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But why get involved in community?..

New to the concept of online community, I've found myself wondering what the true value of it all is. I've learned that there is a lot of white noise in most of the online community forums I've seen; people bigging themselves up, pretenders, know-it-alls - it's difficult to find people with content that actually makes you sit back and think "s**t.. I wish I knew that sooner". Simply put, a lot of communities are centered around people's successes, and one's ability to leverage that 'success' to boost their social or professional profile and get in with the popular kids. Think about it, how often do you scroll through a community feed just to see Tom post about his 9th promotion of the year? I am happy for you Tom.. but I lost interest after your 4th.

In many ways, we can all be like Tom, simply because it's what the rest of the 'community' is doing, and because we often become products of our environment.

With Indie Hackers however, it's the 'problem' that sits at the epicenter of the community; "I can't seem to find the right Facebook audience", "I'm not a developer, anyone have a no-code solution to get my landing page up?". There's a certain humility that festers itself by simply being exposed to other people who are genuinely experiencing the same trials and tribulations that you are in your efforts to build a company, launch a new site, whatever it may be.

For me, community should revolve around the collective, not the individual. Community at its best is reflected in the people who spend 5/6 minutes of their day informing someone about a new tool that could help them to identify and grow their Facebook audience, or about a couple of Zapier integrations to help someone get their landing page up and running. The kind of thing seen daily on Indie Hackers.

That's why I get involved in community, the right kind of community.

Coretta Scott King once said "The greatness of community is best measured by the compassionate actions of its members". Pretty spot on if you ask me.. and hats off to Courtland and Channing.

In other news, who's better?
  1. Messi
  2. Ronaldo
Vote
  1. 7

    Funny how much harder it is to show vulnerability and ask for help rather than talk yourself up

  2. 5

    This is the exact reason I joined the Indie Hacker community and replaced much of my time spent on LinkedIn. A community of those who aspire to get better collectively as opposed to individual success updates. Great to see.

    1. 1

      I also use to spend a lot more time on Linkedin before IH.
      The thing is that this is not the best place to sell, and now I'm coming back to Linkedin with all the stuff learned at IH.

      I got to say, I'm happy with the results.

  3. 1

    Well said, Cian! Can't believe I'm the only person to put Ronaldo in the poll so far 😅

  4. 1

    So true! Community is super valuable and it's built into us as humans. It's starting to be hyped though as if everyone should start a community and it's an easy thing to do. It's not and it will probably never be. Nevertheless, I hope truly authentic and joyful online communities will continue to rise, the world needs it.

  5. 1

    I love your views Cian, and the last quote as well.
    My only take is that you should add a third answer to the poll:
    Neither, they both killed the beauty in soccer! ;)

  6. 1

    Well said, it's all too easy for an online community/platform to become superficial over time if its posts become increasingly self-absorbed (and less value-adding).

    I think what you said about the Indie Hackers community sums it up nicely and is also one of the main reasons why I've decided to spend more time and effort getting involved here on IH as compared to other platforms.

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