MeWe?

[eepjr24]

Has anyone tried out Mewe or knows of a Cartography related group there? Like / dislike?

- Ernie

[The Elderly Cartographer]

I have been contemplating getting a MeWe. I just wasn't sure how popular it is among our community and peers.

[Tiana]

I've never heard of MeWe. I honestly hate social media so that's not a shocker though. Can there really be a better cartography site than this one?

[eepjr24]

I've never heard of MeWe. I honestly hate social media so that's not a shocker though. Can there really be a better cartography site than this one?

For sure not looking for a Cartographers Guild replacement. But I am looking for a new social media venue and having some cartography content there would be welcome. Basically, it's a free Facebook alternative that takes data privacy more seriously. It has subscription options as well.

- E

[The Elderly Cartographer]

I've never heard of MeWe. I honestly hate social media so that's not a shocker though. Can there really be a better cartography site than this one?

I know what you mean. Social media is essential for my business, but I hate it. My life has become much more complicated since I've been on there. Not to mention it is such a time-suck; scaling images to make them fit the different platforms, then composing messages and hashtags for them. Ugh!

For sure not looking for a Cartographers Guild replacement. But I am looking for a new social media venue and having some cartography content there would be welcome. Basically, it's a free Facebook alternative that takes data privacy more seriously. It has subscription options as well.

- E

Well, we could be the first cartographers on MeWe and corner the market. (I make no promises about getting one.)

[ChickPea]

I joined MeWe maybe.... hmmm ... 18 months back? Someone I knew persuaded me, and I used it for a little while, but I haven't been on in a long time. To be honest, I didn't look for map groups to join. It didn't even occur to me, as I'm more than happy with the Guild if I want to talk & share maps.

I joined a few groups there and it seemed quite a nice place, but that was probably down to how the groups were managed. It's definitely not that well known, and I've no idea what their membership is, but I had the impression that there were lots of people who were sick to the teeth of Facebook, and wanted somewhere new. I think a lot of communities who were active on Google Plus before it shut down also migrated there too. (The Guild used to have a reasonably active G+ group, but I don't know what happened to it.)

I don't know how I feel about a Guild community on yet another social media site. Sometimes I wonder, even with the Discord server we have, will we spread ourselves too thin? Why keep coming back to the forum if you're happy to chat on Discord.

[Tiana]

I know what you mean. Social media is essential for my business, but I hate it. My life has become much more complicated since I've been on there. Not to mention it is such a time-suck; scaling images to make them fit the different platforms, then composing messages and hashtags for them. Ugh!

As a successful cartographer who isn't using social media, I assure you it's only as necessary as you make it. It's a modern delusion that going to where the most people are = the most clients. Instead you're going to where the least engaged people who are most likely to skip over without reading will be, giving you a like and nothing else. Your goal is not to obtain the most eyes, but the eyes most likely to pay for a map from you, or refer you to someone who needs a map from you. A lot of people assume "okay yeah but that means I need to go to the billions of people on social media". It's an easy jump to make and an utter waste of time if you're not excellent with social medias.

I will tell you what's done me much better than social media.

One Canadian publishing house hired me.

When we were done I asked 'hey can you refer me to other Canadian publishers who you know that might need maps and also contact me if any of your other books need maps in the future?'

Now they're my client and also so are two of their friends who also publish books. Actually, one of their friends has come to me 3 times now and has like 2-3 more projects this fall that need maps and I expect to get around 4 commissions from that publishing house every year, making up about a month's income. As long as they publish books that might need maps, that's only 11 months of income I need to worry about. Another month of income came from Roll20 passive sales but that's another topic for another time.

Secondly, on social media you are battling against hundreds and thousands of artists. Instead of going to an artist meat market, I select a specific audience, say Dungeon Masters, and make a few free resources that they might like, and then from those resources I attach bait like "if you are unhappy with your results using my free brushes, you can contact me for a map!" I'll go into social media to SHARE my free fishing hooks that are useful free things for a target audience, maybe, or I'll just make sure they're findable.

I haven't posted a map to a social media other than Discord or a forum for... well... I can't remember. I post to DeviantArt and Art Station occasionally to keep up an off-site portfolio and of course here, which is a vital component of cartography networking... once in a while I get a sale from one of those 2, once in a while I get them from Discord, and most of the rest are from networking calls to action success and my website funnel. 80% of my clients email me to ask if they can get on my queue without me doing any active work to get them.

Why keep coming back to the forum if you're happy to chat on Discord.

Easy.

The forum allows 'signatures' which mean I can actually go to look at the portfolios of an artist from a posted art.

The forum allows organization of galleries, which means I can look at other art posted by an artist I like on the forum.

The forum doesn't make everything posted 2 weeks ago an insurmountable distance away, focusing only on 1 conversation happening now.

The forum has the contests.

The forum has the job board.

The forum is a static source of search engine optimization allowing a savvy poster to generate traffic to their business.

The forum is a static source of resources for a new artist to learn to make maps, whereas the Discord will feature a handful of recently posted assets.

The forum allows me to have a thread dedicated to my free assets that I make and offer to cartographers to help them make battlemaps.

The forum allows the creation of multiple galleries of your entire history of uploaded work sorted to your taste.

The forum makes it easy to look through someone's post history to gain tutorials, assets, advice, and great links they may have posted.

A link to a useful cartographic resource can be bumped to the top of the active new posts any time, meaning excellent items from 2009 may still circle around here, kept alive by the organizational structure.

Discord is for immediate conversation and feedback, the forum is a true archive of contemporary cartographic history. The forum is more active than the Discord so I know I'm not the only one who feels it's superior for my intended results of helping other cartographers learn to hustle, aiding game masters in creating quick maps, getting inspired, leaving nice comments on people's art, and showing off and selling my work. Discord is so fast that it feels useless to post long amounts of information on how to do something. At least in the forum a post stays forever and can always be found with relevant search terms!

In short, the forum is awesome for its purposes!

I suspect a Facebook replacement would also be too 'fast' to really replace the benefits of having say, a section of tutorials and a section of assets that people can continually update or answer questions on without confusing the whole conversation theme.

[Jaxilon]

Well said Tiana. I love being able to go look over someone's posted maps all at once. This place is awesome for that. If I remember something from a map that I want to see again I can often remember at least the artist who did it and find it. You just can't do that on discord (at least as far as I can tell).

I've also wondered about spreading ourselves out over too many platforms. I think we almost have a different group of people on discord than here. It's not all horrible and stuff but I'm sure we miss some nice ones that only get posted on Discord. I miss stuff here too but at least, as mentioned, I can catch it again at some point.

[The Elderly Cartographer]

As a successful cartographer who isn't using social media, I assure you it's only as necessary as you make it. It's a modern delusion that going to where the most people are = the most clients. Instead you're going to where the least engaged people who are most likely to skip over without reading will be, giving you a like and nothing else. Your goal is not to obtain the most eyes, but the eyes most likely to pay for a map from you, or refer you to someone who needs a map from you. A lot of people assume "okay yeah but that means I need to go to the billions of people on social media". It's an easy jump to make and an utter waste of time if you're not excellent with social medias.

That is very good advice. I have replied in a direct message to you, Tiana, so that I don't change the subject of the post.

[JoshStolarz]

Has anyone tried out Mewe or knows of a Cartography related group there? Like / dislike?

- Ernie

I am on MeWe as MapEffects but haven’t figured out the best way to reach and engage people on the platform. I do like to dabble on any new platform that comes up though to get a feel for it and to meet some new people.

- Josh