One of the first places I found on the Internet to meet people was the lighting forums. I found a place called the Light Network years ago, and through this site I exchanged a lot of lighting questions and answers. While we chatted about light fixtures, media servers, various CAD programs, etc., we were making friends. This was the start of social networking through the World Wide Web. I met many people there and had lots of fun with certain characters. The same applies to this cool site hosted by the mag you're reading now. If you go to www.prolightingspace.com, you will see the next level of social networking. There are thousands of us in the lighting community who visit this free space. Many people, including myself, post blogs about their everyday gigs. Questions are asked and answered by people from all fields of our industry. I can write about anything, not just lighting. And I accept everyone there as my friend, even if I don't know them beforehand.
Linking In
A couple years ago, I started getting invites to social networking clubs such as Plaxo and Linked In. Friends of mine would send me an e-mail and suggest I join so I could keep up with people I haven't seen in years. While I was skeptical at first, enough of my friends sent me these memos that I joined. Heck, it was free. But I didn't really see anything cool about these places, so I ended up opting out of their services.
Then Facebook came out. It was a new site to which over 50 percent of everyone I knew belonged, or so it seemed. And it wasn't about the entertainment biz. I was reconnecting with people I had totally forgotten over the years. Once you join this place and start gathering "friends," you are able to view everyone else's friend list. And then an addiction can start. Before you know it, you are now linked in with a couple hundred people, many of whom are mutual friends.
But there are two sides to it. Facebook gives everyone a chance to post his or her "status" every day, and everyone on their friend list will see. You can post a gripe, root for the home team or state a political view, and people will respond to it. Once someone has responded to what you posted, all their friends can view your original post. Sometimes the threads are really funny, but sometimes you see idiotic statements made by people you once thought of as intelligent.
Off the Wall
Everyone has a "wall" where people can post stuff ranging from a simple hello to a heated diatribe defacing your opinion. All of your Facebook buddies can read them. It can be dangerous. If you run a lighting company, do you really want your employees viewing your wall? Or, for that matter, would you like to worry about your boss seeing some offbeat remark you may have made? Personally, I don't worry about such stuff, because I've been perceived as a clown for so long that people expect it.
But it's a great place for social networking. Because I hate the Red Sox, I've actually made friends on this site. Bob Morrisey from East Coast Lighting and Production Services despises my beloved Yankees. But somehow we are now friends through our idle posts. Lighting programmers I know are constantly on this site. We know which shows or tours we are working on simply by following status updates. Last month I needed to reach my buddy Blake to hire him for some tours, but he wasn't answering his phone because he works in loud environments. But I know his computer is often sitting in idle mode connected to Facebook. So I sent him an instant message. Five minutes later he called me and he had four months of work lined up.
WRU@
I find people to cover me constantly on this site. Sometimes people e-mail me looking for a lighting director. I just go to Facebook and run through my list of friends. I'm sure one of them will be happy to take a gig. Plus, I can see where they are by cross-referencing. If they posted they are gigging in Tokyo, I can go to Pollstar.com and search for Tokyo concerts on that day – ah, James Taylor. Next I can click on that artists' tour dates to see how long their tour is running. Then I know my buddy Mac is lighting James Taylor for the rest of the summer. Let's see who else is out there.
Some people have thousands of FB friends. If they do, chances are I'm not one of them. I try to keep my friend list down to a couple hundred. I simply don't have time to go through Facebook more than a couple times per week. I usually surf it when I'm bored and there's a lull in lighting programming. But at least once a day I get a request from somebody wanting to be my friend. I don't know five out of six of these people. We may have mutual friends or they may read this column.
Here's a simple rule I use: If I don't know you or can't remember where I worked with you before, I will not be your FB friend. I don't mean to be rude; it's just that I have too many friends on this site.
Then there's the flip side; the intentional denial of friend requests. There are few people I don't get along with. If I had a bad gig with you at some point in my life, don't try and be my friend now. While I don't have the memory of an elephant, I remember dirt bags that have done me wrong. For instance, 30 years ago I was a buddy with a famous rigger. He now runs a company. Last year I did a gig at a convention center where he was running the labor and the rigging department. This guy screwed my client and me for a lot of money through some unethical business decisions. Now he wants to be my buddy? I think not.
Likewise for a production manager who rode my ass for months while I was young tech. He could have taught me things but instead he chose to chew my butt constantly. Now he's broken down and working as a shop foreman somewhere. Sorry dude, I got no time for you. Why in the world would you want to be my friend now? You did not make me a better man, I still don't like you, and you are denied.
Facebook is threatening to charge all their members a monthly fee soon. If that ever comes to fruition I'm pretty confident I will drop it. But I can always be found at ProLightingSpace, putting in my two cents about something. Stop by and be sociable.
