Looking ahead to 2024, I knew I wanted to spend more time doing less. As I pondered various means to accomplish this goal, one item in particular revealed itself to me. I’ve decided that a dedicated Disquiet Junto Slack is something I’ve spent too much time thinking about as its admin. I wanted to stop feeling the burden to do so. At a practical level, administering the Junto Slack took very little effort or time. However, knowing it was out there, and feeling responsible daily for it, was an identifiable distraction I could bring to a close.
Just to be clear, the Junto Slack wasn’t a fraught space. Quite the contrary, it became a nice virtual water cooler for a range of people whom I enjoy connecting with on a regular basis. However, as supportive and enjoyable as the conversations there generally are, I still felt a distracting sense of duty: checking in more often than I really have time for, considering the flow of conversation, wondering if newcomers feel welcome given how developed the relationships of the longtimers have become, and so on.
I figured the best thing to do was to no longer have a Disquiet Junto Slack. The Junto itself, I should note, isn’t a prominent topic on the Junto Slack, as things have turned out. There is far more active project-specific Junto discussion on the browser-based lllllllll.co BBS, and on various social media (for example Mastodon on and Instagram, not to mention comments on SoundCloud). The Junto Slack matured into more of a hang-out — which is great. I just didn’t want to be the (virtual) landlord any longer.
I raised my thoughts with the some of the “regulars” on the Junto Slack, and we decided to do two things: (1) change the Slack’s name (to Echo Chamber), so it is no longer tied directly to the Disquiet Junto; (2) institute a small committee of admins, so the duties don’t fall on any one individual. That switchover was finalized on November 1, 2023. The URL for Echo Chamber is: i-am-sitting-in-a.slack.com.
A few key points:
1: The Disquiet Junto, which has been around since January 2012, is doing fine. Not having a Junto Slack has nothing to do with the Junto’s ongoing activity.
2: I am doing fine. This change has nothing to do with my health, my work, or the state of my life in any sort of concerning way.
3: I’m going to remain an “admin emeritus” on the renamed Echo Chamber Slack — at least as long as the newly installed committee of admins will have me.
Major thanks to everyone who has participated in the Disquiet Junto Slack over the years, and to the admins who are shaping Echo Chamber into its own thing.