06 December 2023
I’m aiming to publish Some Super Short blog posts on Wiggle Work Wednesdays revolving around Why Wiggle Work–why you should join us and why people are sticking around. I usually stick with Mastodon posts around this topic on Wednesdays, but I think it would be helpful to be able to provide a bit more insight. Choosing a community, after all, is a big decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
This week, I wanted to shed some light on our channels in Discord. The community started with a few foundational channels in place, and it has grown quite a bit based on uncovered interests and direct requests. Everyone is encouraged to introduce themselves in initial-intro upon joining, where you’ll be enthusiastically greeted by everyone present. This shared introduction is also included in the Wiggle Work Weekly Wonder newsletter that goes out each Saturday.
I realize these first interations can generally feel awkward, but I promise it won’t be. We are dying to know important things like how you like your toast and what you think your dog would name you–but really, whatever you are comfortable sharing.
We have forum and threaded-based text channels and several voice channels (little video call hangouts). Threaded channels, like accountability-allies or advice-assembly, are where we have more in-depth convos about a specific, ongoing topic. For example, I’ve been sharing my PT journey in accountability-allies and checking in weekly. Another Wiggler has asked about pricing services in advice-assembly. It’s all well-balanced between work and personal topics.
The general and distraction-den channels tend to be the primary discussion spots. There’s a daily discussion prompt posted each day in the general channel, which consistently leads to my favorite interactions–I’ve published a blog post with my favorites. These allow for us to get to know each other better faster and uncover things that would likely never come up in organic conversation.
These discussions get weird, fun, hilarious, heavy, sad, interesting, and hopeful. Everything here is async, so these usually carry on for the entire day due to time zone and scheduling differences. There’s never pressure to respond to anything right away.
Distraction-den is where a lot of silly things get shared, but it also acts as a general announcement channel. For instance, we are kicking off a Radical Raffle this week with the newly released LEGO Tiny Plants set. This was announced in the distraction-den channel, and details will be shared in the newsletter as well. Additionally, you’ll find other pinned events and calls to action, like signing up for Sock Swappers, our weird holiday gift exchange.
The game-group channel is one of the more active new spots where we’ve been coordinating asyc games on Board Game Arena. I’ve recently learned that I am very bad at building bear parks, but it’s been a lot of fun so far and we are incorporating little prizes to add to the experience. Plus, we are all a bit too into LEGO.
It’s not a requirement per se, but you’ll want to share pet happenings in pet-place–they’ll be very well received. Food and snacks are discussed in the snacky-snacks channel, and the fewer rules the better I’ve learned. You can share pics of a meal you’re proud of, get advice or recipes, and just tell us how your snack break went. We are big-time snackers and even have a little club you can join through this channel called Snack Stories (like pen pals but the snacks).
Our voice channels are used for casual coffee hangouts, whiteboard sessions, and scheduled and sporadic presentations. These act as such a welcomed break from typing at a screen all day and go a long way towards furthering connections and combating isolation.
It’s a lot of channels, but it never feels overwhelming, and we have a community Wiki that serves as an excellent high-level overview of all the things just in case you get turned around somewhere. There’s no empty link-dropping flybys or a sense of having to be “on” all the time, just an overall feeling of genuine human connection that seems to get rarer by the day on and off the internet.
I’d love for you to join us and I’m on Mastodon if you have any questions. Investing your time and attention into a community is an important decision, and you’ll love it here.
