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I think democratization is a better word than gentrification. In gentrification, something bad is turned into something good, in the process displacing those w
by pchristensen 18y ago
I think democratization is a better word than gentrification. In gentrification, something bad is turned into something good, in the process displacing those who made it good. In democratization, something scarce and luxurious is devalued by its increasing popularity. Niche Communities (like HN) despise the unwashed masses and recoil when their community is invaded.
- michaelneale 18y agoyes I thought the same thing, certainly not the same gentrification that is used in real estate (although having said that, there is the general view that gentrification isn't always good for an area - at least in terms of it totally changing the nature of a urban district).
- biohacker42 18y agoIt's not so much that I despise the unwashed masses, it's just that the greatest common denominator tends to go very low, as the total number of participants goes up. Take a billion Nobel prize winners and the only things they will all have in common will be sex and violence, that and the Nobel prize. My point is, it's not that the masses are unwashed, it's just the masses - law of averages.
- pchristensen 18y agoThanks! I was going to go into normal distributions, communities of interest, etc, but I just used some sensational language that got the point across. For anyone offended by the original, biohacker gave the explanation I was too lazy to write.
- xlnt 18y ago+1 for saying GCD instead of LCD.
- alex_c 18y agoMaybe I'm too pessimistic, but I would actually take it one step further and say it's closer to the process of turning a nice neighbourhood into slums.
- pchristensen 18y agoYeah, that's a better analogy, but there's not a good word for that. Urban decay?