Hippies Member Group

Dear Hippies,

This is a long and involved post but it concerns a very important issue for hippies and the hippie community here so please bear with me.

Back in July I tried to get a Hippies Member Group started and despite enthusiastic interest from many members Skip has consistently vetoed the idea.

In the Member Groups Forum Skip explained the decision about not having a hippie group this way:

“BTW, there won't be a "hippie" or "YH" group as we already have hippy.com which already incorporates all the features of these groups, plus a whole lot more.“

Let's check this with what Skip says Member Groups are about, point by point. For that information here's a thread he started in the Member Groups Forum:

“...by joining a group you become known to the rest of the group members as someone who identifies with that group, and can relate to the group perspective on various issues. This implies that those opposed to a group won't be joining it as then they would be expected to participate in the group in a positive way, therefore there will be a lot less friction among group members than in the group's public forums themselves.”

There are no such provisions on hippy.com for any member group, let alone those of the hippie persuasion. Hip Forums of course has the new member groups but there's no exclusively hippies group there either. I often can't figure out if someone posting in the Hippies Forum is a hippie or not. Sometimes people opposed to hippies do post in the Hippies Forum, the most active, uniquely hippie community outlet on hippy.com. These people might tell hippies they are out of sync, a relic of the past, they smell bad or much worse. Mods take care of trolls along with most of the real nastiness but some of the less blatant comments are left to stand. We hippies can take a certain amount of ribbing and the Hippies forum is presently well moderated to remove the bad and the ugly. I'm not really complaining about the hippies forum but is it a hippies only zone? Not really. That's one reason why we want our own group.

“All group members can contribute reviews, links, stories, events and more to the group pages. These postings will remain easy to find in the group pages indefinitely, unlike forum posts which tend to fade from view over time.”

In the various sub-forums of Hip Forums, anyone can put links to these sort of things in their posts. But if other types of member groups such as Rainbow Family, Gays, Pagans, etc. have a special page to submit and organize this material, why not Hippies? Hippy.com is a wonderful collection of educational stuff for hippies but this is controlled by Skip, not by the general hippie population. As far as redundency is concerned, what's the harm of a little of this? We can always remove stuff if it really gets out of hand.

“Groups will be able to communicate more effectively within the group pages.”

If this is true, then why aren't Hippies being given this special privilege to organize and have their own group page and more effectively communicate with other groups? There's nothing in hippy.com about this either.

“The group pages present up-to-date group information, as well as a combined list of the latest forum posts for the group. You will also find a list of your latest postings (regardless of forum), your latest gallery images, and much more!“

This is a great idea and one that most strongly attracted me to the idea of member groups. Why can't Hippies have their own unique access to this service? It does NOT exist anywhere on hippy.com.

“So by making the group page your homepage, you won't need to navigate anywhere to find the latest group or personal info.”

That's a big part of the problem! In order to get to know other hippies and read what they are saying I have to navigate all over the place. Another special privilege denied Hippies if they can't have their own member group.

“The idea is to focus attention on the group, rather than a particular forum or individual. This will improve group cohesion, identity and responsibility.”

So why are hippies unable to have the ability to focus attention on the group and to improve group cohesion, identity and responsibility? Not everyone on hip forums is a hippie. Sometimes I think we are actually in the minority. Hippy.com is not a hippies only site nor should it be. But we hippies should have the same chance as other groups to empower ourselves within it.

Skip has provided an awesome site for us to interact, have fun and learn in. It is the most comprehensive site of its kind on the web. As good as it is, from time to time he notices improvements that can be made. Why are hippies not being allowed to take advantage of this latest improvement? The explanation that all these types of services for hippies are contained on hippy.com just does not fly. Hippie is a unique cultural identity many of us seriously regard ourselves as. Skip has hinted that he might consider the group under another name. But this is our name as a group. Why should we have to deny it? Skip, please either give us our group or give us some better reason for withholding it from us.

I urge everyone who is concerned about this to express their opinion here and get in touch with people they know who also would be interested in supporting it and let Skip hear all our voices. I know many of us hippies want this and feel we have as much right to it as all the other interests that are getting groups. As I said in a personal message to Skip, I think a hippies member group would be extremely popular and successful and would draw people to the whole site, keep them here and stimulate activity in general. All this could quite possibly even generate more revenue for the site. I just don't see the down side. Since Skip's hippy.com is based upon and owes a great deal of its traffic to the hippie phenomenon, I believe we, the hippies of the world, deserve its full features and advantages to make our own community strong and vibrant and a more effective force on the planet and in our own lives. Please join me in persuading Skip to change his mind and set up a Hippies Member Group soon.

