The Geek Whisperers

The three Geek Whispers get together to talk about the trend of going private in social channels and where we should hang out online these days. We talked a little about this in the past, but the trend has grown even more so. People are gathering in new tribal regions online these days and they seem to be smaller and smaller. Where do you hang out? How do you find them? We talk through the options and opportunities to grow your private conversation as you build up a public reputation. Notes:

• Twitter is no longer a guaranteed public forum for our communities
• We’re talking Slack as opposed to Twitter
• Blog comments are close to nonexistent
• Instagram or Snapchat getting involved
• Facebook started the trend
• Leaving the public square to the walled garden
• Influencers are killing it on private channels (like Facebook influencers)
• Hitting Slack bankruptcy and starting over (Amy’s advice is quality over quantity)
• Riding awkwardness into an invitation to a new Slack
• Power of IRL relationships (and remember to follow up!)
• Remember the power of regional groups
• Why you should care about GitHub these days
  • Kubernetes working group for documentation
  • Homebrew open issues asking for help
• And if you don’t want to join the existing communities, start your own

Conclusion? Today’s social is a lot about chasing the conversation you want to have. There’s no one place to be if you want to see the big picture. Find your tribes. And let’s see what all this means to you and your career.