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237.

snowflake_challenge #11: In your own space, Interact with someone.

The most important person I interacted with was my cat. Waking up to her on my shoulder as the queen she is was definitely the best interaction I've had all morning. (Of course, since I'm not Lucille Bluth and do not have favourites, interacting with my other two cats was obviously the highlight of my morning, too… when they appear. They're busy with Official Cat Business.)

I've been having a lot of fun commenting around on this challenge and talking to and meeting new people! When Snowflake first started, I was hesitant to comment around on journals because I wasn't too sure if it was welcome. (Silly, I know, but I feel like this could be a collective fandom experience from time to time? I definitely know it's Anxiety Brain.) But I figured that if it wasn't welcome, people wouldn't be sharing links to their posts saying they've completed the challenge and welcoming comments. Did anyone else feel a little hesitation at first before taking the plunge and commenting around?

I've also been participating in

rthstewart's 3 Sentence Ficathon! It's been so much fun slamming into comments with a few sentences to tell a story and it's been fantastic to see how others have been filling prompts, too. This is what I've been missing in fandom (I mentioned ficathons in one of my challenge responses and then here comes

rthstewart with the answer!) Come join us! We're on the second post now, but you're more than welcome to go fill prompts from the first post.

I'm planning on spending some time replying to some comments today, dropping into some on posts, and maybe shooting my shot with a stranger via message. We'll see what happens!

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I was definitely hesitant the first time I did the Snowflake challenge but, like you, soon realized people wouldn't link if they weren't willing to chat.

For sure! I think I initially approached it believing that everyone who participated already knew one another, but I quickly learned that wasn't the case. The fact everyone's been super friendly and enthusiastic for strangers to come and comment on their posts has been a great experience. It's really encouraged me to feel a little more confident to participate. (I was going to sit on the sidelines; so glad I didn't!)

>> I've been having a lot of fun commenting around on this challenge and talking to and meeting new people! When Snowflake first started, I was hesitant to comment around on journals because I wasn't too sure if it was welcome.<<

It's typically welcome.

>> (Silly, I know, but I feel like this could be a collective fandom experience from time to time? I definitely know it's Anxiety Brain.) But I figured that if it wasn't welcome, people wouldn't be sharing links to their posts saying they've completed the challenge and welcoming comments.<<

People who don't want comments or traffic usually have their comment feature turned off or their blog friends-locked.

People who don't want comments or traffic usually have their comment feature turned off or their blog friends-locked.
Yeah, I figured if people didn't want others to comment, the comments would either be disabled or they'd ask when they post to the challenge community for people not to come through and comment unless they were already friended. But sometimes anxiety brain is a little bit louder than what's obvious (i.e. why else comment to the community challenge posts if you're not welcoming new traffic?).

I'm not sure why they do it, but there's always a handful of people who post stuff, and link it, but you can't see it because it's friends-locked.

A larger number of people post things openly during Snowflake but go back a few days or weeks later and lock the posts. I figure those are the ones looking for new friends, but doing so very cautiously.

Generally if a blogs is friends only or uses a lot of locked or filtered posts, I don't read it. I can't post the lock dingbat and linking to locked posts just annoys everyone. Better to avoid it by not reading in the first place.

I guess it's to each their own in that instance and what people are comfortable with in a public space. I personally don't get it because I wrote my posts publicly for them to be public (and won't be locking my posts unless months down the line I wish to, which is a whole bundle of work in itself for someone as lazy as me). I wanted to interact with the challenge and community that way, so it makes sense to me to post publicly and keep them public for however long, but I also know not everyone wants to do that.

It'd be great if people indicated locked posts on the community challenge page, but I suppose that's to each their own as well. I can only engage with what I have access to (both content-wise and obviously literally) and that's what I engage with.

I've only seen a few people indicate that their posts and/or blog are friends-locked, in the actual Snowflake posts. More common is arriving at the blog to see a notice that it's Friends Only or whatever. Back up, try a different one.

I don't use the locking or filter functions much. Things I post are usually meant to be public. The main thing I do is, if there's a spam problem -- which happens once or twice a year -- then I friends-lock the comment function for a couple of weeks. By then they're usually gone and I can unlock it again.

People use these blogs for many different purposes. For some it's a social network or publishing platform, for others it's like a family calendar or even a diary. That's all fine.

That's funny. The first year I heard of Snowflake I don't think I did it myself, but I definitely stalked the comments and read and commented on a lot of people's posts. Like, I never thought that people wouldn't want a comment on their posts, but that no one would want to read any posts that I made? IDK, it was over a decade ago, it's all a blur, and I like how it is now. One, month long party with a lot of returning guests and new delights every time. ♥ ♥

I love that this is the opposite problem I had! It's crazy how we think about things and choose to participate based on those thoughts. I'm usually someone who would rather comment than "host" (I always feel overwhelmed by comments and replying because I like to pressure myself into responding asap which... is not always feasible! But this has been such a nice challenge to stop that and let myself take my time.). I figured I'd throw myself into the deep end this time and it's been super fun.

