Communication on the indie web

[kuroi]

This is a topic i always like to ask from time to time:

What is your preferred communication method on the indie web?

Is it guestbooks? Forums? Chatrooms? No communication at all?

Do you prefer a slower or a more real time approach?

I find this topic really interesting since i got into the indie web, there are tons of ways of communicating with webmasters and i'm yet to find my favorite. Chatrooms are cool but sometimes they kinda feel like a discord server and I end up feeling a bit burnt out from time to time.

I'm currently working on a comment feature for my website so I have a way of communicating that's more directed to the content i make, but i'm always looking for new ways to interact with people that might be interested in what i make.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Let me know!

[Minibite]

I think my favourite communication method would be email, but nobody really emails me, so i settle for chatrooms as a nice alternative. I think this is because I enjoy one-on-one conversation with other people, and email simulates that so well. Guestbooks also provide a similar experience to email, and its neat seeing all the people that come to my site and leave a note. Overall though, email definitely has to take the cake for me.

[Nhasasite]

guestbooks honestly, feels more personal I guess and fun!

[SummerO]

I agree with minibite that a really long email from a good friend is amazing! It's a like a little personalised forum post especially for you and has a sort of platonic intimacy to it. There's something really lovely about reading some of my old emails from the early 2000s that I think has been lost now. Instead of taking time to craft a message, people seem to communicate differently and with less detail maybe?

The internet is a cerebral space and mobile phones are a faster 'less thinky' more shorthand device to communicate on maybe? Have we all been trained to express ourselves with more brevity and less sincerity?

Forums like this one might be my next favourite because again, there's no rush to communicate and it's asynchronous which makes it convenient for everyone regardless of timezone.

Chatrooms are good but sometimes I feel like the conversation is too fast paced for me, or I feel too much pressure to reply to something I would rather just ignore, which you can do more politely in a forum than in a chatroom when your name has been tagged.

Chatroom
Somebody nice: @Summer_O what's your opinion on ________?

Me: Ah, oh no. Don't ask me that. Uhm!? My opinion would take too long to express because of nuance. (I wish this was an email...)

The next best internet communication format for me is probably drawing doodles like on that90s.site, drawing and posting to chat is a feature that not all chat rooms have, but it can be a really funny and delightful way to get a message! The first time I used the drawing-to-chat feature on that90s.site and Derrick responded I was really excited and surprised.

[kuroi]

I think my favourite communication method would be email, but nobody really emails me, so i settle for chatrooms as a nice alternative. I think this is because I enjoy one-on-one conversation with other people, and email simulates that so well. Guestbooks also provide a similar experience to email, and its neat seeing all the people that come to my site and leave a note. Overall though, email definitely has to take the cake for me.

I agree with minibite that a really long email from a good friend is amazing! It's a like a little personalised forum post especially for you and has a sort of platonic intimacy to it. There's something really lovely about reading some of my old emails from the early 2000s that I think has been lost now. Instead of taking time to craft a message, people seem to communicate differently and with less detail maybe? [...]

I agree! E-mails actually feel like letters, afterall it was their main intent xD you read e-mails when you're able to, decide if you want to reply to them or not and even get more to ponder and build an interesting reply. The fast paced nature of chatrooms feels kinda chaotic, especially when there are lots of people talking about different things at the same time. Maybe a forum is the best of both worlds?

guestbooks honestly, feels more personal I guess and fun!

Guestbooks are fun too, i never thought i would receive so many positive notes on mine! People are especially nice over there. It's nice how people can just come and leave a little mark that they were on my website

[kuroi]

I agree with minibite that a really long email from a good friend is amazing! It's a like a little personalised forum post especially for you and has a sort of platonic intimacy to it. There's something really lovely about reading some of my old emails from the early 2000s that I think has been lost now. Instead of taking time to craft a message, people seem to communicate differently and with less detail maybe?

The internet is a cerebral space and mobile phones are a faster 'less thinky' more shorthand device to communicate on maybe? Have we all been trained to express ourselves with more brevity and less sincerity?

Forums like this one might be my next favourite because again, there's no rush to communicate and it's asynchronous which makes it convenient for everyone regardless of timezone.

