Is DU too big to be personal: what's your experience?

There are so many warm and wonderful D.U. members.

But this board is HUGE. Sometimes we connect with a few. I try to connect with everybody. There are some members with big hearts and they care about people.

It's Friday night. I'm sending out my hugs and caring to all who have the big hearts. For all who feel lonely. And for all who worry. I care.

I don't think it's too big to be personal...

I've got several close friends who I met right here, and now they're part of my "real" life too. I think it helps to hang out consistently in a few forums; that way you see the same folk over and over.

Follow your heart!

I did and it paid off in ways that have enriched my life beyond my wildest dreams.

:hi:

Hi Peg!

Nice photo in that last contest, Seagull on beach, IIRC. :hug:

Hi Mimosa!!!

Thank you for this nice post! :hug:

:P

Thanks, sweetie...yup, that was the photo!

Good to see you about these parts!

Hey, check out my poem...it's in my Journal highlight...

No comments needed unless you feel like it!

:hug:

You make YOUR community IN the big city YOUR small town. Find the people who agree with you the most politically and make them your allies. Guess what Mimosa? From your posts, I think you're one of the residents in "my small town" on DU. :)

:hi:

....I.ve been here for a very long time and have only really interacted with a couple of people off the board. One was a lady I sent some stained glass to, and the other a member who lives nearby. I have never met a member in person. I'm afraid they'd want autographs, pictures and stuff.

...and I am offended by your impersonal "hugs and caring" which are not specifically directed to me.

People here care about people for the most part.

There are exceptions. :)

and many of my favorite posters "of old" are no longer here, I find there is always a cohort of regular (and fairly like minded) posters here that I feel some kinship with. That said, it is hard to get to know posters in person--the "meet-ups" that were fairly popular in various cities years ago, are hard to sustain.

I think most of the meetups that were done in prior years were arranged in the Lounge. I don't know about you but I don't visit the Lounge near as much as I used to (nothing personal, Lizards). I just wonder if there are still get-togethers but we just don't know about them because we don't hear about them. :shrug:

and most of those people, particularly the Boston crowd, are long gone from DU. I do hang with DUers on occasion in NYC but it isn't really a meet-up announced in the lounge or publically. Also, DUers used to meet up for anti-war protests in DC until Obama became president and then, apparently, it became uncool to protest war with a DEM in the whitehouse. That being said, I don't see people coordinating meetups in any forum anymore. :shrug:

DU has been a refuge through some rough times. :)

:hug:

i chat with all. remember history of a handful. but geeez, i forget my kids name. not good at the remembering the old. live in the now of stuff.

cheers to you on this friday.

Definitely recommended.

I did not intend to make any personal connections when I joined this forum. But I have, and am really happy about that.

There are many very nice posters and others that prefer to be edgy.

Usually I feel invisible as I tend to parachute post.

The closest DUer that I am aware of is an 85 mile drive (live in the sticks).

An awesome, but small group have been very supportive, a few have been less than kind, the bulk ignore or shun. I try to have thick skin, but there are times when I feel like the assistant to the proverbial bad guy in cartoons. I say how bout this, how bout that and...nothing. Someone else can say the same darn thing just hours later and it gets hailed as awesome and brilliant. I chalk it up to being a fairly new member, because I see the alternatives to that theory as folks here thinking me a freeper or that I'm just too intellectually remedial to bother with. All in all, I like being here, even if I'm not on the 'ins', the warmth people here share with one another is proof we're not all automatons and I'd tolerate just about anything to get to continue to witness or be a part of that.

I'll take that hug Mimosa, and offer the same.

:hug:

K and R

Thank you. :)

Yes, if you are here long enough, you do make personal connections. I don't post as much as I used to but still have connections here... some have even translated over to facebook.

Like anything else, you get out of it what you put in... and sometimes much more than you expect.

and I'm not very social. The only thing I took to heart was to not take disagreements personally or focus any ill will towards people that disagree with me because I have a feeling that we might agree on the next issue. Besides I don't want to carry around 'hate' for people I likely only 'speak' to now and then, if the communication were more consistent I could better gage whether some people aren't worth talking to or not. I simply can't remember people I've disagreed with and I'm not putting people on ignore for a misunderstanding, disagreement, or other personality clash.