Many of you may have noticed that I belong to a number of Ning.com sites by scrolling to the bottom of my blog. Ning is a wonderful networking site for artists' to exchange thoughts, ideas, and creations. Unfortunately, one site in particular (I have removed the link from The Vintage Vignette and those that remain continue to have my wholhearted support) has experienced a huge influx of fighting, arguing, and bashing between members and it's creator. Many artists' on this particular site wanted to promote their art, careers, and creations. The site moderator was enraged by this prospect and instantly stifled and destroyed all "efforts to put oneself out there."This tragic turn of events got me to thinking about what I wanted for The Vintage Vignette. It forced me to look at some of the reasons that people seek out and join new blogs or networks in the first place. The answer was obvious to me. People join to blog, comment, and of course Network!
It is for this reason that I decided to establish and lay down some ground rules for The Vintage Vignette.
The first rule is that there ARE no rules here! If you want to comment, participate in challenges or just keep up on new posts', please be my guest. Feel free to email me anytime with questions, concerns or whatever! If there is something you would like to see here just let me know. As long as it is not objectionable, hateful or otherwise offensive.
One of the reasons for this major brew-ha-ha on the networking site is that the creator was not open to others self-promoting or trying to expand their own resources and careers. This is so NOT what I want for this site! I WANT to promote you! I want you to promote YOURSELF! If you are doing something fabulous and want additional exposure, just ask and I will gladly "Pimp" you as it was so referred to on this other site. Getting your work out there, your blog off the ground, etc. is no easy task and instead of competing with fellow artists', I want to work with you to build you up in anyway I can. I have been planning to do an artists' spotlight post on a regular basis featuring the art, blog, etsy shop or website of artists' that I find inspiring. Can you believe that some people actually discouraged this idea stating that it could cause a distraction from my work or affect my google ranking (or lack thereof..he..he)! To this I say "Hooey!" I am not in this for rankings, or to simply sell a product. I want The Vintage Vignette to be about good content NO great content! I want it to be about promoting and self promoting. I could go on and on but there is no need to get my blood pressure up or my panties in a bunch.
So in short, I invite you all! Each and everyone of you is welcome to promote yourself, promote others, direct people to your blogs in your comments, submit requests for your latest projects to be featured, advertise your site's giveaways....Whatever! All you have to do is drop me an email and I will gladly share your information with The Vintage Vignette's growing audience.
I invite all of you following my blog or not, linking to me or not, to wholeheartedly kick up your heels and "Come Dance With Me!".
Cindy Shea :)
The reality is....there is no such thing as the "perfect group". When ever you get a large group of different personalities together in one place, then of coarse there will be conflicts occassionally. The key is in defining the purpose of the site.
ReplyDeleteI know recently we had someone who posted advertisments in the gallery, which I asked them to remove. I would have been more then happy to post their advertisment in the appropiate place - had they even bothered to ask - but they didn't. Our gallery is a place for people to display their creative work and recieve feedback and for the rest of us to admire their creativity, it is not a place for advertising.
I also think that on many of these sites.....people are often only privy to bits of information or one side of the information which often leads them to jump to the wrong conclussions.
I know I have yet to join any group where there are not set groups who are the most 'popular' or seem to run things or are the most outspoken.....it is just human nature.
Bree, I completely agree with you on this point which is why I felt the need to outline the purpose of this blog. This other ning site had over 3000 members and I thought it extremely unreasonable to expect its members not to interact with eachother, swap information etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I would not want advertisements in my comment section but that is why I put up this post because there is no need to do this in the comments. I am glad to feature anyone's work in a post highlighting their skills, achievements, and goals. This other ning site was overly oppressive in that it would send out an email to you if you gave even the slightest mention of your external blog, giveaway, or latest happenings. On several occasions of chat I was also witness to bashing of peoples artwork and venemously dismissing it at "just scrapbooking". I felt this so unfair to the persons who took time to create and upload their pieces to this site.
Unfortunately the whole experience for me turned out to be very negative and demeaning which is why I finally left the site and removed the link from here. The sites that remain continue to have my wholeherted support (including yours:) )and it is my goal to make everyone feel welcome and free to express their goals, aspirations, and art.
I'm sorry to hear you had such a negative experience with that particular ning forum Cindy - I am a member of a few different ning sites and have been lucky to find them supportive places thus far.
ReplyDeleteI think it's generous of you to be happy to promote the work of others :) I look forward to continuing to read your blog and seeing the wonderful work and images here xx
Thank you so much for the supportive comment Gaylemarie. I want very much for this to be a place of positive expression in a non-competative and upbuilding way for everyone. Overall, my experience with Ning.com has been a positive one. It is just this one particular site that has gotten out of hand. As of yesterday the site has been officially closed because so many of its members had begun to feel just the same as I did. At least no one else will get hurt and for that I am glad.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it just got to big......way to many egos!!! I must I do prefer small sites and communities, they are not always as busy, jumping or happening as some of the bigger ones, but the people that are there tend to stay because they really love what they do and really love sharing and seeing the creativity of other. Some of the bigger sites take on too much of 'everything' being a competition, - who can be the most outspoken, who can be the meanest, who has the biggest ego, what group thinks they are running things even though technically they don't and who constantly wins all the competitions (and often they only do that because all their friends are voting for them)
ReplyDeleteOnline tend to be an inhibition free zone where people can hide behind anonymity and let their repressed hidden selves out - unfortunately more often than not, that also tends to be the ugly side of many peoples natures. The sad thing is.....in many ways it is also understandable (although not excusable). We live in a society where there are becoming so many hidden rules about saying what you what yourself honestly think that people are scared to say what they are feeling in real life and so online becomes the outlet.....but of coarse it is the wrong people are on the receiving end of all that frustration.
Bree you said it perfectly! That is exactly what I think happened. Although I was never directly involved I couldn't help but feel frustrated and agered by some of the unfair things I witnessed, especially in the chat box. I know for me, I will never be judging any of my own challenges here. I will always have a third party (even if it is the mail-man if no one is available!) do the judging to make sure that no one will ever feel frustrated or treated unfairly. I am also planning other contests where the winners will be drawn randomly most likely by my husband. It is my goal to make The Vintage Vignette a place that I would want to visit even if I had never created it.
ReplyDeleteCindy - You can also use something like Random.org They have a neat little widget you can put right on your blog to pick winners. That is what we use on VF - none of the DT or myself pick winners...it is all left to random.org It certainly isn't the best method as it doesn't recognize the work and effort that someone puts into a page but it is the fairest and certainly takes away possible bias towards friends etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip Bree, I will definately look into this. Seems like the only fair way to do non-design challenge giveaways.
ReplyDeleteFabulous post! I've encountered such an individual and its shocking when there are so many wonderful bloggers and a supportive bunch of artists and crafters out there on the web. Thanks for being one of them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comments Nelly. I never did understand the reasons why people would not want to support their fellow artists' We all know how challenging it can be to get our work out there. That's why I wanted to make this a place where everyone can feel free to show off their stuff.
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