(01-15-2013 07:22 PM)Sanura Snowpaw Wrote: ...and I think Saga's came before the online pedigrees. I know she had been working on it for AGES but wasn't sure how to show everyone until Khea showed her how to use google documents!
LOL - exactly, Sanura. I was messing with notecards that became outdated before they were circulated in the community, and then new versions and the endless questions from all those who were still stuck with the old versions etc.etc...
So yes, Khea showing me Google Docs was indeed the great break through ;-)
-However - which is the main thing in this thread - it's not so much about the Docs, or how everything works, or who figured it out etc... It's about how we SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE!!!
When I started in KittyCats, most people didn't share. Most people kept the stuff they figured out to themselves, or at least the main part of it.
Sure, lots of people had probably already figured out everything before I made my Google Docs - I don't claim "copyright" on any great "discoveries" or anything - the only real difference is the sharing. I started bugging people for help on this project, and many cooperated. Others told me I was crazy and expressed concern if I was to make all this knowledge public. Called me crazy and whatnot, and stopped giving info because they felt it was better kept in private.
-But LOTS of other people joined in, and that's why the Docs are there today! -Not because of me - if I hadn't made them, someone else probably would have at some point - No, they are there because people share. People send me info, knowing very well that it will be made public - and yet they SHARE. Some people have sent me info regularly for the past 1½ years - others send me their first notecard while they're almost afraid to say "Uhmm, I think I may have found something, will you look at it?" - and I look, and I reply, and I talk to them and I update the charts. That's my contribution to the sharing.
So when Noc asks: "How do we come together as a community, embrace new breeders, and work together for the benefit of all?" - my answer is this: KEEP SHARING. Keep gathering info, keep making new projects, keep sharing your knowledge for the benefit of all. It grows more and more - some people make documents: The KittyCats history, the KittyCats Auction schedule, my own docs... -Other people do classes based on the genetics of KittyCats that are now common knowledge because we all share, yet others make events and contests where KittyCat-people can gather and have fun, others make tools and fun stuff for our KittyCats both in SL and on the web - like Tad's Build-a-Cat and such - and all this helps creating a community of sharing.
Suuure, all roses have their thorns, and we also gossip and bash each other and get mad and grit our teeth now and then, also while we SHARE our opinions here on the forums, lol... But all in all, the KittyCats community is one of the best communities I have been in, in my entire 6+ years in SL. This is not because of you, or because of me, or because of this guy or that girl or the one next door - but because of all the SHARING between them all.
That's what a community is, and that's what we're doing.
Keep it up, guys :-)
-Saga
Fair Trade
