Communication channels during large (and long) juggling conventions
Its been quite a while since I've been active on here, but I was browsing through some posts regarding modes of communication, and having alternatives to Meta run options.
As part of quite a long feed forward document that I've been creating (feedback is essentially pointless for an EJC team!) I've been thinking about how to communicate urgently with convention goers for emerging situations such as bad weather.
This year, messages were sent via a WhatsApp channel and via email to all who had provided an email address to register. However, some of those emails went to spam, and others went through low priority filters, so people did not receive a notification regarding the email message.
Do people have a suggested alternative, or would this still be considered sufficient as it does provide an alternative to Meta.
Would offering to have comms channels on both Signal and WhatsApp provide sufficient coverage (in addition to email) - as both of these platforms have the option to have a "broadcast only" group - so that only messages from admins can be posted (avoiding overload). Only offering Signal (over WhatsApp) would mean that many would have to download another app, and one that they are not familiar with.
Danny Colyer - - Parent #
I don't use WhatsApp or Signal. I also no longer attend large events, but if I did then the most reliable way to get such information to me would be via a Telegram channel with postings restricted to admins and to make sure that postings are infrequent enough that users won't be tempted to mute it.
I’m a Signaller, but I think someone (multilingual) walking around the site with a megaphone would reach a lot of people quickly.
I see it the same way, the most effective way is to be loud and visual with a megaphone. How did they do it in the 90ies or early 2000s? People juggle, relax, cook, sleep. They do not always look at their phone. Even a signal group with 1000 people won't reach a 1000 people. People will inform each other via word of mouth. You can have a digital communication infrastructure but I guess that it is only a multiplier. I rarely look at my phone on conventions. But that is just me. We are doing a physical activity that is circus.
Thanks for your thoughts, Dee. You communicated the weather situation in Ptuj via word of mouth after the diabolo battle and people were running around at the campsite and informing people. I think it is important to have a communication system for people who feel responsible to spread the information. Signal is a viable option for that.
We got lucky with the timing at Ptuj.
Word of mouth would still be the primary dissemination method, but being able to have something in writing helps to prevent "message drift".
We wouldn't be looking for something that 75% of attendees would see. If we even capture 10% with high quality information (not trying to be understood in an echoey hall) that could help spread the information within friendship groups that could really help.
Convention organising teams have gone too heavily towards instagram for disseminating information, which I hate (the non linear timeline is especially bad for information that needs to be timely and also may need to be referred back to), so I am looking to give actionable advice as part of my feed forward document (which is currently over 4000 words!)
I have written in the past to the EJA about communication from and on EJCs. I had an 1 hour video call with Simon (presidentof the EJA earlier thia year on the topic. The con ersation was good, but I am no part of the EJA. Gret that you engage in this topic and integrate opinions from others.
We discovered the limitations of that approach with a site with many halls and different camps.
I do prefer the low tech solution where possible (as seen by how I disseminated bad weather information at the BJC this year), but having a planned-for solution for dispersed sites rather than a scrambled-for one is my goal.
Something to consider is that Signal groups are capped at 1000 people. While I prefer Signal to Telegram, I don't think it's the right choice here (at least not without having extra groups if the first fills up which is a pain for organisers to send to all of them and share the new link broadly if the first fills up).
Asking for phone number at registration and sending a broadcast SMS (not free but probably not that expensive using a service) might be a good option for emergencies.
Useful to note, thanks, regarding the upper limit.
Given the number of attendees at an EJC, the proportion of them who are WhatsApp users, I don't think that a limit of 1000 would be an issue; but its probably the sort of thing that the EJA should poll to decide between Signal and Telegram.
Running 4 (including email) ways of disseminating urgent information is a bit much - one is too likely to be forgotten.
I think that the logistics of setting up and testing a broadcast sms system where the majority of numbers would be international would be too onerous for convention organisers given the relative ease of other methods.
It seems with the advent of the painfully distributed communications channel competition that managing large scale social messaging is always going to be a headache.
Instead of working out how to limit the number of platforms supported in order to make it easier to manage the process manually, it might be an idea to approach this by looking at ways to build an maintain a social media distribution platform driven from a universally accessible website with no requirement for user accounts to access.
As the central coordinating body of EJC admin and continuance, it seems like the sort of job that the EJA is best placed to coordinate.
