What is talkgroup?

meta
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I’m at the juncture where I will define more of what talkgroup is.

As a historical note I will point out I am hesitant to do so. For many years there was emergent behavior in talkgroup, and I thought it was because of the environment I had created, it encouraged such expressions of growth.

However, I imagine the limitations of such hubris, and reach for something greater. Hence I seek to clarify and invite the growth I desire.

And so: talkgroup is just some forums, ya know?

And it is also more than that. Here is a list of points that may be relevant:

  • public domain: the content on talkgroup belongs to the public, circumventing the issues presented by capitalism via “intellectual property”, which inhibits the distribution of knowledge
  • non-profiting: because my primary concern is the distribution of knowledge, there is no profit motive present; that means you are talking to people via other people, not via a commercial interest
  • moderated-ish: we have a tone derived from observation, and are fine being cool folks to each other; additionally, we have moderators who assist in community gardening and keeping technology-related problems from interfering in discussion (think bots and spammers, that kinda thing)
  • ephemeral: we are currently on v2.talkgroup.xyz, and there will likely be more; we are still developing processes for leaving the internet a better place than when we got there, and that includes how and what we archive, but in the end we recognize our discussions are more ephemeral than the mountains, which themselves will be utterly destroyed by our star-parent Sol, as it collapses in a magnificent spectacle of entropic hyperfocus. So there’s that.
  • more kind than not: talkgroup holds power to account, in both a historical and contemporary (and probably future) sense; even with this grave responsibility, the emergent behavior is more kind than not, which for the times is the preferred way to communicate
  • accepting: we accept others; we are so very interesting, and our experiments and encouragements thrive in diversity
  • we do the best we can: that’s all we can ask of ourselves, but we do ask.

For v2 I’ve restructured talkgroup to match many external projects that will only begin to make sense in 2022 (a ridcilous year, to be sure!), and most folks will recognize it as a type of group-based structure. I see it as a non-corporate version of Reddit, which I view as a web based version of The WELL or Usenet. Or ya know, mailing lists, those old things that we just can’t quite eradicate because, hahaha, all we really need are mailing lists…

Anyhow, v2 has a magic number of talkgroups I’m “hosting”, and until others suggest new talkgroups I don’t think there will be new ones. (Will you start a new talkgroup??!?)

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Here is the top of my list:

ID  Age  Tag       Description                                     Urg 
 12 9mo  talkgroup update faq                                      10.3
 13 9mo  talkgroup update privacy                                  10.3

Here’s the latest thinking on this… well, okay, first, a little background.

I am parent to a 10 year old.

Ahem.

I’m a parent to a 10 year old.

:grimacing:

And not only am I adjusting to a new phase of my natural human life, while also adjusting to the difference in how my child and I have been brought up, but also dealing with real world crises where many things are happening at once…

:lungs:

Breath.

When I look at it all together, I want to get my tools in shape to be utilized more broadly than I have thus far. Meaning… getting a bit mainstream. But no worries! It’s mainstream for @maiki, so it’s still probably still very radical.

:skateboard:
:fire: :dragon_face:

Plotting the course that my child (and by extension, yours) will experience the next set of tools is weighing heavily in my mind.

For talkgroup that means making it useful to the most people, as a way for my child to interact with people they will need to talk to in the future. Having a semblance of normality is a useful attribute in this endeavor. Honesty: I’m a little freaked out by it; here I am, hiding in the open, while statistically most of our connected humans are… stuck or secure or some other adjective, inside the walls of their glorious gardens, which provide the most excellent serotonin relief from the aforementioned crises.

…

?

Anyhow, I need to make sense of talkgroup to folks, like, all of them. Or at least the subset that are English-speaking Californians. I’d like to expand pass those parameters, but another honesty: that is a substantially smaller amount of people that I am personally tracking, so it’s kind of a relief. Also, English-speaking Californians… surprisingly influential!

So the next steps are very practical, and let’s be clear: slightly boring. I need to feel/fill out info for three pages:

I’m gonna overcompensate the * out of this!

:dragon_face: