A community is only as good as the weakest link/member

There are so many times when you are part of a community especially those that are online that you have to step back and not say things because of the questions or comments that have been posted. Recently I saw on a community group that someone was asking a crochet designer to help them figure out a pattern that this designer had no involvement in. The person (designer) that they contacted very nicely told them that they needed to contact the original designer to request the changes she needed. 

When you have an issue with a pattern be it knitting, crocheting or cross stitch you need to contact the original designer to ask them the questions and not ask someone else for help. There are so many times that we have to think about copyright laws as well because patterns that are designed by an individual do have copyright laws that will impact the sharing of the pattern with others.

If you are sharing a pattern that you purchased that is a pdf you cannot share it at all even if you are asking someone for assistance in figuring out the pattern. The pdf is licensed to you along and you are not allowed or entitled to share this pattern with anyone else even if you are having issues with it. I know that I have seen a lot of people want to share a pattern for help or even just to give it to others and those are not allowed. I have also seen someone say that if you send me the pdf I can make it compatible for a specific program and once again this isn’t allowed because you are sharing a pattern with someone else and how does the designer know that you will delete your copy of the pattern after you have made it work for the original purchaser.

When you are part of community you need to understand that there are rules that everyone needs to comply with and if you don’t it could cause a lot of issues for the group as a whole. When you keep asking for help and aren’t realizing that you are breaking copyright laws that doesn’t help the group. I know that the groups that I am either a moderator or an administrator of if I see these types of requests I immediately delete the message and let the individual know they the post has been deleted. Making sure that you are not the weakest link/member of a group is extremely important and always make sure that you are not breaking any copyright laws when you are asking for help.

When you demand that the group provides you with help and you don’t understand how to communicate within the group you are causing lots of issues. A group can only provide the assistance that is available to them and without breaking copyright always. A weakest link is someone that demands help and doesn’t care if they are breaking copyright laws or causing other issues. Next time when you see this happening make sure before you try and assist you understand and respect the copyright laws that could be being broken.

When a community stops being a community

There are so many times when people say that they want to be part of a community, but they aren’t willing to even pay a few dollars a month to be part of that community. I understand that every community is going to be different. I believe to a couple of communities online and the biggest value I get from these communities is feeling like I belong and are part of a group of people that share a common bond.

What bothers me is when a community goes from members only chat to subscriber chat and anyone can post questions/comments, and they can sometimes be frustrating. I know that we all try and help answer the questions and something the moderator needs to understand is that we will answer questions in a general way to let the person know that we know the answer will be coming up shortly.  What goes get frustrating is when we see a comment from a moderator saying, “Don’t answer questions in the chat”. Why can’t a member answer a question in a general way because that will help keep the community as a community. When you say that you are the only one that should be answering questions it shows that the community is breaking down and that is a major concern. If I am paying to be part of the community, I should have the right to answer questions unless there is a general rule posted that states “As a member you are not allowed to answer questions in the chat.” If this happens, I know I would leave that community because that is part of the joy that being part of the community gives me.

If a moderator is going to post such comments as, “Don’t answer questions in the community” they need to keep those comments available and not delete them later on because that doesn’t help either because members see what is going on and they are going to think about where their dollar is going. Saying something and then deleting what you have said doesn’t build a community, it starts to destroy a community.

As a community we cannot compare one stream with another stream because all of them are different, and they provide a different level of quality and service and value to the community they are serving. I know that I have put my money into a community that I enjoy being part of because of how things are monitored and controlled. The community might not have an open chat but that is part of what I enjoy.

An online community is built between the trust between the members of the community and the moderator. If the moderator starts to destroy the trust that is going to mean that the community is likely to fail moving forward.  It doesn’t matter who we all are but we need to ensure that we are their for either other and a community is such a key part of any who is involved in the chat.

Community

I recently had an experience and it showed how quickly a community of people can be built even if only for one day.

My dad had to have cataract surgery and it meant an extremely early day for all of us. We were at the hospital by 6am which isn't normal for any of us. The first thing I noticed that as people arrived to register everyone started acknowledging everyone else. No one knew the next person in the registration waiting area but everyone was friendly. After we registered we said good bye to one couple and found out that they were also going to be in the same area of the hospital as we were going as the wife was also having cataract surgery.

Now this is where the community started to build was when everyone started to arrive in the Eye Centre. Of course sitting in this waiting room meant that everyone was doing to be going through the same procedure and the support person was going to have to be waiting around for their family member to be finished. Most people again acknowledged each other and in some cases some conversations were started.

Once I had my father checked in I was to leave the area but stay close so that I was there to pick him up when the procedure was finished. I of course had my mom and my husband waiting for me downstairs so I went and sat with them for the hour of waiting. Now this is where the community was great, as everyone was waiting they acknowledged the next person even through we didn't know each other. A smile, a wave or even a nod of the head meant we were there for the next person.

The couple that we spoke to at registration were the first one's that were finished and the lady actually came over to talk to be before she headed home. It felt very good seeing that our little community was a caring community. She wanted my mom to know it wasn't a bad surgery and she told me that she had a nice conversation with my dad while waiting for surgery. This couple had the same surgeon as my dad so we will probably see them a couple of times at the office for the check ups.

It wasn't long after this conversation that I got the phone call letting me know that it was time for me to go and pick up my dad. As I walked up I got the waves from others waiting as if to say good bye for now. There were also the smiles to say the waiting is over for you so my waiting must be over soon.

Yes the community may have only been established for a few hours but it really shows that people when facing the same issue can because friends. No we don't know each others names or anything else but we were there for a common reason and like most communities that is the reason for a community. That community is gone now but it did leave a nice foot print.

Remember when you are faced with a common issue a simple smile, wave or nod of a head can mean a lot to the next person.