Choir, Aikido, seed-savers group, community garden. All communities engaged in purposeful activities together.
Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
281–290 of 585 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#282My neighborhood. When we moved in we sat out front every evening, and made small talk with every single person who walked by. Some were caught off guard, some kinda just waved and moved on, but most stopped to talk. What's interesting is that people who had lived in that neighborhood nearly 20 years together had never talked, and met for the first time as both stopped to chat at nearly the same time. Then we started…
It's sad that modern American yards are so unfriendly to sitting in your front yard, but that can be easily fixed, even within the boundaries of over-zealous HOAs or towns. Just make a cute little "gate" (it doesn't even need the gate) with flowers at the end of the walkway near the sidewalk, and add in a table and some chairs (or move them out when you go to sit). Being at the sidewalk vs being 20-40 feet away on a…
I agree. In my opinion, it's another manifestation of individualism promoted by the capitalist system in the US - in urban design, in this case. Another commenter pointed out how they only see their neighbour when they both walk to or from their car at the same time. It sounds sad to me, but some might prefer it that way.
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#283My neighborhood. When we moved in we sat out front every evening, and made small talk with every single person who walked by. Some were caught off guard, some kinda just waved and moved on, but most stopped to talk. What's interesting is that people who had lived in that neighborhood nearly 20 years together had never talked, and met for the first time as both stopped to chat at nearly the same time. Then we started…
I'm prepared for this to be an unpopular opinion, but I'm glad my neighbors don't do this. I know my neighbors well enough. We check each other's mail when they're away and will help out in other ways. But I have lots of friends to keep up with outside of my neighborhood -- people I have a lot in common with -- my neighbors, not so much. If they wanted to talk with me each time I saw them coming or going, I would lik…
You would love my next door neighbors. They moved in the same week we did 2 years ago. We saw them when they first drove up and enters their garage (middle age couple). Since then, nobody has ever seen them. They never have lights on in their house at night. They never answer their door. They never open their garage and drive away. They never have packages or anything else delivered. They only way we know they are still alive is their trash bins go out and are taken back in every week (though nobody has ever seen them do it) and in the winter you can see the white smoke/condensation from their utility vents.
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#284I live in Seattle, Cap Hill. Before I moved here and when I first moved here (from London) people told me that Seattle was a terrible place to make friends and build a community. My experience has been exactly the opposite; this has been the best place I've ever lived for making friends and building community, especially as a sober person. The order of importance, I have found community here in: - Swing dancing, both…
> Finally, and I think this is a really important thing to do, I try to organize events
This is generally the thing Seattle is missing -- people that organize and then tell people to show up at X place on Y date. Most of the time, it's a million people that all say they would love to hang out more, but nobody ever makes solid plans.
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am curious. Which country do you live in?
I'm not the person you're replying to, but we did this in an LA suburb. Among other things that have resulted from it: One of our neighbors invites everyone over for 4th of July every year. We have a block party where we block off the street once or twice per year. Neighbors have been over for backyard parties, my wife goes to birthday lunches with the wives on the street, and there's a giant text thread where people…
> where everyone on the block put out bags of candy for neighborhood kids to go house to house and pick up.
Is this usual in the region, or perhaps did I misunderstand you? Don't the kids usually walk up to the doors and ring, and then you personally hand out candy to them?
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#286My neighborhood. When we moved in we sat out front every evening, and made small talk with every single person who walked by. Some were caught off guard, some kinda just waved and moved on, but most stopped to talk. What's interesting is that people who had lived in that neighborhood nearly 20 years together had never talked, and met for the first time as both stopped to chat at nearly the same time. Then we started…
I'm prepared for this to be an unpopular opinion, but I'm glad my neighbors don't do this. I know my neighbors well enough. We check each other's mail when they're away and will help out in other ways. But I have lots of friends to keep up with outside of my neighborhood -- people I have a lot in common with -- my neighbors, not so much. If they wanted to talk with me each time I saw them coming or going, I would lik…
It sounds like you're in the cohort of "some just waved and moved on."
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#287Volunteering. And before you brush it out skeptically, like "oh yeah right, those people", it really doesn't have to be anything you don't care about. I volunteer at a boat house on the city lake nearby, just putting kids on pedal boats and kayaks. I don't even call it volunteering, I just love kayaks and water. It's amazing how your perspective of time and people and service shifts, when you spend some time being "i…
volunteering was one of the rare time where things could:
- happen fast - suffer near no management bullshit - have social usefulness
boggles my mind how it's not the norm
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#288I run a Discord with my friend (@moconinja) for people in tech who want to play videogames at night and chill. We don't like drinking at bars so we built it. So far we have about 10 people, mostly are from Austin, TX but there're also others from all over the US. If you're interested, apply here - I will personally review your application and reach out :) [1]
I'm interested. I think you forgot the link? :D
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#289Hackerspaces! Check this list [0], maybe there is one close to you – and if you by any chance live in Oslo – swing by Hackeriet [1]. [0] https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces [1] https://hackeriet.no/index.en.html
Out of interest, do you find many working on software projects at hacker spaces? Each one I've looked at online seems to have more of a focus on hardware, electronics, metal/wood working with little mention of software. The caveat is that I've only really looked at UK based ones so this may be regional. I've been trying to find a space that has a similar energy as my old university CS lab. There was a bit of a perfec…
I remember someone programming some visuals in vvvv for the first time I'd ever seen that at a hackerspace some years ago in Vancouver, BC which was in some sketchy alley where you hollered up at them and they lowered a key on a pulley. I think you might find some interest taking advantage of the fact that there's so much hardware and electronics around and learning something from them. There's a likelihood that there is someone in there who could use a hand with whatever they're doing in there on the software end too.
For what you're more closely describing I've found local programming meetups in a few major cities that happen at local bars and restaurants to be like that, mostly just people coming in and working on their projects (Either personal or together), maybe not on the same level as what you had in uni but definitely worth checking out too.
Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not the person you're replying to, but we did this in an LA suburb. Among other things that have resulted from it: One of our neighbors invites everyone over for 4th of July every year. We have a block party where we block off the street once or twice per year. Neighbors have been over for backyard parties, my wife goes to birthday lunches with the wives on the street, and there's a giant text thread where people…
> where everyone on the block put out bags of candy for neighborhood kids to go house to house and pick up. Is this usual in the region, or perhaps did I misunderstand you? Don't the kids usually walk up to the doors and ring, and then you personally hand out candy to them?
During covid lots of people didn't want to do a normal trick-or-treat.
So we arranged something in our immediate neighborhood - about 20 houses - to create a bag of candy for each kid in those houses. We left them on the lawn and each family with kids took their turn going around to each house to get their bag of candy.
So it was less "go to random people's houses" and more "let's get together and make sure halloween isn't cancelled".