Yesterday Needlepoint Nation (the big Facebook group of needlepointers) turned ten. Where does the time go?!
Over ten years ago my nieces and cousins started badgering me to set up a Facebook account so we could trade family photos and news. I'm not big on social media and was hesitant, but what harm could it do, right? [Famous Last Words] So I set up an account. Then I started to explore the software to see how it works.
I found that you could set up Facebook Groups to more easily trade information among a circle of friends and family, so I set up a test Group to see how it all worked. I called the group "Needlepoint" because I planned to delete it when I was done playing around and I didn't want to use and then remove our family name. (Silly me, I didn't realize that Facebook deals with tons of people with the same name all the time and doesn't care how many John Smiths have accounts.)
Also silly me, I didn't realize you could make a Group secret while you fiddled with it. I plowed ahead with Needlepoint, testing the various features. Suddenly, people started showing up. And they started showing up in droves! Within a month there were 300 people signed up for Needlepoint. I was both appalled and amazed. I was tempted to delete the group but decided to watch and see what happened.
Well, you know what happened. People kept showing up. (When I wrote this there were 16,063 members. By now there will be nearly 16,200 as we add around 30 new people each week.) The group acquired the nickname of Needlepoint Nation, and after five years. Facebook changed the rules so that I could change the group name from Needlepoint to the name everyone uses. My family think it is hilarious that Miss I-Don't-Like-Social-Media is now the leader of the largest needlepoint group on Facebook. Of course I have help: Tara Roberts, Carole Lake, Don Lynch, Pat Miller and Gail Ettinger are or have been administrators of the group. It wouldn't be nearly as good without their help.
But it is now time for me to walk away.
Tara's already resigned as her life has gotten busier with her work for EGA. We are very lucky Gail stepped up to help out. You see, it takes at least 2 hours a day to read all the messages (currently there are 300-350 messages posted each week), respond to those who didn't get their questions answered, or just post a short encouraging comment to those messages which for some reason didn't draw much attention, and monitor all the comments (which run to around 7,000 per week as usually at least 12-13K of the 16K members say or do something in the group weekly). I read all the new messages and all the comments, you see. Keeping copyright and trademark violations off the site is also a lot of work. Plus keeping over 16,000 people happy, engaged and feeling welcome is even more work.
I am worn out from the workload. So today I am walking away, leaving Needlepoint Nation in the hands of the remaining administrators and the membership. It's up to you guys now. Make everyone feel welcome, answer the questions that come up to the best of your ability, and don't ever forget to Be Kind.
Hugs to you all!
Jane
Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright January 12, 2021 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
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