One of the things I've been enjoying about Virb is meeting other developers. There are a few sites where I go to ask questions about php, MySQL, css or whatever, but don't usually just shoot the breeze with other coders. The way I do it, coding is a pretty solitary endevour, and I realised today that one of the things I miss is working WITH other programmers on group projects.

But one of the things I've been noticing while scooting around Virb meeting different people is that there seems to be a real tendency to want to be exclusive.

But WHY? Isn't that why we're all here? To meet and talk to other people about the things we either do or do not have in common.

Go to the Virb search and type in "virb css" or "virb profile". This was what I did when I was looking for help editing my page. I had a couple questions, had a few things that didn't work, and wondered where to go. (Marco has since been kind enough to post a blog about css and virb for newbies, which I think is great of him, btw. Read it if you need help!>

Now if you did the search, this is what you'll find as far as groups:
CSS + Virb By invitation only.
Virb Layouts By invitation only.
CSS Gurus By invitation only.
There was one other... lost the link now... but it was called CSS Style. Guess what. Yep. By invitation only.

It's not just these groups... I've seen an odd assortment of groups that were all by invitation only. One was a group for asking questions about virb. Seriously. By invitation only.

Another group, which is exclusively for Beta testers of Virb, had a thread about a profile that's been created especially to mock someone who got banned for being a friend collector. I find that disturbing. Is it against Virb policy to make friends with people you've never spoken to before? I wish I knew someone at Virb so I could ask them this. But of course all lines of communication are probably by invitation only.

I have seriously considered starting a group for CSS help for people with questions, problems, answers. I'd do it too if I knew just a touch more about CSS, or I thought I could get a few people to join who DO know enough to actually be helpful sometimes. It's not that I'm out to save the world, but why be so closed and exclusive? Why shut ourselves off to communication?

I accept anyone as my friend, until they start being annoying and spamming. But you're not going to have to pass some kind of friendship test first, or prove that you found me through a method of which I approve. I don't care how you got here... it's what you do AFTER you're here that counts.

WTF is wrong with us that we come so far as to join a SOCIAL group like Virb, and then start building walls to separate us from the very people we came to socialise WITH?? It's not like these are secret groups for rape victims. They're talking about code, for fucks sake. This issue, btw, isn't exclusive to the css crowd. It's just the one interest that I chose to harp on tonight. There are others. I just didn't care about joining those other exclusive groups. LOL

I've joined several public groups. Most of which I will probably not post on because they are about television shows or things that I can't really think of a lot to say about. In fact, a couple of them I would leave if I only knew how. I'd ask someone how, but all the "help" groups are by invitation only.