Time transcripts of jn4jennydaln

[00:00:00.03]	Hi I'm Jen, and, um, I'm a member of TheOutsideCourse.com

[00:00:05.04]	which is the online community that I want to talk about in my narrative today. 

[00:00:09.00]	And my screen name at The Outside Course is jn4jenny, which is the airplane that I'm named after

[00:00:15.06]	My dad was a helicopter pilot, and in the Army, 

[00:00:19.00]	he was trained originally on this old World War I plane called the JN-4 Jenny, 

[00:00:25.32]	so um, that just kind of stuck with me and it's been my screen name at a lot of Internet sites. 

[00:00:29.01]	Anyway, um, I guess I'll mention early  that this is a set of three to four to five narratives 

[00:00:36.00]	that I've asked members of TheOutsideCourse.com, this online community, to submit to the DALN

[00:00:40.12]	because I actually wanted to see what would happen if we all talked about the DALN

[00:00:45.13]	and TOC at the same time. Um, it's a pretty interesting community.

[00:00:50.17]	I guess the way that I would describe The Outside Course is firstly, 

[00:00:53.28]	it's a community for horse enthusiasts.

[00:00:55.49]	The name, The Outside Course, comes from a concept from hunter/jumper shows,

[00:01:00.20]	so the shows with jumps in the arena that you may be familiar with, sort of from movies and TV

[00:01:05.21]	The pretty jumps with the pretty colors, and big horses jumping the fences.

[00:01:10.22]	Well, The Outside Course is this sort of old-fashioned event that used to be part of that

[00:01:15.23]	where hey would set up the jumps in the field around the arena. So um, the reason, I think, 

[00:01:20.00]	that The Outside Course adapted that name as a bulletin board name online in the online space

[00:01:25.26]	is it's kind of indicative of how the site came to be. 

[00:01:27.97]	A lot of us were originally members at Chronicle of the Horse forums, so at chronicleforums.com.

[00:01:35.28]	It's a really big horsey bulletin board with thousands of members, and a lot of us are still members there.

[00:01:40.29]	But we kind of, um, for reasons that I don't totally remember exactly

[00:01:45.32]	decided to split off and create a new board called The Outside Course that would be kind of outside the space

[00:01:50.33]	of Chronicle Forums. For other reasons, among other reasons,

[00:01:55.34]	one was that the Chronicle Forums is pretty strict about keeping the threads on horse-related topics

[00:02:00.35]	and The Outside Course, we certainly talk about horses a lot, um, but, we talk also a lot about 

[00:02:05.37]	sort of off-topic things, so things related to our real life: dogs, families, moving,

[00:02:10.41]	um, jobs. So lots of life events,  and it kind of creates a different kind of community there

[00:02:15.42]	where even though we don't mostly know each other in real life, um we sort of use text and images

[00:02:20.44]	to communicate with each other. So I post there a lot, um, I spend a lot of my study breaks there.

[00:02:27.00]	I'm a graduate student right now, so a lot of study breaks at The Outside Course, a lot of procrastinating at The Outside Course. 

[00:02:32.98]	And um, I guess one of my roles in the community, one thing that I post a lot of text posts about, is gadgetry.

[00:02:40.51]	I am a Digital Studies major here at Ohio State University,

[00:02:45.02]	and a lot of horse folks, either because they've got other jobs like they're lawyers or engineers or you know, traditional barn managers,

[00:02:51.53]	 they maybe don't have as much time as I do to shop for electronic gadgets.

[00:02:55.55]	So I'm often the person who comes along and helps people think about, um, what kind of camera they want to buy, 

[00:03:01.56]	what kind of computer they might want to buy, do they want to buy a Mac or PC.

[00:03:05.58]	Um, I'm done a lot of the research in that area so I have a lot of thoughts on that

[00:03:10.60]	so that's kind of what I bring to the community. Of course everyone brings whatever they have to offer too.

[00:03:15.61]	We have people who are, like, human resources representatives, and they've been talking a lot about

[00:03:20.63]	job interviews and resumes, especially since the recession's been on for a couple years now. We have a lot of members

[00:03:25.64]	either changing jobs or relocating or newly unemployed or unemployed for a long time,

[00:03:30.65]	and they're looking for some help with that. So everyone kind of brings their own thing to the table.

[00:03:35.68]	It's mostly a text-based community. Um, I don't think necessarily that pictures play a huge role. 

