When I really want something, I’m tenacious. Or maybe just stubborn. There’s a significant overlap of nuance there, in any case.
What I really wanted, one day back in the late 90s, was to find a bloody Bastille Day celebration in San Diego, which is not the most cosmopolitan of cities. Couldn’t find one to save my life.
A random thing to be looking for, you say? Well, I was just feeling Frenchy. Not that I don’t always feel Frenchy, but sometimes, back when I was still living in the US, I would experience the sudden onset of “need something French now.” Kind of like hypoglycemia.
What was born of my minor crisis that day was a diabolical plan. I decided I needed to make a website that would be a central repository of everything Frenchy in America so people like me could feed their need any time, anywhere. I would have classified ads and event calendars and directories of French businesses and organizations and everything a hardcore Francophile could possibly want. I wanted to create an online community for Francophiles.
I bought the perfect domain name and started sketching out the details of my vision. Unfortunately, however, I’m not a programmer. So I dug up a couple of programmers and talked to them about it. Eight or so years later, we were still just talking…
But Fortune shone on me, as it so often seems to do. I got techier. I fell in love with an artistic French geek. Software advanced. Social networks came into being. I saw an article on open source social platforms on Mashable. The wheels in my Frenchy little head started spinning faster.
The planets aligned…
Vincent, my soulmate, knew that I was still hanging on to my dream and getting nowhere with the programmers. He saw that what I wanted was possible, and he made it happen for me. In the space of a few days, he installed a complex social networking platform and applied his artistic talent and considerable software expertise to a butt ugly and cumbersome hunk of software and made it beautiful.
Thanks to my Frog Prince, Francophilia, the world’s only online community for Francophiles, was born.
I meant everything I said about social networking recently. But if you read that post to the end, you saw that I was toying with the idea that the medium could be improved upon. I’ve come to the conclusion that the secret may lie in having a well-defined focus for the social network. When you get people together who share a real passion, magic can happen. It works that way in the real world. Why not in the virtual one?
We’re in beta right now, but if you’re a Francophile, you’re welcome to come by www.francophilia.com and help us with testing. The more people we have testing the site, the easier it will be to find and fix bugs and get feedback from the people for whom the community was created. (If you do any testing, please note problems in the Bugs forum.)
And please say “hi” if you pop by. I’m LaGoulue. I really am.
P.S. Here’s what Vincent had to say about his trials and tribulations.
Pam, count me in.
I was utterly impressed watching Vincent turning the often used and abused Dolphin Smart Community Builder into an inviting online community.
And you know, you’re owning a quite valuable domain name, although I’m convinced you’re not that goulue ;-)
Hi Peter. I’m very happy with the site. It’s pretty buggy, but we’re doing all we can. My dream is to build a network to my own specs… I’m working on that, in fact! As for the value of the domain name, I think its value lies in the fact that it’s meaningful; it’s pretty crystal clear what it’s about, unlike some of the new domain names popping up (toluna? treemo? jimdo?). But it’s not a word that is googled that much, surprisingly! Maybe that’ll change. La Goulue was a wild, hedonistic girl; there’s certainly a bit of her in me ;-)
Congratulations on making your dream come true! As an ex-California girl, I am so happy to see another So-Cal Francophile achieve her French dreams!!!
I understand the French hypoglycemia you speak of…hoping to cure it soon.
Having joined Francophilia, today I decided to explore on my blog how and why I became a Francophile. Thank you! Bon chance!!
Merci
I think it’s great what you’ve put together on Francophilia, and it’s wonderful how you made something you imagined and put together a reality! Félicitations ! Sounds to me like you know how to make things happen, and I admire that… Need to learn to do a bit more of the same myself!
So happy to have found your blog — I don’t know how I missed it before! Thanks again for contacting me re: Francophilia… Et à très bientôt !
Oh my, Francophilia has really grown since I last visited! I obviously joined, but I’m waiting to post until I actually manage to come up with something worth reading ;-)