 

Thanks crazylegs, for posting this
I completely agree!
We should be able to have our own group, hippy.com isn't a member group on hipforums :S

we all pmd skip but got no reply =[

peace
Jane

 

I agree with crazylegs. I relate to many of the lovely folks that frequent the hippies FORUM... and when I feel like posting something, it's my first instinct to post to this community first. However, as crazylegs and others have pointed out, not everyone that posts on any given forum is a member of that or any group or identity. So by posting in the Hippies group, I would be relating and communicating and supporting and sharing with those that I am building trust with, and not just anyone who decides to pop in, read my post, and respond... make sense? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I agree that a Hippies group is a stellar idea... cohesion and identity, correct? Either way, I've been following this since the beginning and I'm yet to understand why it hasn't been created yet. Maybe I'm just not getting it, but I can see no good explanations against the group...and many good ones for it.

 

I really think the hippie group is a great idea. In itself, it just makes so much sense. I see people on here who are just blatantly mean to other people, just lashing out (and there's a surprising number of them). But that's not what it's all about! It's about peace, love, and freedom. In this case, freedom means 'respecting that other people have a right to their opinions,' and peace and love for other people means 'not trying to hurt their feelings.'
If we could have a group like this, I don't think we'd be seeing those people. It'd be a nice way to get away from all that. I'm not trying to be elitist or anything like that: I see a ton of people here that I can tell really are into peace, love, and personal freedom, but it would be nice not to see people who are anti-hippie trying to spoil it for us.
I just don't understand what's wrong with having our own group. Like *unlearn.to.be.free* said, "I can see no good explanations against the group...and many good ones for it."

 

I guess after all that has been written in this thread... the answer to that question is clearly: "nothing" ....???????

sigh.

 

Yes the hippies thing is the main hall but the hippies are scattered in all the different rooms and subrooms, photo galleries, journals, different forums, outside on the grass, across the street, the old ones here, the young ones there and lots in between etc. It's very hard to keep up with all of them or even a lot of them because only a small fraction post in the hippies forum(my favorite) and there's many many non hippies on the site to sift through. I just don't have time to be searching all over, and being a hippie in a non hippie actual world, I want to get to know lots of hippies in the virtual world at least and hip forums is the best place to do that. If we had our own group I believe communication and integration between all us hippies could increase by a giant step and mutual support, organization, understanding and relationships would be greatly enhanced. Like DSOTM said, why do any of these factions need groups? The reasons are pretty well spelled out in the quotes I took from Skip. To facilitate all the things that make us a stronger and more vibrant community. It's good now, but it could be better. I think hippies have a big role to play in the survival of this planet and we need all the tools we can muster to organize and strengthen ourselves. I really think having a group will also give a lot of us lonely and isolated hippies a stronger feeling of community and a sense of belonging. That would be a real esteem and confidence boost to many who feel attacked, ignored, discriminated against and marginalized. It would give a greater sense of belonging which is important especially for the young insecure and unsure ones. May of them come and go and as you know HF can be harsh at times. They come here for affirmation and understanding and knowledge but maybe their communication skills are not well developed so they lose out even here, get lost in the shuffle and quite possibly go away discouraged and give up the hippie thing altogether. I think hippie is a unique and special phenomenon, diverse but unified for a very positive purpose, namely to save the planet. There's no shortage of non hippies. Let's give the hippies a real home base on the net and every advantage available.

Whew!

 

I'm tottally ok ith you crazylegs!
Having that group would be a great idea!
I see no harm in that, why don't we try it first and after that we will judge!
and I'm pretty sure it's gonna work!
Come on people!!!Why not?

 

it is seriously unhippie like to discriminate against young hippies because of our age... i feel like skip is looking down on us and thinks were just immature little kids.. i totally agree with DSTOM and crazylegs, i think a hippies group would be a great idea

 

Yeah thats exactly right ^^ completely agree
I'm glad crazylegs started this
thankyou

peace and love
Jane

 

I think there's a most simple and awesome solution to the problem.... ya wanna have a particular group started? Become a contributor then start whatever group you like and choose whomever you want as members. Otherwise, please get off the "there should be a group" soap box.

There should be a lot of things... starting with people actively resisting what is being done in their name on a global scale- but guess what? They think it's "someone else's" job. News flash- it ISN'T- it's EVERYBODY'S job! But it's sooooooooooooooo much easier to sit back and piss, moan and criticize what someone else is doing. This is somewhat analogous to many complaints here with folks signing up and presumably reading guidelines then misusing the resource here as though it were their own personal social clique board. There's no indication that a new group would be any different that what has already been set up for the exact purpose and spirit expressed in the original post.

In my mind, part of being a hippie in this day and age is advocating change. Change is not going to be effected by sequestering like-minded people into cliques. There is business at hand now- so it's not the time to isolate ourselves from the brain washed population for the purpose of reminiscing.

As has been pointed out, there are plenty of groups here to fit most special interests and judging from past behavior, most folks are going to abuse the privilege afforded by those who are actually putting in the work and resources to build and maintain the site that most are using for free.... and yet feel entitled to demand changes and explanations when something doesn't meet with their expectations or approval.

Now, I don't believe that crazylegs fits into this entitlement mindset- quite the contrary. I'm gambling that the open and intelligent minds behind the sentiments expressed here will read this in the spirit it's intended.

peace.