[00:03:42.52]	We certainly post pictures sometimes, like we'll put them

[00:03:45.73]	on an outside site like Photobucket and then link to the picture so that we can see each other's horses and see each other's riding

[00:03:50.73]	and so on. But really it's mostly text-based and a lot of emoticons. [ Laughs ]

[00:03:55.76]	They have, like, probably 20 or 25 emoticons on the interface and there's things like

[00:04:00.78]	there's this little smiley face that makes these little rah-rah cheerleading pom poms move, 

[00:04:03.29]	and there's a soapbox one where the guy's like, you know,  banging his fist at the soapbox. 

[00:04:10.17]	So you know, a lot of emoticons to help you express the emotional content of your text. And I guess one story

[00:04:15.81]	that always stands out to me about The Outside Course is that about a year ago, one of the members

[00:04:20.83]	FlashGordon, who I won't tell what her real name is or where she lives, but she told me I

[00:04:25.84]	could say her screen name was FlashGordon. So FlashGordon lives quite some ways from me,

[00:04:30.85]	far enough away that I don't think I would ever meet her in person through the horsey community

[00:04:35.86]	The horse world's kind of small, and it's kind of, you know, an insular community,

[00:04:40.91]	but she lives far enough away I don't think we would have ever crossed paths. So anyway,

[00:04:45.92]	I'd kind of gotten to know FlashGordon through The Outside Course because one of the other members

[00:04:50.95]	on the board had given FlashGordon  this beautiful horse, Dan for lease, 

[00:04:56.57]	and FlashGordon had a really strong bond with Dan, and he was a really beautiful horse, and

[00:05:00.98]	FlashGordon would post a lot of really beautiful pictures of him. And then he died very suddenly.

[00:05:06.01]	Sort of the horsey equivalent of a heart attack. He just sort of fell over and died at an unnaturally young age. 

[00:05:12.00]	So I think that event really brought the community at The Outside Course

[00:05:16.07]	closer somehow, and it became a place where saw a lot of FlashGordon

[00:05:21.08]	and you know, we could sort of see her progress through her grief and see how her life was moving forward.

[00:05:26.09]	And she ended up getting another horse that helped her heal and grieve for her old horse Dan,

[00:05:31.11]	and after a little while, she became unexpectedly pregnant, which was a big deal

[00:05:36.12]	because she had believed that she couldn't have children, and had already a little girl

[00:05:41.16]	we call her "Little FlashGordon" on the board. We don't refer to her kid by her real name, usually,

[00:05:47.07]	it's usually "Little FG" is what we call her. So for FlashGordon to be pregnant

[00:05:51.18]	with a second child was a big event, and um, at first I think most of us

[00:05:56.20]	kept pretty quiet about it. We would only sort of let FlashGordon tell us when she felt ready to offer

[00:06:01.21]	information about the pregnancy because everyone was concerned about miscarriage.

[00:06:06.22]	But um, I remember about three or four months before the baby was due, FlashGordon came on the board and expressed

[00:06:11.23]	that she was really excited because the pregnancy was moving forward, and it was to a point now where if the baby was born

[00:06:16.24]	there was a good chance that with medical help, he would make it and be a healthy baby.

[00:06:21.25]	So I decided that since so many of us in this community,I don't know, it's hard to explain

[00:06:26.29]	I felt close to this person in a weird way, even though I don't know her, and I felt like we had this community

[00:06:31.30]	of people from all over the country who wanted to support and celebrate this event. 

[00:06:34.50]	So I put up a post with FlashGordon's permission asking if anyone would like to go in together and chip in a little money

[00:06:41.32]	and get FlashGordon a baby gift. And I thought that maybe we would get you know, a hundred bucks

[00:06:46.34]	and maybe like five people would get together. And instead we got like 25 people um, sending me money through PayPal.

[00:06:54.06]	Remember, they don't know me, they don't, I don't think at that point they even knew where I lived or what I did for a living, right

[00:07:00.38]	I was just one of these screen names jn4jenny, the sort of personality on the board.

