Today, I would like to announce the creation of my new Discord server, the Sassy Ranch. It will be a ranch where the like-minded can congregate, and by like-minded, I guess I mean anyone who can tolerate my ranting and raving, or anyone who enjoys socializing with people in that category. We’ll see how it goes. The one rule is don’t be a jerk, and the suggested initial discussion topic is ???.
I’m trying this because I’ve realized that one of the best things I can do for the world is connect the interesting people I know. As it stands, my social media following basically just exists to give me adulation, friendship, and dopamine. This is great, with a few macronutrients I would have everything I need to live right there. But we can do better! We can harness the infinite power of free association!
As well, I have a private channel for my clients and former clients, which is badly-maintained, and on Slack. I like Discord more, because it has less of a beleaguered professional aesthetic, and more of a sincere, cringey gamer aesthetic, the type of environment where I feel at home. So I’m going to put the client channel in as a private channel in the Ranch.
I don’t know whether this will work. There are tons of potential failure modes: nobody uses it, rifts form, it becomes too cumbersome to moderate, etcetera etcetera. This could be one of a million projects I take on that falls apart. And that, I have become aware, is a characteristic of mine; every year, I always have at least five projects that are falling apart. At a conference I was at the other day, someone told me that one of my strengths is “experimentation,” which is funny, because I agree, but from the inside being an experimental person isn't a strength, it feels like just abandoning a lot of smithereens.
But I suppose the alternative mode, which many people are stuck in, is to establish a passable existence, repair it to a state of good-enough, and then dwell there indefinitely, dreaming of some other possible world, but not having the foolishness required to seize it. It’s implausible that I have as nice a life as I have, and it’s snatched from the jaws of a million self-created smithereens. Let’s do another one.
Heya! Catching up on my feeds after a month and a half so missed this at the time: would love to join the discord but it looks like the invite has expired; would you be able to post another one?
Is there an updated discord link?