Bye bye community

bye bye community

My last post (March 26th) was full of optimism and joy at the FTW community being back; 4 days later it was down again "for good".

Such a pity.

I get it; Ron is a husband, father, and has a full-time job, his personal time is precious. FTW must be very time consuming to maintain (to do it the way it has been done). Ron has pulled the rug out from this group before though, he chucked it all in and started the short-lived Black Dot Barrel Studios about a year ago, so the 'real' return of FTW (WITH blogrolls) was highly anticipated.

But it was just a tease, and it's over now.

Here's why I'll miss the FTW Community:
It was a curated blogroll. Most people, they just add blogs to their roll and then forget them. Part of what made FTW stand out was, Ron used the same techniques employed by gang-leaders throughout history: he asked that you fly the colours, and in exchange he would show you love, and make you feel like part of a group. Your blog would no longer be a whisper in the darkness, you would be part of a discussion. And it wasn't an empty promise, every bodies web traffic went up, comment counts went up and bonds were formed. What's more, Ron kept it clean: in a culture of sniggering man-boys that was quite impressive and really, really refreshing.


Like any community that looses their home, it falls to the people to maintain collusion when there's no hub to hold the center. The Commissar is down, and the lines are breaking. There are others who have stepped in to fill the void (I've signed up with Tale of Painters) but as with anything when the people are different, the dynamic is different. He's keeping the name this time, but FTW no longer = the FTW community. I wish Ron all the best, I do. I will continue to follow his blog. He made a really nice place to gather, I enjoyed it, and it will be missed.

Please, feel free to recommend other hobby groups/communities in the comments section :)