 

While this very question crosses my mind from time to time I must defer to the greater truth that this is Skip's site to do with as he wishes. Unfortunately it's all too often that people sign up with the idea that it's their site to do with as they wish. Under the supposed "free speech" umbrella people feel justified to attack their very tolerant host then whine when his considerable patience is finally exhausted.

Sometimes a good idea loses credibility when it's presented as a demand. To me, the concept of free speech is closely related to the concept that none of my ideas are necessarily self-evident to others and thus I MUST tolerate disagreement with what I say. I try (with varying degrees of success) to word my contributions here as other than incontrovertible truth. This is more difficult with some of my strongly held views- I've aborted more than a few posts here when a preview has revealed that I've stepped off my soap box onto a bully pulpit. To me, the concept of one's free speech means that we allow others the same... that is- I may not agree with what you say but I absolutely believe that you have the same right to say it as I have to say mine.

[/derail]
The concept of "hippie" is likely on new members' minds when they sign up so it seems to me that hippie group-like discussions need to be our in the open and readily accessible to all with the idea that they will participate in kind. The fact that so many misappropriate free speech on the supposition that it means they are free to do as they damned well please imperils the existence of this resource the same way that Repugnicans and Democraps imperil the very concepts of freedom with the misguided and ill-advised policies today. By sequestering the open mindset that in many minds defines what hippie is all about will enable the membership as a whole to misunderstand and misuse the forums. This isn't far away from allowing dissent in the United States to be isolated and kept far away from the ears that most richly deserve to hear it.

By not calling bullshit on our government for misappropriating the concepts of "patriotism" and "freedom" the population enables it to continue to make the pursuit of happiness affordable only to the rich and well connected and to redefine the term "patriotism" as the unquestioning agreement with what is increasingly a series of criminal policies. We need for middle America to call the criminal government that it elected on perpetrating the very terror it purports to be trying to protect us from. The general membership here needs to steep itself in the concepts of "hippie" and "free speech" the same way the average American needs exposure to the fact that Washington D.C. lies and misleads for the interests of its elite constituency at the significant peril of our freedom and security.

 

Yes Skip I have visited the group sites, I see their potential and that is all the more reason why I feel we need one. As far as contributing I do come up stuff. (Recently I found a great free online diary from the Summer of Love and posted it in the hippies forum. It was promptly moved from the people I most interact with and wanted to see it, and now lies hidden away in a far flung subforum. Would not the group thing have solved this?) Contribution is important but I think the main issue is about community. To me Hippie is a spiritual and cultural orientation. What I notice on hip forums is that, as I have said before, there is a lack of cohesion between all the hippies on the site. Yes hippy.com and hipforums have brought them together but they are all merrily doing their own things among all the other kinds of people here. There's nothing wrong with this but I feel we need something more to unite us, something to focalize us, a circle of power if you will, a central meeting ground for those of our persuasion only, where we can see who we are and have those additional options at interaction. In my experience, and I think it is common behavior on the site, I tend to stick with one main subforum and venture out into 3 or 4 others. I find this makes it easier to get to know people and I just don't have time to do more. Having the group would make it so much easier to keep up with my friends and fellow hippies. You may think I'm limiting myself with this attitude but I assure you I have plenty of interaction with people I don't have the hippie bond with. What I'm missing is the commonality, my people, and that's what my passion or hype as you call it is all about. Maybe I should physically move to somewhere else but I moved my whole life until I came to where I am now and I'm tired of moving and probably not even physically capable of it anymore.

If you're dead set against this I'm not going to push it anymore but remember that you never really know how something new is going to develop. It could be a bust or a success or a thousand things in between. It could be an overnight sensation or take a long time to get going. It could be a real shot in the arm for the whole site or I could end up looking like a total boob for starting it. But if we don't try it we'll just never know.

 

I have always been confused as to what Hippies Community on Hip Forums is really for. If it is indeed a "community", then any thread should be excepted, and not moved just because it could fit in another forum. I am always disappointed that threads are moved that look interesting and provacative, and I don't get to see how people on Hippies might respond to them.


If I post a thread about stretching for health, or communal living, or birdwatching, I am interested in it being seen and responded to by the posters in Hippies Community. I want to know what the posters who go to Hippies think about these diverse subjects. It gives me a better and more well rounded mental picture of them, and I feel I get to know them better. I don't want to start my thread in the other forums such as Yoga and Meditation, or Communal Living, or Animals and Pets etc.

It has always confused me as I try to think of thread starters, and after I see that almost anything I think to start a thread about could fit in another forum, and will probably be moved, I also realize that all that is left is to talk about is what a hippie is and isn't.( What they wear, eat, smoke, do). This does get very redundant, and I think keeps Hippies Forum very light and superficial.

There are very few new thread starters everyday, because no one can think of anything to say that hasn't been said a million times before, especially if their post will be moved if it has anything to do with the other main topics of other forums.

I am sure many people have been curious about this...........................

 

A.B.E., excellent point about a problem that has troubled me also. A Hippie group would solve this by listing all the threads and posts made by the hippie group members. Then people could post (or have their post moved) to anyplace and we'd still be able to catch it and relate to it. Very important for community cohesion.