In my experience there's a third type of group, a subcategory of possums who solved the otter problem to their own detriment: Porcupines. Porcupines use techn

In my experience there's a third type of group, a subcategory of possums who solved the otter problem to their own detriment: Porcupines. Porcupines use techniques such as "toxicity" to create communities that are more stable on average than possum-led groups. The otters and possums are likely to stay away from the start for fear of being associated with the toxicity of the porcupines. The outsiders may create their own less toxic groups, and continue the possum-otter cycle, but the porcupines remain in the same place they always have, not changing much, always slightly screwing over the reputation of the group as a whole by their very existence. The porcupines quickly develop thick skin and become immune to the toxicity themselves, at the expense of their reputation and potential growth. Porcupine toxicity can take many forms: * general abrasiveness and rudeness (e.g. toxic multiplayer games) * extreme ideological purity (e.g. tumblr) or impurity (e.g. 4chan), usually around popular culture war fault lines * promoting illegal activities (e.g. hard-drug-using communities) The advantage of toxicity is that there is no "constitution" or even much moderation needed at all. The main disadvantages, aside from the toxicity itself and the lack of strong growth (which is a feature not a bug), is the difficulty of finding platforms to host the communities, as toxic communities are not very advertiser-friendly, and the reputational hit one takes by being associated with a porcupine-led community