Online Study Group/Club

[tangledtanuki]

On another online course there was an option for students to jump onto a video platform whenever they wanted to talk to others via video. Whoever jumped online could meet up with others from all over the world and just discuss things. I thought this was quite a cool feature and some of the more active students were actually given the option of setting a weekly schedule where they would meet and we got together while doing the weekly homework or just painting together.

In quite a few countries clubs probably take up this role but over here in Israel there is not really a club scene and I’m pretty remote so it would be a slog in anyway to get to these. I’m sure there are other countries like here and even remote places where there is an active club scene.

So long story short I was wondering whether this couldn’t be a cool feature to think about. Discord is an app that is used quite widely for people to share their screen while gaming and could be pretty easy to setup. And then we could jump on and watch the video’s together and even sit down while working on a tree and getting some feedback from others who happen to be online. Or someone who just wants to talk about tree’s, I know that once you get most people talking about bonsai they don’t really want to stop. The biggest draw for me for this is that it could create a two way conversation that is sometimes missing in the youtube or an asynchronous forum.

The main concern is that I wouldn't want it to take away from the great resource that is this forum and also not to use Discord as a chat but rather for us to simply be able to talk to each other online. If this is worth discussing, please lets get some feedback and ping some idea's around.

 

[W3rk]

On another online course there was an option for students to jump onto a video platform whenever they wanted to talk to others via video. Whoever jumped online could meet up with others from all over the world and just discuss things. I thought this was quite a cool feature and some of the more active students were actually given the option of setting a weekly schedule where they would meet and we got together while doing the weekly homework or just painting together.

In quite a few countries clubs probably take up this role but over here in Israel there is not really a club scene and I’m pretty remote so it would be a slog in anyway to get to these. I’m sure there are other countries like here and even remote places where there is an active club scene.

So long story short I was wondering whether this couldn’t be a cool feature to think about. Discord is an app that is used quite widely for people to share their screen while gaming and could be pretty easy to setup. And then we could jump on and watch the video’s together and even sit down while working on a tree and getting some feedback from others who happen to be online. Or someone who just wants to talk about tree’s, I know that once you get most people talking about bonsai they don’t really want to stop. The biggest draw for me for this is that it could create a two way conversation that is sometimes missing in the youtube or an asynchronous forum.

The main concern is that I wouldn't want it to take away from the great resource that is this forum and also not to use Discord as a chat but rather for us to simply be able to talk to each other online. If this is worth discussing, please lets get some feedback and ping some idea's around.

Just as an FYI I know of/belong to 3 different bonsai Discord servers.

 

[AJL]

Just as an FYI I know of/belong to 3 different bonsai Discord servers.

OK interesting but how do they work for those of us who arent computer geeks?

 

[hemmy]

If this is worth discussing, please let’s get some feedback and ping some idea's around.

It is an interesting idea. Having gone through the “Zoom-era” of bonsai club meetings during the pandemic, some formats worked better than others. I have only been on a couple Discord servers (chat rooms?) and found the interface confusing. But I have not taken the time to fully explore it. My experience was that showing trees in real-time on other platforms using most people’s web-cams was challenging. The lighting was poor and most web cameras didn’t have a good depth of field to show the tree. Presenters that had a mix of photos and pre-recorded video worked well. If you were showing a tree real-time you almost need a studio type setup. One solution, could be pre-recording a video of the tree and posting it to YouTube either on a public or private channel (assuming you can stream that on Discord?). Or maybe Discord video of a tree would work better from a smartphone.

 

[tangledtanuki]

Cool to know that there are already groups out there. Are they open to the public or is it an invite only thing?

@hemmy thanks for the experience you went through. I guess not all setups are created equal. maybe we can kick around some idea's and see if we can't come up with some sort of solution to these things.

My general idea is just a room to sit and work on your tree's and maybe talk or ask advice on questions that may come up or general cooler chat.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Our webmaster here at BNUT donates his time gratis, no charge, and members here pay no dues. We have previously discussed adding some sort of video chat room, like a discord server, and the answer was "no time for that and no server space for that". We are free to pursue on our own, and discuss it here. But BNut won't be able to host a discord server. (@Bonsai Nut - have I got it right? )

If anyone has info on a video chat group looking for members, separate from BNut, post up contact info.

 

[tangledtanuki]

I'd be happy to help try and set it up and get things running. We can then see how things work. I know that technology can be daunting for some people so maybe the first thing would be creating some good user guides and then also setting some community guidelines. If there are any discord servers already open and that I can just join that would be great. Don't need to re-invent the wheel if it's already out there.

 

[Paradox]

It doesn't need a server set up but I understand Greg (BNut) not wanting to admin yet another thing.

I am on several discord servers for gaming.
I can start one for bonsai and post the invite string here

My only issue for me is I don't have the space next to the computer to work on my trees but a live discussion might be interesting.

Maybe Greg would give us a section in the "clubs" section of the forum to have a permanent spot for the invite string.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

If anyone has info on a video chat group looking for members, separate from BNut, post up contact info.

We had a chat room years ago... but it was barely used. We did do a holiday Zoom call two years ago that was fun, but that was a unique event.

I would recommend setting up a thread and an invitation as a Beta Test. If it turns out to be popular, we could always create a permanent home for it here.

 

[Paradox]

We had a chat room years ago... but it was barely used. We did do a holiday Zoom call two years ago that was fun, but that was a unique event.

I would recommend setting up a thread and an invitation as a Beta Test. If it turns out to be popular, we could always create a permanent home for it here.

Ok I'll set one up today and start a thread

 

[Paradox]

Set up and info posted here

Bonsai Nut Discord (Beta) for live discussions

With Greg's (Bonsai Nut) permission, we are going to try setting up a Bonsai Nut discord for live discussions, and get togethers. This is very much a beta version to see if there is interest in having such functionality for Bonsai Nut members. Here is the link to the discord, you can join via...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Underdog]

Just curious if this is going forward or being used?