The Social Network for the Introvert

[Anonymous]

I have been drinking tea for years but by no means am an expert. I also have been using computer’s and social networks for years but again by no means an expert. I was hoping to get a little feedback on social networks and “proper” interaction. Particulary, steepster and reddit. For some reason these two confuse me. I understand that steepster is a place for tea reviews but what if I don’t want to drink a lot of other’s tea? I don’t mind trying some but maybe this is not a place for me? Again, not sure how this works or if it is beneficial to me. Any suggestions? I am completely lost on reddit. I have had some interaction but again clueless to what is appropriate and what is not? I guess I need some “tea etiquette for the social network”. Pinky up!

[peter]

@tarastyme – you absolutely aren’t alone. Back when @jackie and I started our first online tea website, I started using Steepster as a way to promote ourselves. It got old fast because while I love having a good cup of tea, buying, sampling and writing tea reviews is actually pretty boring to me (these days, I never review teas, almost as a policy). I reviewed a few, but quickly felt overwhelmed by the dedicated reviewers so I stopped. These days, I go over to Steepster occasionally to promote Tea Trade or answer a question or two on the forum. Over time, I just found that as a community, it just wasn’t for me.

I’m with on Redditt too, but for different reasons. Reddit is so old now (in internet time) that it feels a little hard to get a toehold there. The tea group at Reddit is one of the oldest online and also one of the most active. A couple months ago I created a new website on Tea Trade (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Tea) that I had planned to show to the group at Reddit since it seemed like they would be the perfect group of people to play around with it – I created a Reddit account, but still struggle to understand how to find my way into such an established community. To this day, I still haven’t been able to promote that website to the Reddit crowd.

I think the biggest thing is that it just feels a little overwhelming to get to know a new website and sort of work your way into it and the community it hosts and I really don’t think that there are any set rules usually (other than don’t be a troll) – either way, I hope that you’ve been getting a warm welcome here at Tea Trade! Around here, etiquette generally involves just saying “hello”

[Anonymous]

thank you for your reply peter! i was so lost on reddit that i didn’t even find the “tea group”. i think i will just give it a rest and limit myself to what i like and feel good with. so far i am liking this group and interaction. very easy to navigate and interact. by the way i really like your hitchhiker’s guide to tea!

[Gingko]

I like the title of this post 😀
I’ve never been to reddit yet and feel there are too many new social networks for me to create and manage accounts with :-p

[Jackie]

I looked at reddit but I’m put off by the visual aspects. It looks like a relic. Why does it have to look so outdated? I know it’s “a source for what’s new online” but its design, or lack of it doesn’t make me feel the “new”, or the excitement of the new. Anyway, maybe to me it’s “another” social network and since it hasn’t managed to hook me, I tend to forget about it.
Steepster: It’s no secret that I don’t post there. Like @peter I don’t write tea reviews, unlike him I think I’ve never even written one, not even on Leafbox Tea. As to reading about them? I do sometimes look up reviews, if I hear about a tea that’s new to me, and that I’m very interested in trying. Sometimes I take a quick look at their forum to see what’s being talked about, but it’s more for assessment. My thinking is, and you can’t really blame me for that, that I want the conversation to happen here, not there 🙂 – Why would I go and chit chat there, when I can chit chat here, and quite a few Steepsters are on here anyway. Besides Tea Trade keeps me plenty busy.
Recently I’ve used twitter less, although I’m still fond of it, and I’ve made some lovely friendships there. @lahikmajoe is someone we met there, and then actually met in real life. @xavier online first too. Later we met @iheartteas‘ husband Ralph. I’ve video chatted so often with several others of you, it feels like we meet for real. I recommend twitter to anyone. Of course the thing is with twitter, you get so many tweets in your timeline that you have to try and skim through to find those updates you’re really interested in. I recommend lists!
One really cool thing about Tea Trade to me is that I’m interested in all the updates here because I know we all share a common interest, and that’s tea. You all connect tea in some way to your everyday life, and how you do that, and what tea means to you in that context is interesting.
Anyway to sum it up @tarastyme, you’re in the right place. We’re happy you’re here.
J.

[Anonymous]

said:
I looked at reddit but I’m put off by the visual aspects. It looks like a relic. Why does it have to look so outdated? I know it’s “a source for what’s new online” but its design, or lack of it doesn’t make me feel the “new”, or the excitement of the new. Anyway, maybe to me it’s “another” social network and since it hasn’t managed to hook me, I tend to forget about it.
Steepster: It’s no secret that I don’t post there. Like @peter I don’t write tea reviews, unlike him I think I’ve never even written one, not even on Leafbox Tea. As to reading about them? I do sometimes look up reviews, if I hear about a tea that’s new to me, and that I’m very interested in trying. Sometimes I take a quick look at their forum to see what’s being talked about, but it’s more for assessment. My thinking is, and you can’t really blame me for that, that I want the conversation to happen here, not there – Why would I go and chit chat there, when I can chit chat here, and quite a few Steepsters are on here anyway. Besides Tea Trade keeps me plenty busy.
Recently I’ve used twitter less, although I’m still fond of it, and I’ve made some lovely friendships there. @lahikmajoe is someone we met there, and then actually met in real life. @xavier online first too. Later we met @iheartteas‘ husband Ralph. I’ve video chatted so often with several others of you, it feels like we meet for real. I recommend twitter to anyone. Of course the thing is with twitter, you get so many tweets in your timeline that you have to try and skim through to find those updates you’re really interested in. I recommend lists!
One really cool thing about Tea Trade to me is that I’m interested in all the updates here because I know we all share a common interest, and that’s tea. You all connect tea in some way to your everyday life, and how you do that, and what tea means to you in that context is interesting.
Anyway to sum it up @tarastyme, you’re in the right place. We’re happy you’re here.
J.

thanks for the input Jackie! I agree. tea trade so far is fun and easy to use. so thank you! i think there is so much out there that one could get completely consumed by it all. i don’t want to spend all my tyme on the internet i want to spend my tyme enjoying tea, farming and photography. we are coming up on summer and i have a world of work to do. so i am glad i found this forum for some interaction and i will not concern myself with the rest. i am on facebook, twitter, pinterest and now tea trader and that seems like enough to me.

[Anonymous]

Xavier said:
Welcome @tarastyme

I never went to any other tea websites and forums so I can’t tell you anything about them but what I know from my experience is that good forums are those welcoming anyone and with a lot of friendly people in it.

Thanks Xavier! it is nice to feel welcomed!

[Author]

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