I think I've learned to love journalling again. It's not something I think I would've learned if I hadn't participated as a producer and a commenter.

Aww, the cat(s) is definitely the most important.

I totally agree about how fun it has been to check out/comment on everyone's posts and I am with you on hesitating at first. I know people linked their posts for a reason like you said, but a part of me was still worried they'd be all "what are you doing here?" if/when I commented.

Best of luck on shooting your shot! :D

Aww, the cat(s) is definitely the most important.
I'm writing this comment agreeing while a cat is threatening to walk across my keyboard at this very moment. 😂

I'm glad that someone else experienced the "But what if?"! It's so silly in hindsight, but I guess it was also the first Snowflake Challenge jitters, too. Everyone's been so great with having new people tumble in. (I was worried my comments wouldn't be up to snuff, but I think we're all just happy to have someone engaged enough to respond.)

And thank you! Let's hope I actually shoot this shot and stop putting it off!

The ficathon sounds fun! Makes me wish I wrote for more fandoms so I could take part, but I'm learning to pace myself with these things!

There are a lot of "any, any" prompts for writers who want to write for a fandom/pairing of their choice! The prompters have been really great in either replying back and acknowledging the little ficlet or letting it be (and others have come and commented with feedback as well).

There's always anxiety brain involved in saying hi to people you don't know, and wondering whether you're going to fall on your face trying to enthuse about a shared like, but it's a lot less pressure in Snowflake than in other times.

I definitely agree! I think it's the fact that interaction seems to be an integral part of the challenge that prompted me to go "Just do it! What have you got to lose?" (I lost nothing and gained a lot from it. What a surprise lol!)

But anxiety brain still remains the worst!

Such delightful feline interactions <3 <3 <3

I think I only did two challenges the first year of

snowflake_challenge because I'm more of an "observe first - observe a lot" kinda person but the couple of comments I got from strangers were enough to make me realise that oh, it's okay to say hi on other people's journals and also you don't have to have Super Complex Thoughtful things to say in reply either... People linking back to their posts during snowflake helps so much with that mental block of "it's okay to just barge in and start talking to people."

Very happy you dropped by with those wonderful icons comms recommendation on my journal the first time <3 I tend to be even more shy around people who have an "old" journal creation date because I assume everyone is already well established and actually knows how things work around here, while I'm just flailing around getting excited about very random things 😂

I'm so blessed... I'll pass on your message since I know it'll appease the sleeping overlords. ;)

I love the easiness of the challenge. You can just offer something simple or something super complex and people will respond either way. (I tend to like to observe a lot before I jump in just so I can see how it works and then... maybe not fuck up lol.) But you're right—the linking really helps. I feel like it's an invitation to come on in. I think if we didn't have the posts to link to, I know I wouldn't feel as comfortable commenting.

Any time! ♥ Oh, man—I may have had this journal since apparently 2013 (???) but I barely used it until recently lol. I wish I knew how everything worked. (I usually find out by stumbling and hitting my elbow somewhere lol.) I've created many communities since the LJ migration to DW and I can say that I learned a lot (and had some things confirmed that I felt were true) from your post about communities!

I feel you about the elbow bumping 😂😂 Thankfully people have been gracious when I accidentally hit their metaphorical kidney or something, haha.

I'm very curious about your comment on creating "many communities"!! First logistically because I think in one of the FAQs I saw that it's only possible to create 3 comms per account? :0 (That seems like not a lot compared to the amount of things I can love and want to share about/meet other interested people 😂). I'm glad you found the community post(s) useful!! (I wrote a few and don't know which one you mean XD) Can't wait to find out how putting it into application works out :D If you have other words of wisdom to share, in general or about the parts that you felt rang true based on your experience, I'll definitely take all the advice I can get 💙

First logistically because I think in one of the FAQs I saw that it's only possible to create 3 comms per account?
If that's true, then I have been living in a loophole for years! That may have been something they did in the beginning when DW was starting out. I've made many, many comms with this account (more than three and more than three per year) and I also made them when I had a free account. I definitely don't think that's true anymore.

It was your post checking out what you could and couldn't do with a community. I only use them very basically for things, so reading into someone playing around with them confirmed a few things for me (like mods can't change access settings of posts) and revealed some things (like tag management) I never really interacted with before.

Haha, 3+ communities a year, respect 😂💙 I can't find whatever FAQ I might have seen that on, so maybe I misunderstood or it's no longer a thing. It did seem very restrictive - I guess I'll find out eventually!!

Ooh the technical gotchas post. I keep adding to it when I find new things 😂

I'm glad you took the plunge and commented . . . and that you're having fun with it. *g*

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