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> It's a sad state of affairs when "oi bruv you go' a loicense for tha' firepi'?" is an actual concern. In the absence of someone hosting it in their garden -

> It's a sad state of affairs when "oi bruv you go' a loicense for tha' firepi'?" is an actual concern. In the absence of someone hosting it in their garden - and within 200yds radius of here, there's maybe 20 gardens, none big enough for a safe fire pit - it would need to be in the community space which is controlled. > That's exactly the problem to be solved by the suggestion above. Have you considered that I perhaps don't want to know any of the people within a 5 mile radius since I already have a community of people I talk to?

yellowapple 4y ago
> Have you considered that I perhaps don't want to know any of the people within a 5 mile radius since I already have a community of people I talk to? Have you considered that maybe it's in your best interests to at least be acquainted with people in your local community? Unless you're in rural America or something (hell, even then), that's a lot of people you seem to have written off rather prematurely. Like, I can't tell you how to live your life, but if you're truly that detached from your local surroundings then that seems like a problem in and of itself - not just from the abstract perspective of mental well-being, mind you, but also the tangible/pragmatic perspective of being able to negotiate for necessary (let alone desired) goods and services within society. Put simply: having friends close by is invaluable. I guess if you're rich enough you can pay strangers to provide everything you need, but having friends to call upon when you need help with something is a lot cheaper :) Besides, it's possible (if not highly probable) that there are people within a 5 mile radius of you who are part of your existing remote community. Wouldn't it be useful to know who those people are and at least have the ability to collaborate with them in person if need be?
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  > Have you considered that maybe it's in your best interests to at least be acquainted with people in your local community? Yes. But in the last 4 years, I've heard the local community scream at their children, heard the local alcoholics shouting abuse at people walking past, seen the local shop attacked by a gang of kids 3 times, seen countless fireworks let off in the square and also aimed at people, seen the rubbish left behind after the community has used the square and park, and been kept up more nights than I can count by the noise. I'm OK keeping my distance, thanks. > also the tangible/pragmatic perspective of being able to negotiate for necessary (let alone desired) goods and services We got a plumber recommended by and from the community to replace a shower. That kind of thing? It took a couple of years and a few hundred pounds to get a stranger to fix what he messed up. > Wouldn't it be useful to know who those people are I'm reasonably sure I do know who those people are, yes. Perfectly happy to collaborate with them, if required, remotely. What all these suggestions seem to be missing is that some people (and I don't think it's a tiny percentage, either) do not have the burning desire to mingle with people at fire pits, roof beers, park beers, etc. and that remote communities, enabled by things like Usenet, IRC, Twitter, Livejournal, what have you, are how they prefer to interact.
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    > But in the last 4 years, I've heard the local community scream at their children, heard the local alcoholics shouting abuse at people walking past, seen the local shop attacked by a gang of kids 3 times, seen countless fireworks let off in the square and also aimed at people, seen the rubbish left behind after the community has used the square and park, and been kept up more nights than I can count by the noise. And for every one of those, there are likely dozens or even hundreds of people not doing those things and instead living quiet, productive lives. Those are the people you're prematurely writing off, and those are the people who would be of value to you. > We got a plumber recommended by and from the community to replace a shower. That kind of thing? No, because that would just be a different stranger. If you don't actually know anyone in your community, how do you even know your community recommended that plumber? In all likelihood there are countless other people in your 5 mile radius with the exact same experience who could've warned you about that plumber and recommended a different one (perhaps even the very one you ended up hiring later) - but instead, you wrote them off, and in doing so made a rather expensive decision. In attempting to refute my point you've proven it :) > What all these suggestions seem to be missing is that some people (and I don't think it's a tiny percentage, either) do not have the burning desire to mingle with people at fire pits, roof beers, park beers, etc. None of these suggestions are predicated on a "burning desire", no more than a burning desire to perform some other chore like participation in electoral processes or working for a paycheck. I don't like mingling with people, either - I, too, would rather stay at home all day chatting with Internet people if I could get away with it - but the point is that we can't get away with it, because whether we like it or not we live in a society and it's therefore in our best interests to participate in it.

yellowapple 4y ago

> Have you considered that I perhaps don't want to know any of the people within a 5 mile radius since I already have a community of people I talk to? Have you considered that maybe it's in your best interests to at least be acquainted with people in your local community? Unless you're in rural America or something (hell, even then), that's a lot of people you seem to have written off rather prematurely. Like, I can't tell you how to live your life, but if you're truly that detached from your local surroundings then that seems like a problem in and of itself - not just from the abstract perspective of mental well-being, mind you, but also the tangible/pragmatic perspective of being able to negotiate for necessary (let alone desired) goods and services within society. Put simply: having friends close by is invaluable. I guess if you're rich enough you can pay strangers to provide everything you need, but having friends to call upon when you need help with something is a lot cheaper :) Besides, it's possible (if not highly probable) that there are people within a 5 mile radius of you who are part of your existing remote community. Wouldn't it be useful to know who those people are and at least have the ability to collaborate with them in person if need be?

zimpenfish 4y ago
> Have you considered that maybe it's in your best interests to at least be acquainted with people in your local community? Yes. But in the last 4 years, I've heard the local community scream at their children, heard the local alcoholics shouting abuse at people walking past, seen the local shop attacked by a gang of kids 3 times, seen countless fireworks let off in the square and also aimed at people, seen the rubbish left behind after the community has used the square and park, and been kept up more nights than I can count by the noise. I'm OK keeping my distance, thanks. > also the tangible/pragmatic perspective of being able to negotiate for necessary (let alone desired) goods and services We got a plumber recommended by and from the community to replace a shower. That kind of thing? It took a couple of years and a few hundred pounds to get a stranger to fix what he messed up. > Wouldn't it be useful to know who those people are I'm reasonably sure I do know who those people are, yes. Perfectly happy to collaborate with them, if required, remotely. What all these suggestions seem to be missing is that some people (and I don't think it's a tiny percentage, either) do not have the burning desire to mingle with people at fire pits, roof beers, park beers, etc. and that remote communities, enabled by things like Usenet, IRC, Twitter, Livejournal, what have you, are how they prefer to interact.
- yellowapple 4y ago
  > But in the last 4 years, I've heard the local community scream at their children, heard the local alcoholics shouting abuse at people walking past, seen the local shop attacked by a gang of kids 3 times, seen countless fireworks let off in the square and also aimed at people, seen the rubbish left behind after the community has used the square and park, and been kept up more nights than I can count by the noise. And for every one of those, there are likely dozens or even hundreds of people not doing those things and instead living quiet, productive lives. Those are the people you're prematurely writing off, and those are the people who would be of value to you. > We got a plumber recommended by and from the community to replace a shower. That kind of thing? No, because that would just be a different stranger. If you don't actually know anyone in your community, how do you even know your community recommended that plumber? In all likelihood there are countless other people in your 5 mile radius with the exact same experience who could've warned you about that plumber and recommended a different one (perhaps even the very one you ended up hiring later) - but instead, you wrote them off, and in doing so made a rather expensive decision. In attempting to refute my point you've proven it :) > What all these suggestions seem to be missing is that some people (and I don't think it's a tiny percentage, either) do not have the burning desire to mingle with people at fire pits, roof beers, park beers, etc. None of these suggestions are predicated on a "burning desire", no more than a burning desire to perform some other chore like participation in electoral processes or working for a paycheck. I don't like mingling with people, either - I, too, would rather stay at home all day chatting with Internet people if I could get away with it - but the point is that we can't get away with it, because whether we like it or not we live in a society and it's therefore in our best interests to participate in it.