Where do you congregate to share with fellow misfits who never join in mainstream pastimes? Where do the non-joiners join up?
You can’t join yet, actually. The founders are college students struggling with finals about this time of year, and maybe graduating. So the project isn’t quite ready, but if it’s really any good, it will never exactly “be ready.” If that makes no sense to you, move along and forget you saw this post.
I never intended to be a loner, but I’m willing to be alone because I really do know what brings me personal contentment. Oddly, whenever I am required by circumstances to work with large groups, I end up too often in leadership. My guess is that’s what happens when you really know what you want to do, and plan to do it that way regardless who else plays along. By no means do I pretend I know more than anyone else in the group. Should someone manifest a plausible expectation of what to do and how to do it, I’m game to try it. What drives me is I usually have something else I’d rather be doing, so let’s get on with it. It seems rarely does anyone share my interests in how to occupy that time afterward, so I end up preferring my own company for most things. It was purely self-interest to learn how to take charge of things and get them moving, so I can as quickly as possible escape. I’m a loner because what I really like interests few others.
I know beyond all doubt what I really like is not mainstream, and there’s nothing I can do to change either what I like nor what defines “mainstream.” But I do hope to offer some useful ideas to those answering their own quirky drives, and I want to hear theirs. The probability of finding them in close geographical proximity approaches zero, so I tend to look to the Internet for company. I never liked MySpace, and was deeply annoyed by Facebook. Since dropping off the latter, the folks who run it have made it even more annoying. But I still hold out some hope there are a few individuals out there who would seek what I seek, in broad general terms — individuality itself. Having reaped such a bountiful joy from it, I hope to share with those few who might gain from such self-discovery. So if nothing else, we can compare notes on how to make the most of it, the path itself, never mind the destination.
So as soon as it goes mainstream, I plan to join Diaspora. It’s the Web 2.0 for those who hate Web 2.0, the mass consumer appeal and all the abuses that entails.