There are a range of tools that handle social media/messengering integrations but alas from what I have seen in the last 20 minutes of research - nothing that does them all. There are however a few tools for some of the services mentioned here:
1) https://wordpress.org/plugins/blog2social/
* Facebook – Post to your profile and page (Free)
* X (Twitter) – Post to your X account (add-on)
* Instagram – Post to your business account (from Smart)
* LinkedIn – Post to your profile (Free) or page (from Pro)
* TikTok – Share blog posts, images, and videos directly on TikTok (add-on) and photo posts or carousels with multiple images (from Pro)
* YouTube – Publish videos on your YouTube channel (add-on)
* Reddit – Post to your subreddits (Free)
* Medium – Post with canonical-backlinks to your original post (Free)
* Pinterest – Post to all your Pinboards (from Smart)
* Telegram – Post to your Telegram groups and channels (from Business)
* Mastodon – Post to your Mastodon account (from Pro)
* Discord – Post to your Discord servers (from Smart)
* Google Business Profile – Post to your Google Business Listing (from Pro)
* Bluesky – Post to your Bluesky account (Free)
* Threads – Post to your account (Free)
* Tumblr – Post with canonical-backlinks (Free)
* Torial – Post with canonical-backlinks (Free)
* Flickr – Post to your Flickr profile (Free)
* VK.com – Post to your profile (Free), page (from Pro) or groups (from Pro)
* Diigo – Post a bookmark to your account (Free)
* Blogger.com – Post with canonical-backlinks (from Smart)
* Instapaper – Post to your Instapaper account (from Pro)
* Ravelry – Post to your Ravelry account (from Smart)
* Vimeo – Publish videos on your Vimeo channel (add-on)
* HumHub – Post to your profile and space (add-on)
* Band – Post to your Band groups (from Smart)
* XING – Post to your profile (Free) and page (from Pro)
2) https://github.com/bbernhard/signal-cli-rest-api
At the moment, the following functionality is exposed via REST:
I suspect there are other tools out there which could be incorporated into a wider EJA service to host EJC websites each year with a maintained set of background systems that can disseminate messages to many communication platforms while providing an easy to use front end for organisers to use to post content/updates.
Oh - and "Hi Dee!"
reasons to get stuck
_______________________
• doing at your limit with very and too hard pattern
, , , ( years for little to no progress, even stagnating )
• to stubborn to change unyielding learning strategy
• missing a crucial clue
• being succumbed to a misconception
• having a (serious) bad habit unaware of
• having a mental psychological block
, , , ( like when always blundering when getting near your daily or recent best, but on a large timescale )
• .. ? [anything else? objections?]
Do you have or can you think of examples?
Just a quick hello…
I’m a former pro juggler who is now Pastor and just started a new juggling club in Milwaukee this past week.
Right note I’m discovering how all of my stashed props have survived and getting my pick up muscles in shape.
I’m working on getting my club to send a group to Madfest in Madison in January.
PS
Here are all the links posted during August 2026:
The following hashtags were used:
hey Jonothan! I saw that you got 13 catches of 11 balls.
That is insane! how long have you been juggling for? and if you
could I was wondering how old are you? (I have been juggling for 3 years)
Origin of Duals?
I noticed the juggle wiki page on dual siteswaps doesn’t note any origin for the idea. Does anyone know who might have come up with/developed the concept?
Joseph the juggler - - Parent #
What do you mean by duals?
RustyJuggling - - Parent #
It’s when one siteswap kind of fills the contours of another; one goes high where the other one goes low. For example 441 and 522 are duals to each other.
You get the dual by subtracting a siteswap from its period times 2, and then flipping it backwards. So for 504, you would subtract each throw from 6, making the dual 261. Patterns can also be their own dual, like 531.
Hi there, my name's Jenny and I only started juggling a few months ago. I'm from Germany but live in Denmark at the moment. I currently mostly practice juggling clubs and I would absolutely love to find people in denmark to meet up for some club passing
Hey Jenny,
My name is Jenny too, and coincidentally I am as well living in Denmark and are originally from Germany :D
Where in Denmark are you based? I am based in Copenhagen and we have a super nice juggling meetup from our club "Mind Your Head" every Tuesday from 20-22 near Blågårdsplads :)
#Camvention2026
Greetings jugglers!
A bit of a late announcement, but Camvention (the Cambridge Juggling and Circus Convention) will again be back this year on Saturday 3th October! Same place, same times, same Thai van ;)
Details on Facebook and on the website.
Hope to see you all there :)
Mark
MartinD561 - #
Hello, Buenas noches, Salut.
Thanks for receiving me in this awesome community! My name is Martin,from Argentina.
Aguante el malabar
There is https://jugglingmap.org/ which was filled with circus during the EJC. I like the feature of jugglingedge to get an email reminder so that information stays up to date.
Also another project has been started to have an alternative for the events of jugglingedge. I do not remember the site. But I do prefer information in a text representation like it is on this site.
jugglingmap.org reminds me of the old globe applet from the IJDb! As you suggest though they need to implement an automated system to prompt updates coupled with a way that flags old data like we use on the Edge. Link rot is a huge problem in the club space.
As for the other project are you thinking of https://juggling-convention.com? I noticed this site earlier in the year. It looks nice, has a lot more features than the Edge such as built in sitemaps, programs, place to organise carpooling etc. Looks like a chap named Pierre from France has built the site using Claude Code.
Does anyone know what the AFJ token payments is about? Seems to be significant enough to be included as a search parameter but only used for a few festivals. Hoping it's not some cryptocurrency scheme entering the festival circuit.
Nothing to find about 'token' on the French Juggling Association's site, https://afj.asso.fr/ afai could see.
I prefer lists like jugglingedge does. I did not know about the site you were linking that site I found was also a globe. But I do not remember and have browsing history turned off.
I do not know about the tokens from french conventions. Those I participated in normally use helloasso to register and pay for the conventions.
I am happy that many conventions nowadays use pretix developped by ccc people as it is mature software that you can host yourself. However we in Hamburg still use a system we coded in 2014/2015 without AI.
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