Karl Katzke

Over 200 photos in a flickr set: here. (Note: Private set, you’ll need to be one of my contacts / friends see it.)

Short-form story: Online friend’s mom has a stroke. He flies to Illinois from Denver to take care of her, and finds that her house is a crazy lady disaster hoarding area, complete with biohazards. Vents on the online forum that we’re all a part of, and various people provide various forms of help. I come up with the brilliant idea of a bunch of us traveling from all over to help empty the house out… so people donate a plane ticket so that I can join them! How nice of them… Anyway, we spent a week helping them clean out and sort the contents of the house. It’s a pretty neat 1800’s-era old house in rural Illinois. The worst part is that the job isn’t done, and it’s going to take them years to recoup any expenses from the cleanout.

It’s really cool to see online communities come together when stuff like this happens to their members. You used to see stuff like this happen in local communities, but for some reason that’s really stopped happening as much. Instead, some of these closely knit online social communities and their resources and connections are picking up for those who are participating in them. Very interesting from a social aspect.