The History of RAOK

Five Minutes a Day

In less than two months RAOK will be celebrating its tenth anniversary. For anything to survive on the net that long is amazing. RAOK is truely ancient by net standards. RAOK long predates MySpace, Facebook, or Web 2.0 Actually, there was a whole social world, in fact there were two social worlds on Web 1.0 which was in many ways far more open and interactive then Web 2.0. People were expected to at least give strangers the proverbial time of day and more often when people interacted in groups those who were different were part of the experience. One had to get along with those with whom one disagreed, not just those on a "friends list.&qut;

Kindness Together

RAOK members were also kind to one another. RAOK was and still is a "ladies group." "Ladies groups&qout; are internet organizations with a sweet, supportive ethos, composed mainly of mature females who do not have huge academic credentials or heavy political involvement. Many members are rural or live in flyover territory. I am female and I lived in Columbus, Georgia when I joined RAOK, so I am a partial demographic fit. Unlike most "ladies groups," however, RAOK was always co-ed. We have always had some male membership. Our ethos, though has been kindness within as well as without.

What About the Real World?

RAOK never did much with kindness in the "real world." Candi set up the organization primarily as an internet only entity. In addition, members of RAOK were geographically scattered all over the world. Not everyone was active. Real life prevented kindness, rather than acting as a a stage forit. RAOK only asked for five minutes a day. Real world volunteer efforts take a bit longer. Finally, given RAOK's target demographic, many members were themselves caregivers or mothers in real life. In short, they dispensed plenty of kindness without having to join organizations in their communities, raise money for charity, or even leave their busy homes.

I think with Facebook and with my ad-hoc leadership, some of this might change. I am single and a big proponent of voluntarism. There is no reason not to make real world volunteering part of RAOK's area of interest.

So What Happened to RAOK?

RAOK survived and thrived for many years. We had an active membership, and a ruling oligarchy that was civilized enough to pass the torch of leadership five or six times with the organization surviving intact. The committees functioned, and RAOK survived well into 2006, when a political schism ripped the organization in two. I don't know all the details. I never learned them. I sided with Candi, but was busy settling into a new job so had not been particularly active at that time.

Candi shut down the web board and restarted RAOK as an email group. Later she grew weary of the organization and moved it to Facebook. The current Facebook group site bears the signs of Candi's neglect. The introductory text is suited to the 1.0 version of the web. I doubt most of the new membership has ever seen a guestbook, let alone signed one or wondered why they should. They are more than a bit afraid to open e-cards from people they don't know and with good reason. The current RAOK guidelines also DON'T address third party applications.

This should be the end of RAOK, but of course it isn't. That I am writing this page, alone shows that. That there are fifty members of the RAOK group on Facebook, despite the group's currently crippled state and unfixable message, and absentee leaders means there is still a hunger to do kindness. The web changes. People don't.

Weaknesses and Threats

Long before RAOK tore itself in two, it faced a number of weaknesses and threats. The organization still faces them along with a few new ones. Please bear in mind that none of these are insurmountable.

FIRST: The open web is dirty and threatening. An unregulated dumb pipe architecture finally yielded fruit in the form of forced downloads and spam. In the fall of 2004, my computer got hit by a forced downloaded piece of malware while trying to visit a site that had signed the RAOK guestbook. E-card scandals followed. Spam now makes up ninty percent of all email and often fills guestbooks. Guestbooks and email and even static web sites are harder to find. Even using the inbox for a group mailing list, became a difficult proposition with members having to give up their email addresses due to spam. In short, RAOK was losing the place where it had once operated freely and safely.

SECOND: Money has always been an issue. Candi lived where the local currency was .60 of an American dollar for the longest time. The Canadian Maritimes are also similar to Appalachia in terms of prosperity or lack thereof. RAOK relied on Geocities for as long as it could, until remote loading of guestbook images became an impossiblity. RAOK never paid for the name, "Random Acts of Kindness," so another organization trademarked it. We just didn't have $300.00 US for a name. I have seen server space almost go unpaid for, though our domains never lapsed. Much of RAOK has always been on other people's web space, much as these pages are now.

THIRD: Human nature works hard against being kind twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. People need to let off steam elsewhere. There needs to be an elsewhere for RAOK to survive. Elsewhere DOES NOT MEAN go play in the traffic. If you need rough and tumble political debate, sectarian religion with proselytizing or witnessing, dirty jokes, whatever...go, enjoy those things and then come back. RAOK started out by asking for five minutes a day, not any one's whole life. Still, the no-criticism rule on the members' board took its toll. Boards periodically exploded in drama, ugliness, and vandalism. Candi or whoever was in charge would take down the old board and start afresh with a board in a new location, often password protected to keep the trouble makers out.

The Future is Us