On Dis-community – Play on Words

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Yesterday, spontaneously I joined a group for a ride to the Tour de France Femme via Strava. The day before that I meant one group via Meetup for a bike ride from Geneva, and a second via Strava for a run. The meetup group, to the best of my knowledge has no strava group.

Every single other group I know does and I find this intolerably frustrating but let’s focus on the positive first. The positive is that I had no runs for the first time in weeks, so I decided to revert to the cycling staple. In so doing I had a pleasant, quiet morning ride to Geneva with barely any cars, before having a group ride to Crans.

When I got to Arnex-sur-Nyon I saw someone from the second group riding to Geneva so I joined him. In the process I then went for a second more physical ride. In the end I got exhausted, went home, and then rested.

Yesterday morning I was thinking “I should go and see the Tour de France because it is a rare opportunity but I wasn’t sure whether to cycle a tiny distance or whether to go further. I noticed on Strava that a group was planning to go to the TDFF event above Mont-sur-Rolle so I joined them for a social ride, and then a social wait for the TDFF to pass, and then the social ride home.

Some people went up Le Molard on the route home but I had already done a lot of climbing on Saturday so I rode for home. I helped guide two people along quieter roads for the route back, instead of going along the main road.

Last night I joined the Whatsapp group but I haven’t posted to the group because of how particular people have become about “chatter” on conversation on an instant messaging platform.

The conflict actually comes from a second source. I am in a running group associated with a shop. We’re going to do a run in Octobre and I saw an article that is topically relevant to the run. An admin deleted the message and then started …typing… and then “so that people can easily find “blah blah blah please refrain from chatter” and this angers me.

It angers me for three reaasons.

The first reason is that I shared a link to a Swiss television news item about the history of a run they are an official sponsor of, so it adds weight to the run. For people like me, that historical context is a selling point.

Specifically “92ème Course Morat-Fribourg

Tout remonte en 1476, lorsque les Confédérés remportent une victoire face à Charles le Téméraire, Duc de Bourgogne. À la suite de cela, le canton de Fribourg naît et l’esprit national est consolidé. Parcourir les 17.17km qui séparent Morat et Fribourg, c’est commémorer ce pan de l’histoire et participer à une course de tradition, dans une ambiance festive unique.” is front and centre on the event page. The article

I didn’t share it for noise. I shared it because it is directly connected to the premise and historical context of the run. I didn’t include a hyperlink to avoid being too noisy.

It angers me that the post would be deleted and then someone would write “avoid being chatty” because this is directly relevant to the run, and the group. For me, community is as much about chatter in person, at events, as online between events. If you don’t want chatter, don’t use Whatsapp.

What gets to me is that the person is an admin, rather than part of that direct community. This is a bureaucrat behaving like a Caligula rather than a proper moderator.

Netiquette is about minimal intervention by group moderators, but in the modern era group moderation is strict. So strict that there is little value in being in these groups. I get all of this information directly from Strava.

For me, Whatsapp is a community tool, for conversations related to running events, and running life. They are about social cohesion and a healthy sense of persistent community.

When someone shares an article related to the history that is directly relevant to an event it is a key sponsor of, it undermines and destroys the sense of community because it discourages social sharing.

I quit the chat because two people “hearted” the censorship comment and I’m using Facebook despite it being owned by Facebook. For me that demonstration of dis-community is why it makes sense to quit the chat.

During various runs I took pictures, which were then used to illustrate events. Through heavy handed censorship they have lost my free photo contributions.

In the end I thought that because we’re doing a run along a historical route, and that the Swiss national broadcaster decided to write and shoot an item, that it was warranted to share it in the group. Now I see that I was wrong, and that the group is too narrow in scope even for an interesting historical insight not to be deleted and treated as noise.

For me, a good community is strong in person, and active online. It is receptive to information relevant to the context of group activities and “noisy” posts are deleted if the volume rises.

It was one post. No hyperlink, no extrenuous chatter, and it was offered within the clear and evident context of the run we’re doing as a group. I have left the Whatsapp group. The next step may come soon.