Recently I’ve been trying some new things in my professional blogging life that have involved joining some specialist groups and ‘tribes’ with a view to increasing interaction. Up front people are asked to only join if they are committed or active and the idea usually is that people get involved daily or near daily. It’s quite a commitment, but it can be worth it if people take part.
Part of the problem is that the groups need to be small to be workable, but that is also problematic if people don’t pull their weight as there aren’t enough involved to carry a lot of slack. I know sometimes something unexpected comes up and takes over your life and I know that everyone needs a break now and again. That’s not really been the problem in these groups though.
People seem to have signed up to doing something and then almost immediately failed to do it. This leaves the few who are doing the necessary feeling a bit stranded. You either carry on the group with the dead weight in it or you start to (nicely) manage them out and find some new participants. Sometimes though there just aren’t enough active members of the group to do that and everything just fizzles out.
One of my groups, one that I was quite excited about, has done just that. I’ve given up posting in the group because no one else was and my posts were just sitting there unliked. The frustrating thing with that one is that group members are posting elsewhere, so it’s not clear why they didn’t in this group.
Another one seems to be dying. The organiser is trying new things trying to inject some light into it, but it’s really only me and her posting regularly. A few others dip in and out, but no one else seems very committed.
Maybe I’m a bit old-fashioned, but I’m a bit ‘my word is my bond’ and I will endeavour to meet my commitments if I put myself forward for something. Sadly not everyone seems to think the same way.
