping you'll all join me in a few events coming soon that will ensure there is as much input as possible from the community in order to facilitate what's best for that community (rather than me just making all the decisions myself). This includes a series of "Town Hall" meetings that will take place every two weeks. Much like our previous weekly voice hangouts in our Discord server, we'll be meeting twice a month (on the 1st and 15th) to discuss things we'd like to see happen in this community. I'll be sending out email reminders to all StP users (which you can opt out of by clicking this link and un-checking 'Receive news and update emails') so hopefully, as many people as possible can participate.
Community Survey
Even with constant reminders, I know not everyone will be able to show up for a live meeting, so again, in order to ensure maximum community input, I will be releasing an optional survey for users to participate in. This survey will be emailed to all StP members (unless you've opted out of announcement emails).
The results of both the town hall meetings and the community survey will be gathered together and posted in a website update in this area of the forums, where we can continue the discussion of specific aspects from there.
Proposed re-structuring of the message board
As mentioned in previous announcements, I am (along with the help of @eyes and @Brookeeeeeeeee) looking at moving the community over to a new message board software, most likely Discourse. This will necessitate some significant restructuring of the website.
I have drawn up a general idea of what the new structure will look like, and provided the current structure for comparison. You can find this work-in-progress at the following link:
Proposed Website Structure | Notion - https://mderrick.notion.site/Proposed-Website-Structure-3ca3ba2aaa214656bc6a83c383991fd1
Please feel free to post any thoughts you have on these proposed changes as a reply to this thread, but please keep your input constructive. Please provide detailed reasons for your opinions rather than flat statements that can't be worked upon.
The end goal of this restructuring is to create a space that is both more useful, inclusive, and more fun to participate in.
A real, tangible space for StP members to gather (the coop)
Another thing I want to talk about here is the often-suggested or alluded to StP living coop. I am extremely interested in making this a more focused goal of StP over the next few years. As I described above, I truly believe that the best way to ride out the upcoming years (and survive financially as many of us get older) is to collaborate on getting some kind of coop space for us to live and share resources. This also has the advantage of giving an IRL space to have gatherings, concerts, workshops and other community-oriented events. I'll be starting another thread for discussing this in detail, but I want folks to know this is quickly moving towards being one of the top goals of the StP organization.
So if you're interested, please join the discussion!
Future goals of StP
A few of the goals I have on the horizon for StP are mainly centered around creating mechanisms for folks to come together both online and in real life in as many ways as possible; this includes building things like a community wiki/docs platform (i.e. static, easily reference-able information), an events calendar, and a video hosting platform (a DIY, self-hosted YouTube-like platform).
But first, we need to get the current website sorted out. So tell me what you want to see happen in this community!
I've been thinking a lot lately about what an unmitigated fucking disaster social media has become in the past ten years or so. While I'm sure there will be some folks that will say 'I told you so', I don't think any of us really knew how bad things would get. I foolishly assumed that social media would basically remain something in the ethereal of the internet, but boy was I wrong. The bullshit of social media has bled straight into our everyday lives and just created a huge shitshow.
The only good part is that I think some folks (mostly millennials and younger) are finally starting to grasp how harmful all that shit is to our mental health, and I think (or mostly hope) that people are going to start pulling away from the big tech companies' 'communities' and start seeking out smaller, niche communities that aren't trying to constantly trick you into doom scrolling till the end of time.
It seems to me that StP is in a good position for those interested in rewinding back to a time when the internet didn't kind of totally suck balls. A place for us to hang out with each other, using technology to bridge the gap between our communities, and help those all alone out there find a tribe of their own.
I've been reading a lot lately about how our generation is the loneliest one on record. People are feeling more alone than ever, and I think we all agree that isn't good for our mental and spiritual health. Personally, I've felt more alone in the past five years than I have at any other point in my life; I figure it's about time we all start doing something about that and helping those around us do the same.
In addition, I think we're also going to be looking at a potentially rough few years ahead politically, and possibly financially, as corpo fucks race to ruin everything in sight for maximum profit. I honestly believe that we'll be the first generation to not have any kind of social security at all, and no one really holds out any hope of not having to work until they're dead. That is, of course, unless we do something about it, which I will discuss in more detail below.
StP's slight pivot towards general networking
The first pivot in StP's goals was back around 2010; up until then, it had been almost exclusively centered around train hopping (something I'd been doing for nearly eight years at that point), and I decided there was more to life than just one form of travel (this also coincided with my recent move away from train hopping and going into the skoolie lifestyle). I added most of the additional forum categories you see on the site today, and I think most folks would agree that decision made StP a much more interesting and diverse community in the years since.
With that in mind, I think it's time for StP to broaden it's horizons once again.
In this post I will be proposing massive changes to the message board, the community itself, and a general pivot away from being a website exclusively about/for traveler communities, and making ourselves available to folks outside those cultures.
I know this might upset some folks (the first pivot in 2010 certainly did), but let me be very clear that I am looking to add to this community, not take away from it. This means adding some new spaces for folks to discuss things not exclusively travel related, and consolidating a lot of the categories into a small handful as we prepare to move to a tag-based forum software instead of our current category-based system (which has over 40+ categories), but I'll go into detail on that further on in this post.
Town Hall
I'm hoping you'll all join me in a few events coming soon that will ensure there is as much input as possible from the community in order to facilitate what's best for that community (rather than me just making all the decisions myself). This includes a series of "Town Hall" meetings that will take place every two weeks. Much like our previous weekly voice hangouts in our Discord server, we'll be meeting twice a month (on the 1st and 15th) to discuss things we'd like to see happen in this community. I'll be sending out email reminders to all StP users (which you can opt out of by clicking this link and un-checking 'Receive news and update emails') so hopefully, as many people as possible can participate.
Community Survey
Even with constant reminders, I know not everyone will be able to show up for a live meeting, so again, in order to ensure maximum community input, I will be releasing an optional survey for users to participate in. This survey will be emailed to all StP members (unless you've opted out of announcement emails).
The results of both the town hall meetings and the community survey will be gathered together and posted in a website update in this area of the forums, where we can continue the discussion of specific aspects from there.
Proposed re-structuring of the message board
As mentioned in previous announcements, I am (along with the help of @eyes and @Brookeeeeeeeee) looking at moving the community over to a new message board software, most likely Discourse. This will necessitate some significant restructuring of the website.
I have drawn up a general idea of what the new structure will look like, and provided the current structure for comparison. You can find this work-in-progress at the following link:
Proposed Website Structure | Notion - https://mderrick.notion.site/Proposed-Website-Structure-3ca3ba2aaa214656bc6a83c383991fd1
Please feel free to post any thoughts you have on these proposed changes as a reply to this thread, but please keep your input constructive. Please provide detailed reasons for your opinions rather than flat statements that can't be worked upon.
The end goal of this restructuring is to create a space that is both more useful, inclusive, and more fun to participate in.
A real, tangible space for StP members to gather (the coop)
Another thing I want to talk about here is the often-suggested or alluded to StP living coop. I am extremely interested in making this a more focused goal of StP over the next few years. As I described above, I truly believe that the best way to ride out the upcoming years (and survive financially as many of us get older) is to collaborate on getting some kind of coop space for us to live and share resources. This also has the advantage of giving an IRL space to have gatherings, concerts, workshops and other community-oriented events. I'll be starting another thread for discussing this in detail, but I want folks to know this is quickly moving towards being one of the top goals of the StP organization.
So if you're interested, please join the discussion!
Future goals of StP
A few of the goals I have on the horizon for StP are mainly centered around creating mechanisms for folks to come together both online and in real life in as many ways as possible; this includes building things like a community wiki/docs platform (i.e. static, easily reference-able information), an events calendar, and a video hosting platform (a DIY, self-hosted YouTube-like platform).
But first, we need to get the current website sorted out. So tell me what you want to see happen in this community!
