The Alcove at Three

[bursar42]

Recently, I've been giving some thought to the Alcove. We're far better organized than we once were. We've got a domain for pictures, messages, and email. We've got our three (or is it four, I forget) mailing lists. We've got our permanent chat (Ask for the room name.) We've always had a definite social structure. Now, we've got more people in quasi-official positions in that structure, though. Not emperor or Jesus or whatever, but webmaster, listmod, and code junky. I guess it's inevitable. We're large enough nowadays to require a sort of secretariat. Someone has to make sure the website doesn't fall apart at the seams. Someone has to do housekeeping. Someone has to figure out reunion transport. (We've always had someone do that.)

The fundamental thing, though, is that we've become too large. Any group which sprouts a civil service is too large to call itself a bunch of friends anymore. Of course, this may just be jitters for me. For the first time, there are non-Eishan Alcovists that I haven't already met at CTY. Maybe I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. Who knows? I definitely felt that this summer. I was so disconnected from the vast majority of the Alcove. I lived in the past. The youngest students seemed somehow "other", and the most of the older ones became boring. It seemed like we were busier being no-mores than we were having fun. That's one of the reasons I flung myself so wholeheartedly on the traditions: instigating the election cabal, dealing with the t-shirt, collecting the money for everything, editing the contact list.

With a group this large, people grate each others' nerves very easily as well. This may be why I think the chats have become more and more... well, dumb. While they were never examples of Great Discourse, the past month has seen a nearly endless string of "I'm Wittier than You Are" contests. Everything's turned into a joke, a nitpick about grammar, or a comment on screenname color. Pointless banter has a role in conversation, but when there's three hours straight, something's wrong.

As usual, I'm not sure what to do about this. Next year's group might want to consider being its own thing, without us old folks, though the Alcove is so diffuse that there's not likely to be a mass no-more-age any time soon, so it's unlikely to actually happen. I certainly don't want this thing to break up, but it already has to some extent. There's an older group and a younger group. There's the quasi-LLRT group, the moderates, and the quasi-Eish group. But the offenders in chats run the gamut from squirrel to null-more, quasi-Eish to quasi-LLRT. Formal splitting would do no good, and, from what I've heard, LLRT's method of dealing with it is really unacceptable.

I probably just won't be around as much as I used to be.

Comments

[bursar42.livejournal.com]

No. This badger isn't supposed to be crying either. It's getting a little annoying.

[inuki42.livejournal.com]

He's a ferret.

And don't vanish completely. You still hold a very unique position, in that you've been to enough sessions to know almost everyone from CTY - something that very very few can say. (I think Reuven's the only other one, and he catches the younger people but misses the older.)

I agree that the whole thing is disintegrating, but there's nothing any one person can do. It has to be a group effort, or the few people calling for it will just get laughed at. *sigh*

[londo.livejournal.com]

I'm curious as to exactly what our method was, at least as far as you're concerned. Chances are I agree with your judgement of 'unacceptable,' but I'm still curious.

We should talk, I think.

[(Anonymous)]

Personally, I miss the Buddy Chats of 2000 (after CTY of course) and 2001. I think some of them may still be up in the eGroup's Files section.

Now that's what I call good quality Alcove silliness, the likes of which have not been seen in a while.

- P.J.

[inuki42.livejournal.com]

...They're chats, and it's a Yahoogroup.

[bursar42.livejournal.com]

The old eGroup/ygroup died horribly, remember? However, if you're interested, I have some transcripts lying around.

[arcus.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it's getting fractious. For my part, it never really felt right after Lan.01 ended, and the group chats were always consequently a little weird. I was such a different (better) person at CTY, and the Peter who coasted through the last two years of high school really didn't have what it took to be functional alcovist anymore.

Also, the Alcove was always a weird beast. Llrt and Eish had more in common with each other than, say, the Asian Mafia, but it was still a very odd thing for the two mindsets to end up together. I remember even at Lan.01, there was this sort of unspoken insularity separating the sexually hypercharged, and innocently bizarre.

It's sad that things have started to fragment, but ultimately it's impressive that they lasted for you as long as they did.

Cheer up. I'm sure it'll turn out okay for you.

-reg

[silvergirl42.livejournal.com]

You know I agree with you on this...god knows we've discussed it enough. Honestly, I'm not usually real big on the chats. I like talking to a few people one-on-one, and quite frankly, I don't care all that much about the newish, younger-than-me people, just as the oldish, older-than-me people don't care all that much about me. I've never cared all that much about the group, just a few people in it that I connected to. I don't see why there has to be a group at all--actually, 03.2 as I assumed sort of an unwanted leadership role, I started railing on people who talked about the Alcove as a group. As a general rule, I would say "my friends and I" or something of that nature. I hate how cliquey (sp?) and elitist we've become without meaning to...and I just diverged quite a bit from what you were originally discussing. And I haven't told you anything you don't already know I think. And I posted a heinously long comment in your LJ. And I don't care :D

[messiah-complex.livejournal.com]

ummm
hmm
i kinda don't like 99% of the people i've met from the alcove/CTY in general
so that would be why i never talk to other alcove people.

Theodore Sturgeon expatiates on crap

[sternoquiaspero.livejournal.com]

Theodore Sturgeon (a sci-fi author, if you don't know) once said -- and I'm paraphrasing here:

"Yes, 90% of science fiction is crap. But 90% of EVERYTHING is crap."


I'd say that I agree with Susan: I don't like ~99% of the people at Lan.

But is it much better anywhere else? I think not.

[xo---bridget.livejournal.com]

whats your real name.. when/where did u go to cty. i might know you! that would be pretty cool.

[xo---bridget.livejournal.com]

nope im not sure i know who you are either. :)

[roseandsigil.livejournal.com]

Hey, CM. I found this entry poking around in the fora today. Is there still a permachat these days? If so, where is it? You can email me at mkehrt AT cmu DOT edu, if you want.