Chris, I believe the turnout reflects the effectiveness of censorship, fearmongering, and ultimately disconnection among those of us who support each other in this. Would have loved to have done more to spread the word, but a.) I have only a handful, 3-5 like-minded “friends” and b.) I am not willing to take the backlash on social media to promote these ideas and events. And before anyone bites my head off for saying it, my hesitation is due to the lack of support I know I would receive. If I had more support I would be willing to take more risks. It’s a vicious cycle. We need to be able to connect with each other, on a local level. I appreciate that you are offering the opportunity to network during your event this week, and I plan to attend. However, I think it would be a massive service overall to develop this site in a manner that allows us to form local communities. We’re vulnerable because we’re not in the middle of the herd. I cannot emphasize enough how important I believe it is for sites like this to make a user-friendly platform for creating local networks. I suspect fear, and lack of support and awareness were the primary reasons for the lack of attendance today. We can resolve these concerns when we can get connected and build momentum for these and other events.
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