Findings on the Continued Use of Trip Chat After Trip
The trip ended nineteen days ago. The trip chat has sent forty-seven messages since then, none of them about the trip.
FIELD NOTES: TRIP CHAT AFTER TRIP
Original Purpose: Trip to Coorg, logistics coordination Current Purpose: Unclear Members: 6 Status of Trip: Complete since April 2
April 2 (last day of trip) Final group message: "Everyone safe?" Received five confirmations. One thumbs-up. Group has served its purpose.
April 4 Someone sends a photo from the trip. The photo was taken on the trip and therefore qualifies as within scope. This is the last on-topic message.
April 7 Meme about coffee. Received four reactions.
April 9 Weather complaint. Received two sympathy reactions. No information about Coorg.
April 11 Someone asks whether anyone knows a good biryani place in Bangalore. This is not related to Coorg, logistics, or the trip. Four recommendations arrive. One recommendation is disputed.
The governing rule: any trip chat after trip that avoids one direct reply may create unlimited indirect replies.
The group was formed to coordinate logistics. The logistics concluded. The group did not.
The last location-relevant message was sent eleven days ago. All messages since then have been memes, check-ins, and one question about a restaurant in a different city.
April 16 Someone posts "should we plan another trip?" Six responses arrive in seven minutes. This is the fastest response rate the group has achieved since the original trip was being planned. No trip is planned during this exchange. The exchange is about planning. Planning is not a trip.
One member performs the trip chat after trip and the rest adapt around it. A side conversation appears to interpret what the main conversation means. The group finally reaches a decision through silence, reactions, screenshots, and one exhausted person summarizing everything.
Present The group has 47 messages since the trip ended. None of them are about the trip. All of them are from the people who went on the trip, which is the only remaining qualifier for membership.
The chat is not about Coorg.
The chat is about being the kind of people who went to Coorg.