Chatrooms are good but sometimes I feel like the conversation is too fast paced for me, or I feel too much pressure to reply to something I would rather just ignore, which you can do more politely in a forum than in a chatroom when your name has been tagged.

Chatroom
Somebody nice: @Summer_O what's your opinion on ________?

Me: Ah, oh no. Don't ask me that. Uhm!? My opinion would take too long to express because of nuance. (I wish this was an email...)

The next best internet communication format for me is probably drawing doodles like on that90s.site, drawing and posting to chat is a feature that not all chat rooms have, but it can be a really funny and delightful way to get a message! The first time I used the drawing-to-chat feature on that90s.site and Derrick responded I was really excited and surprised.

I agree 100% with everything you said! Chatrooms are nice but sometimes they are just too much xD or too little, since it's hard to have a well thought out convo especially when theres too many people. One thing that tires me out is the small talk like

Hello

Hi

How are you doing?

Good, hbu?

good

[convo ends, repeats with another person]

It gets old fast, you know xD

Also i should check out Derrick's doodle chat :0 i've never seen something like and it sounds really interesting, a fun and creative way to communicate xD

[Cinder]

For me E-mail always feels like a too "formal" way of communication at this point. Probably because this is all i use it for at this point. Business related emails or random marketing mails are all i see.
Maybe i gotta start using it more to actually message people

[kuroi]

For me E-mail always feels like a too "formal" way of communication at this point. Probably because this is all i use it for at this point. Business related emails or random marketing mails are all i see.
Maybe i gotta start using it more to actually message people

I understand the feeling xDD especially if i were to use my personal email for some reason ??? Probably because of the email marketing and business emails like you said lol

But i have one just for my website and sometimes i get some emails over there. It's kinda rare but feels like a little surprise when i open it and theres a little message that someone took time to write to me, it's pretty sweet actually! And since that email is just for my website, it doenst feel as formal I guess

[Onio]

Up until a few months ago I would've likely said that chatrooms are my favorite form of communication on the indie web, but I've recognized that there is sometimes just too little conversational bandwidth available for extensive, organized conversation. And maybe sometimes it gets a little tiring, especially depending on who managed to find their way into chat =P Now I'm excited for the forum to be up, the pace of conversation is a relief and I really appreciate the ability to sit down and think for a while before responding to something.

So it may just be a toss up between chatrooms and forums for me, depending on the day and what's going on. They're both very different approaches to communication, so I think they both have their place! Guestbooks are sweet, though I've slacked a lot about signing the guestbooks I come across, and they feel more like one-offs. I like the idea of e-Mail, but sometimes it feels a little too intimate, or like the pressure is on me to write a really good one! I guess direct messages would be may favorite, not PM style but sort of like instant messengers, though I haven't had a chance to do that on the personal web yet!

[kuroi]

Up until a few months ago I would've likely said that chatrooms are my favorite form of communication on the indie web, but I've recognized that there is sometimes just too little conversational bandwidth available for extensive, organized conversation. And maybe sometimes it gets a little tiring, especially depending on who managed to find their way into chat =P Now I'm excited for the forum to be up, the pace of conversation is a relief and I really appreciate the ability to sit down and think for a while before responding to something.

So it may just be a toss up between chatrooms and forums for me, depending on the day and what's going on. They're both very different approaches to communication, so I think they both have their place! Guestbooks are sweet, though I've slacked a lot about signing the guestbooks I come across, and they feel more like one-offs. I like the idea of e-Mail, but sometimes it feels a little too intimate, or like the pressure is on me to write a really good one! I guess direct messages would be may favorite, not PM style but sort of like instant messengers, though I haven't had a chance to do that on the personal web yet!

I agree 100% with everything you said

I wish there was some kind of in between but its better to just have both then XD even if i were to separate chatrooms by themes, it would be just more stuff to moderate and even so, its hard to control what people are talking about in real time. I think the forum hits the closest to what i wanted.

And i'm really enjoying the fact that we have lots of uncs and aunties here xD i feel like i can relate more to the topics that go around here, sometimes its hard to feel that in real time chatrooms...