Reply To: JCCC4: Post Mortem (Feedback Thread)
@paulandstorm [P] and @DavidRees:
Speaking as a 4-time JCCC veteran, I was on the first two Temperence Brigades, but not on the #3 and #4, and I can point explicitly to Twit-arr – and what it represents – as the reason.
[warning, opinion-based post following]
The cruise, to me, is a celebration of nerd culture – we do things on the cruise that we love to do anyway, only focused with the people we’re on the ship with. While the cruise does have a “getaway” vibe to it, I think there’s a distinct difference between checking Facebook or Real Twitter versus staying informed via Twit-arr or Cruise Monkey. In one case, you’re trying to connect to the outside world, in the other you’re trying to stay connected to the people on the ship.
I don’t consider infrequent posting on Twit-arr during mealtimes or downtime (not performances!) to be in violation of the spirit of what the Temperence Brigade represents. I do think the absolutely-no-wireless actively hurts the cruise experience because we now have a whole segment of the group who are now being cajoled (however mildly and in a well-meaning manner) into being out of the loop.
There are so many activities / changes and so many Sea Monkeys aboard that communication on-ship ought to be one of the highest priorities, especially as the time window for communicating changes is so small, so this now impedes everyone that is trying to organize on board, be it from the Home Office or someone running a Shadow Cruise event, or even something as strange as “does anyone have a pair of scissors?”.
So very many of our discussions here post-cruise are talking about how we can do more to connect with one another, to connect with new Sea Monkeys, to improve the experience. The Temperence pledge, as it exists now, works against all of these things by convincing people to lock themselves away from things that would let them do just that. More than once on JCCC4, I had to spend time filling people in on information or an event change that was announced over Twit-arr because someone had taken the pledge and was therefore oblivious to events happening on the ship.
I would ask that an exception be lifted so long as the communication is ship-board only. Then Twit-arr folks are happy, organizers are happy, people trying to connect to one another are happy, and no one still has a desire to go find out what the latest sports scores are.