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Post by Mia on Mar 14, 2021 20:33:37 GMT
Well, a little late in the game but should we have our own little virtual letter social online? I know of at least one group using zoom in these Covid-times. Currently, I only have basic zoom membership. Other options include Google whatever it is called, and Discord (perhaps easier for voice chat rather than video), youtube livestream (but video only for one, text chat for others), Instagram livestream (saw this in action last week with two people on video),.....
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Post by ole on Mar 14, 2021 21:57:53 GMT
I'm in favour of it. What's the cost for hosting something like this. If not exorbitant, I might offer to pay that.
Edit: I see that it's free for up to 100 participants, which is more than we need, but only allows 40 minute meetings, which is just a tiny bit short I think, but not bad. A shift to longer meetings costs CAN$200 per year. That's not out of line, but nevertheless a bit much and probably not worth it for us.
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Post by stompie on Mar 15, 2021 4:08:00 GMT
I have watched recordings of these events and participated in 1.
There really does not seem to be all that much to talk about to be honest.
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Post by ole on Mar 15, 2021 12:49:23 GMT
I have watched recordings of these events and participated in 1. There really does not seem to be all that much to talk about to be honest. You're quite right stompie. But it depends on two things. For one, different people have different conversational skills. Not everybody is good at verbal communication in a social setting. That's fine, but there are also different ways to look at what exactly counts as communication. A family gathering, for example, does not necessarily entail a lot of intellectual verbal content, but it is nice to get together and there is value there. I personally like to see what people look like, the way they talk, and other audio-visual cues to their soul. Yes, you might say that many things can be communicated with written words, and I'd agree, that is indeed an elegant way to get to know someone, but there is nothing lost by expanding vocabulary to other media.
By the way, zoom works well without the video part. I've participated in meetings by just phoning in and that's a delightful way to meet once you get the hang and feel of it.
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Post by michelleg on Mar 15, 2021 13:49:44 GMT
Jitsu is also a free video conference platform - I use it for my writer's group. Might want to check that out - there's no limit on the time.
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Post by ole on Mar 15, 2021 15:37:28 GMT
Jitsu is also a free video conference platform - I use it for my writer's group. Might want to check that out - there's no limit on the time. Jitsi. Yes! I'd forgotten about that because I haven't been much interested in video until recently. I've lived in the world of text as much as possible. But a friend of mine in India contacted me via Jitsi Meet last year and it worked quite nicely. The main reason to use that would be that it's open source. I'm all for it. You can even run your own Jitsi server. If I were to do that I think I'd put my server in NewYork since that would have better ping times to Europe and is an especially well connected location. I'm going to look into it.
Anyway, not everybody here is much interested probably. I can understand and respect that. We'll see what people say about conferencing and if it's even worth thinking about.
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Post by distractedmom on Mar 16, 2021 2:33:00 GMT
I think it would be kind of fun to chat about pens and stationery and meet one another's pets.
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Post by radellaf on Mar 16, 2021 23:51:31 GMT
I'd definitely be up for trying. whatever or however. I want a fancy document cam so you can see my sheeny ink dry as I write.
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Post by eefa on Mar 19, 2021 11:36:31 GMT
I'm definitely intrigued by the idea of this!
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Post by Mia on Mar 19, 2021 22:26:55 GMT
The Arizona Correspondence Society should be having a zoom soon, tomorrow, I think.
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Post by penguy on Mar 21, 2021 2:56:19 GMT
It would spoil the fun, we would all know what the people we write to looked like. It would take the mystery and misconceptions and throw them out the window.
Our drawing group meets every Monday morning and we take turns posing or have someone model for us (clothed). We find that we are talking a lot more as we draw. Before when it was in-person we were pretty much silent when we were concentrating on drawing. The group likes to draw me because I have so many wrinkles (they call it character), I don't know if I want to let everyone know what this character looks like!
There was another thread asking if you wanted to have a photo of the person you were writing to sent to you. The response was rather mixed. I guess I have mixed feeling about Zooming as a group. It takes one more digital step away from written correspondence.
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Post by alcyone on Mar 21, 2021 4:54:25 GMT
I'm up for it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2021 9:07:11 GMT
To be honest, I would feel uncomfortable writing letters in front of a camera (yes, I'm the one who voted "no"), although I don't mind sending a picture. But letter writing is so private for me. I think, I couldn't concentrate being monitored all the time; it would feel a little like an exam at school. Also to me it just doesn't make sense when you see me looking out of the window thinking or daydreaming in between.
But, of course, feel free to go ahead without me.
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Post by ole on Mar 21, 2021 13:01:12 GMT
To be honest, I would feel uncomfortable writing letters in front of a camera (yes, I'm the one who voted "no"), although I don't mind sending a picture. But letter writing is so private for me. I think, I couldn't concentrate being monitored all the time; it would feel a little like an exam at school. Also to me it just doesn't make sense when you see me looking out of the window thinking or daydreaming in between.
But, of course, feel free to go ahead without me. I think you have the wrong idea of how zoom works, or is typically used. No one would see you writing, and probably nobody would chose to write in front of the camera. Basically this is just a social video conference. Actually you don't even need to turn your camera on, it's all within your control - you can even just phone in on a regular old fashioned phone if you like. Basically this is just a social video/audio conference.
Here is an example of an old online get-together that was recorded for Youtube. Go ahead a few minutes and just see the format. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQoWbLhEv3A With Zoom this is what you see, but on your screen there is also some other controls like microphone and camera on/off.
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Post by Mia on Mar 21, 2021 15:34:59 GMT
The recent letter zooms I've been in have started with people introducing themselves (general things - rough location, how long they've been writing letters, perhaps recent snail mail stationery purchases or something associated), the camera on them. You don't have to have your camera on, but perhaps a good idea to have an avatar rather than blank screen. Once gone round the room, we then started (or continued), letter writing. You might see the top of the pen move, but not what is written. Though on Instagram, I may show the date, just to "prove" I have started a letter. You can turn your video on and off at any time, say if you were to step away. You should also mute your microphone when you are not speaking. Ah, the Zoom video ole posted, well, it is possible to record zoom meetings, and this is what Larry of Larry's Fountain Pens does, for upload to his youtube channel. Larry is a character. The dog in that video has since passed away. Some Zoom meetings can be a bit unruly or unstructured. E.g. a parish council meeting in December made the news. Other Zoom meetings are well done. I know it can be scary, showing your face to perhaps total strangers. Offline, some letter socials happen in person, at a cafe or library or somewhere. That may be more exam-like as you can glance at the letter-writing in progress rather than just the person themselves. An in-person event is happening next Sunday on Mare Island (according to an Instagram post from letter_writing_club on there).
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