OpenGeofiction
Today my colleagues at work discovered my activities on OGF for the first time - which is odd when you think about it, because I have been working for my current employer since November 2017 and regularly add things on my OGF maps during lunch breaks using my work computer where everyone can see me, so I guess they weren’t really paying attention until now :)
They thought I was playing some computer game; they mentioned a name but I forgot it (I haven’t played any computer games since - I guess - Supaplex in the late ’90s so I’m not really familiar with computer games at all) but it turned out to be what they thought of as the ‘background’ of those games. I think they were kind of impressed by the possibilities of OGF; if one of them tries it out I will be pleased but I think it’s not “active” enough for them.
They did comment on my mapping though. I have been working on Wyster lately and they suggested that the international airport of Hreawirc (the capital of Wyster) isn’t very accessible at the moment, so I should create a highway towards it. They could be right, but I’m not sure that it should be a highway. Wyster being a tiny country, it has enough highways already, I think. But a more prominent connection to the city should be made; I’ll put it on my list.
Did you share your OGF activities with friends, family, colleagues? What was their reaction?
Discussion
Comment from iiEarth on 8 March 2019 at 23:32
Eh… Not really. I don’t work yet, but when I started mapping in this platform, my parents still didn’t know about. Only when I started making plans for UL014 and such did they realize I was actually mapping.
Comment from stjur on 9 March 2019 at 00:42
I am very open about my “weird” hobbies and people around me seem to be interested in what I do, especially when it comes to hand drawing street grids. Sometimes I purposely draw cities in public spots like train stations and love to see how people react - many people seem very interested and start asking me about it. Many times I’ve gotten feedback on my OGF work from friends and as expression of gratitude I add references to them on the map. My brother has joined OGF too around the same time as I did but unfortunately he’s lost interest in it now.
Comment from LemonKing on 9 March 2019 at 08:54
I usually hesitate telling people about my weird hobbies (Geofiction and conlangs), but last year I wrote about OGF in my blog. The reception was very positive, some friends and colleagues were quite impressed. Somehow this hobby seems less weird and less self-centered in a community than alone offline, so I’m more comfortable talking about it nowadays.
Comment from FictiveJ on 9 March 2019 at 10:43
I haven’t said anything to anyone.
Comment from histor on 9 March 2019 at 11:38
Why not? Some years ago in Hamburg (Germany) in a cultural forum people can tell about “strange” hobbies. So I told some two hours about an alternative metro-net for Hamburg and about OpenGeoFiction and around 50 people - no one older as 30 - heared with interesse and at the end there are a lot of questions. Was teamwork - my wife worked at the beamer and set the next graphic in szene, if I give her a signal. They give me some money (payed from the cultural etat of Hamburg) and beer, as I we need. The next with a strange hobby a week later was a man with bees in the middle of the town.
Comment from Demuth on 9 March 2019 at 12:42
My husband doesn’t understand the appeal at all but finds it amusing that I get so much satisfaction from it. Friends (and the few colleagues I’ve shown it to) tend to have the same reaction: impressed by the detail, baffled at the efforts made, and amused - especially with some of the wiki articles I’ve written about Wiwaxia and even allowing me to use photos of them. I almost recruited a friend once (part of my meager efforts to get more women mapping here) but ultimately she thought it would require too much time and effort to do it properly.
Comment from zhenkang on 9 March 2019 at 13:46
@Demuth you are a female user? Wow.
A few of my friends and my family are aware that I am doing this. In fact, one of my schoolmates is here in OGF editing Midistland (He just like creating cities and has no plans to create his own nation). My parents are just concerned that OGF will affect my studies, so they generally disapprove me spending too much time on my laptop.
The more active you are, the more likely more people will know you are involved.
Comment from Demuth on 9 March 2019 at 14:17
@zhenkang nope, I’m a guy like most of the users here, just happen to be married to man - like some of the other users here. But I do think OGF would benefit from more women here.
Comment from tparigo on 9 March 2019 at 14:33
OGF is my secret garden. I haven’ shared it yet.
Comment from Luciano on 9 March 2019 at 18:52
I mapped “in the closet” for my first 3 years. Then, about 2 years ago, I showed some friends, and got overwhelmingly positive responses. One friend printed out a map of Tarrases, put it on a wall, and said it was art, and further enjoyed explaining to HIS friends that it was utterly fictional.
So from that, I also have gone more public with it. My family knows. A few months ago, I had a nephew who wanted to try it out, and I set him up with an account. I think he’s interested in geofiction, but just doesn’t have time because of school.
I also now prominently link to OGF and my geofiction work from my regular blog. I don’t link the other direction, mostly because of privacy concerns vis-a-vis the OGF community, which includes some truly appalling trolls.
My family reacts similarly to Demuth’s comment - they are supportive and impressed but bemused by my apparent effort into and enjoyment of it.
Comment from whateversusan on 10 March 2019 at 16:44
There ARE female users here, but I think people assume we’re male when they see our user handles because that’s the default assumption. I mean, I have my (fairly common female) name right in my handle, but I bet it doesn’t help.
Whenever I’m working on a map people just assume I’m looking at Google Maps or OSM, because I do that for fun all the time. I’ve always been obsessed with maps, though, so if I did mention this to other people they’d probably think it was pretty normal for me.
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 7 April 2019 at 01:43
I’m always happy to talk to friends about OGF and some of what I’ve been working on. People always seem to be somewhat impressed and excited with the detail of what I’ve done in OGF (and on paper), even if they don’t quite understand. Although I did have one acquaintance basically just bash everything I’d ever done as unrealistic (and not even by legitimate OGF verisimilitude reasons, just for pretty arbitrary reasons)…