Ghost of Midnight

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum


4 comments

  1. mungojelly says:

    Coincidentally, I came to this post just now after bailing on several YouTube videos after just a few seconds. They were videos of various robots, you see, on a blog I subscribed to about robots, and I only watched each one until I got the idea of each robot and saw it moving around a little. Now that I’ve gotten to this post, though, I’ve read it through carefully, read Godin’s post that you reference carefully, and I’m taking the time to compose a response. I think you might agree that I’ve made the right choice in skipping carelessly over those random videos of robots in order to have the time instead to value what you’ve said. Everyone pays attention to different things, at different levels, in different ways.

    What I would suggest to get FPF into the stream of more people’s attention is to broaden how it’s available. Places on the internet other than email, for instance, or posting or displaying it somewhere in the real world. Any particular medium or style won’t attract everyone’s attention, because for many people it won’t fit the pattern of their life. We all have blinders shutting out almost everything; you must put things in front of our noses.

  2. Michael says:

    Interesting points, Brett. I certainly skim often… online and off.

    FPF member postings are available on our website to members, BTW. But we’re not inclined to change our approach and make each neighborhood forum open to the world. When we’ve asked subscribers about this idea, they say that they’ll post less or not at all. That is, they like FPF to feel more like a block party than not.

  3. Brett,

    I agree with you. What I do not understand is the relationship between the people of BTV and the main topic Seth is talking about “marketers and idea merchants”. It sounds like that if the medium is changed, people will suddenly become shallow and flashy.

    The ultimate challenge in any community is to engage people, where they are comfortable. The secondary real challenge is to fund the project, and a recent study shows where and how small businesses are engaging – http://bit.ly/aviZPk – They are moving away from TV, Newspaper and email because these are one way channels, impersonal.

    I am waiting the ‘Amen’ 😉

  4. Michael says:

    Interesting Mitch.

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