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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

The Australian "Community"

~MY OPINIONS, INFLUENCED BY MY PERSONAL MINDSET. NOT A REFLECTION OF OTHERS~
This is something I've been upset about for a while now.
At the beginning of the year I took up the opportunity to help run the Brisbane Twitch Meet Ups, because I truly believe in helping everyone and working as a community/team to grow together.
I've always loved the idea of collaborating and shouting out your friends, teaching them tips and tricks you've learned along the way and learning from each other.
I am lucky enough to say I have a handful of friends within the "community".

But the word community does little to actually explain or describe the group of people that are creators in Australia.

I know people who are content creators in other states. I would like to say they are friends. But I know for a fact they would chose someone else over me if there were something to gain from doing so.
And that's fine, I get it, we all want to grow our businesses and sometimes having friends or emotional ties doesn't lend itself well to that.

But something that really bugs me is that while I was working on the meet ups, spending money and time to make them better every month, I was constantly criticised for the fact that it seemed "cliquey".

I always did my best to invite as many people, and finding new people, so that we could all meet each other and work as a support network. Yes, some people had pre-established friendships that meant they were less likely to interact with newcomers, but for me to be blamed for that was hard.

In fact, some of the time these were friendships that formed due to the fact that I introduced them.
I'm glad this happened, regardless of the fact that I was being criticised for it.

But when you add all of this nonsense together with the fact that these now well established friend groups are incredibly closed off, and that I'm being excluded from events and opportunities, and people will give the response "Just google it" when I ask for help, I'm starting to get fed up.

I only see the people who have something to gain helping the people they have something to gain from.
It's an "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" situation.

The friendships may be genuine, but when I have particular friends giving more to people they've known for less in the hopes of a return, it hurts.

To see people say they'll keep me in the loop with things and then do things without even letting me know they don't need/want my help, it hurts.

When I travel to America to meet creators and hang out with other Australians and then get excluded from every invitation, it hurts.

When I log into the Facebook groups for Australian YouTubers and constantly see shameless self promo, it hurts.

I want a real community.
I want people to let go of their ego and be kind and helpful.
Australia has a lame excuse of a community.

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