[00:07:03.40]	And they sent me money by PayPal, you know, 15, 40, sometimes 50 bucks,

[00:07:11.42]	and they trusted me to devote it all to this baby gift and to get it to FlashGordon, which wasn't too hard 

[00:07:17.94]	because she was registered online at ToysRUs.com. So without knowing very much about her at all, 

[00:07:21.70]	I could send her a gift online. So we collected, I think, upwards of 350 dollars,

[00:07:26.48]	or some such, and we were able to get her, umI think we ended up with a carseat

[00:07:31.49]	and--or was it a stroller? I don't remember. But the first gift, right, the first big 'un

[00:07:36.50]	is we bought this glider that she wanted for her baby room. 

[00:07:39.01]	And I remember it was sort of magical in a weird waybecause we not only sent her this glider and she was so excited

[00:07:46.52]	but she put the glider together and she posted pictures of herself sitting in the glider

[00:07:51.54]	and sitting in the glider with the baby. And you know, she wrote about the baby, you know, across posts

[00:07:56.55]	after the baby was born and we would see the glider.  And I know Flashy was really touched

[00:08:01.57]	and she talked about like, crying when she got it.  But it was really touching for us too. You know, I think what's amazing

[00:08:06.59]	about that story is not only that most of us have never met in real life, but

[00:08:11.61]	that everybody in the community trusted each other,you know, to, to go through with it

[00:08:16.62]	You know, there were so many things that could have gotten in the way. Someone could have said, "Well what if FlashGordon isn't really pregnant?" or

[00:08:21.63]	"What if she's not a real person?" or "What if jn4jenny isn't a trustworthy person 

[00:08:24.16]	and we shouldn't be sending her this money through the PayPal system?" or 

[00:08:29.18]	"What if jn4jenny absconds with the money?" or "What if we can't agree on what to buy FlashGordon?" 

[00:08:32.94]	And in fact all of that went really super smoothly,and everyone seemed happy with what we did with money

[00:08:41.73]	and Flashy was happy and we were happy,and I think the baby's like, almost one year old

[00:08:46.74]	now, and you know, we're all still a community and most people who gave the money are still part of our

[00:08:51.75]	community. So I guess why that matters is I never really thought of myself, as, you know, as a girly girl who hangs out with other women

[00:09:01.77]	um, you know, even at the barn, there's a small community at the barn where I keep my horse

[00:09:06.78]	but you know, I'm not one of these Officer's Wives' Club in the military, or women who like

[00:09:11.82]	cook and knit with each other at the church. But in a weird way, The Outside Course has kind of become that

[00:09:16.83]	community for me, you know, these people who come from all walks of life but they're all really nice

[00:09:21.86]	people and we seem able to meet on some common ground, which is our love for horses and the fact that

[00:09:26.87]	we're all people, and we all have families, and you know, we're all living through life events, and

[00:09:31.88]	I don't know if it's just an unspoken rule, but people on The Outside Course try to be nice to 

[00:09:36.89]	each other. You know, if you don't have something nice to say on The Outside Course, you basically don't open your mouth.

[00:09:41.90]	I think that makes it really special.In fact, just the other day, um, somebody noticed that

[00:09:46.90]	the moderator for the community has basically disappeared, and we don't really know where she is and she doesn't seem to come by

[00:09:51.92]	and moderate any of our comments anymore.But there really hasn't been much trouble there,

[00:09:56.92]	and it's really interesting and special since online communities get this rap for, you know, flaming each other

[00:10:01.94]	and trolls and making fun of each other. And for reasons I haven't totally figured out, that doesn't really seem

[00:10:06.95]	to happen at The Outside Course. And I feel like I've met a lot of people online there

[00:10:11.98]	like, really cool people, and I hope I get to meet them someday in person. And some of them I have

[00:10:17.01]	um, for example, I sold my horse trailer to a real-life member of The Outside Course

[00:10:22.02]	who lived about one state away and she really wanted this particular brand of trailer that I

[00:10:27.03]	had for sale, and I've helped people with saddle search, and so we've gotten sort of very involved with each other

[00:10:32.04]	in sort of ways like that. And uh, I'm curious to see

[00:10:37.05]	where The Outside Course goes in the future. So I want to thank all of the ladies

[00:10:42.06]	especially, I think everyone's a lady}who has um, volunteered to join us

[00:10:47.07]	in the DALN Outside Course project.And I can't wait to see what all of the narratives look like

[00:10:52.08]	and I hope if any of the TOCers see these narrativesand they really like them, maybe they'll think about doing

[00:10:57.10]	one too? So um, that's it.Thanks so much

[00:11:02.11]	and that's it.