The importance of online communities

Why did I start my small community?

As a developer or designer, you will hit that breaking point where you don't want to or don't know how to keep going with your project. For me, that means I end up in a staring contest with a turned off computer in the morning, coffee in hand, wondering if I should even press the power button. I get thoughts like "I'm probably only going to spend 5 seconds on it and then be looking at videos or playing games for the rest of the day". At the time, there is a truth behind it. Why deal with that hurdle when there are countless distractions at your fingertips?

You've got to realise that this negative thought is only there because you don't want to be THAT guy. There's a part of you that is fighting to do what's right. To push through and deal with the issues at hand.

I started a networking group with the guys on the same course as me at uni. I am going to own up now and say that it was by accident.

These people I was sitting with once or twice a week were having the same issues as me. Even though we all had different interests and career paths in mind. Some wanted to be programmers, vehicle artists, writers, concept artists.... You get the gist. Despite our differences, we were all stuck.

The point is, we were all looking online for examples or references for our own work and we'd always end up seeing what other people had made with 10+ years experience. We would be sat in that classroom or at home with no experience and a degrading feeling whenever our work didn't match the examples others set online.

What did we do about it?

We didn't do anything to tackle it head on. What we did do, wasn't even intentional.

We put together a simple group chat amongst friends in the class. We believed that this would be a good way to share resources we found online or even just lecture slides.

That is what we planned. A small hub of knowledge that we could refer back to after university. Come on, hands up everyone that has lost access to old projects or notes because you're no longer an active student.

At the time we didn't know what our group chat would become, or what it would come to mean for some of us.

One of our assignments had a peer assessment criteria. So we said, okay lets send a link over the group chat and do a mass review of everyone's projects so far. Everyone's grades profited from it.

I think it was then that a lightbulb turned on and I noticed that we had a point of reference for what level we were working at. We could suggest iterations for each others work and pick design elements that we liked from someone else's project, asking "can you show me how to do that?".

Not to say you can't ask people with 10+ years experience for advice. I'm saying that you may find that you don't hear back for a while or maybe they'll want you to buy into an online course.

This group chat meant providing solutions we could follow and by asking questions, we'd know the answer within a couple of hours or at most a day.

I feel that the most important development from this group chat was a reality check. We could measure our capabilities against those at the same level. Instead of thinking that our work should be at an extremely high level that utilises all the tricks in the book, we could say "the guy that used to sit across from me has done this". Within the creative industry, it is difficult to say where you should be at. For the most part, it is a matter of personal preference. Your choice of styling against someone else's. That bridge between student and professionalism is a tricky one to cross for most.

Why am I telling you this?

I'm a believer that you should always have something you want to do, somewhere you want to go in life. Something that to you is so outrageous and brilliant in every way. For that reason, you should look at professionals who are in those circles. Not to compare yourself against them, but to fuel your inspiration and know that one day you will get there.

I also believe that it's good to look at those around you that have the same level of experience as you. This is a compass to let you know you're on track to reach your goals.

Try not to be hard on yourself and accept that you will always seen flaws in your own work. You made it and you're going to have doubts. Doubts are a sign that you care about what you are working on.

Other people won't share your view of your work, simply because they weren't caught up in the technical side of making it. You will have an opinion of where you are in comparison to them and they will have advice to help you improve your own work.

Communication is key.

Thanks for reading this far, I really do appreciate it.

Feel free to look at another blog post or even explore some of my works.