What is the Elixir community?

The phrase “Elixir community” is used often, but not necessarily examined deeply (which is reasonable - it’s almost commonsense). But let’s examine it.

What does “Elixir community” mean to you? Maybe your answer is a few adjectives that help shape it. Maybe you are thinking of your personal experiences. If you’re a nerd, maybe you’re thinking about what constitutes a community in general. Maybe you’re thinking of particular people who are or are not part of the community, by some definition – what’s the definition? Is it what they do, who they talk to, where they work?

Is there more than one Elixir community? If so, what are they?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. There are no wrong answers, as long as you are open to discussing why you have a particular definition/description. (For example, I won’t suggest not to write answers that might exclude people. I think they should be presented and hopefully adjusted if necessary)

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I have been a programmer/developer for most my life, but have always felt solo. There is no vibrant community, no meetups or anything where I live. When I started working with ruby in 2005 until a couple of years ago, I never felt part or attracted to that community.
When I found Elixir, I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt welcomed, a part, a member, so much so that at 46 years of age I went to my first ever conference (elixirconf us 2016). And I have been attending or at least trying to attend the eu conferences since.
I know this does not describe the community per se, but that welcoming feeling, including a place and people to turn to when you have simple or complex questions, that’s what it makes it for me.

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Ha, exactly the same for me! An ex-Rubyist here.

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To me the ‘Elixir Community’ is a bunch of extra ordinary people who help ordinary people do extra ordinary things.
You can count on the community for help, advice, directions and everything else.
Everyone respects one another and the community is very welcoming and friendly.

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Thanks for the responses so far. Here’s one I just put together:

The Elixir community is world-wide.

link to map and source data

Of course, this is missing quite a few. See my next comment, for example…

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This was sent to me by my new friend Imahashi. I would never have guessed that Elixir is so vibrant in Japan.

It makes me wonder: In what ways does this community / these communities relate to me? In what sense am I in the same community as attendees of the Fukuoka Pelemay Meetup? I’m sure many of the same baseline sentiments described above would apply to these groups, yet in practice they may never interact. What’s the relationship of these parts to each other, and between these parts and the whole? :thinking::thinking::thinking::thinking::thinking:

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I see the Elixir community as a Community of Practice (see my slides here).
As such, I think of it as a group of People (José Valim, you, myself) who organize and participate in Events (Elixir Conf, Code Beam, etc).

These people are part of zero or more of Organizations (Erlang Ecosystem Foundation, Dashbit, etc).

These people also have Achievements (for instance, José Valim is the Creator of Elixir).

People can also play Roles such as “Package X maintainer”, “Podcast Y host”.

Finally, people and organizations create and maintain Resources, such as Elixir Forum, Elixir School, podcasts etc.

The Elixir community is part of the larger BEAM community. The Brazilian Elixir community is part of the Elixir community.

Too abstract? Maybe…

Regards,

Adolfo

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This is awesome.

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Elixir is a low-level language, are powerful and give you a lot of control. Elixir allow you to write high quality code.

I don’t see Elixir as low-level.

Where/how can I find a schedule for the forthcoming Elixir events/community meetings for 2022 ?
I’m asking this because I want to contact a local community in my area/region. In case are they any… otherwise I am considering to create/initiate one.

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Try Elixir Radar https://elixir-radar.com/