3 ms·

Not just online discussion sites; any community system. It feels like the typical growth & decay function of a lot of systems, just at internet speed. My exper

by skeeter2020 2y ago

Not just online discussion sites; any community system. It feels like the typical growth & decay function of a lot of systems, just at internet speed. My experience: the only way to stay good is to stay small and exclusive, but the internet attacks this defense directly and destroyed it, and at the same time destroyed itself. You need to find the "golden age" of all these systems, enjoy them while you can, try and protect them but recognize their transient nature, and then aggressively cull and move on. Hold onto values not manifestations.

dredmorbius 2y ago
Oh, absolutely, it's a long-observed phenomenon of social decay within organisations and movements. There's a description of the latter I've spent far too long trying to track down without joy. There's a passage from Charles Perrow's book Complex Organisation giving several examples of organisational drift (not necessarily decline), posted previously: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27415476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27415476>. One of the more spectacular cases of organisational decline was the (formerly literary) magazine American Mercury, founded by amongst others H.L. Mencken. It eventually became an anti-semitic rag, now mostly or completely dead, though it seems to keep zombying annoyingly. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Mercury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Mercury> There's also video challen TLC, begun as a partnership between Nasa and PBS, now somewhat reduced as well.
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  Found that reference I was looking for, "Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution" by David Chapman, ~2015, <https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths>. Before there is a subculture, there is a scene. A scene is a small group of creators who invent an exciting New Thing—a musical genre, a religious sect, a film animation technique, a political theory. Riffing off each other, they produce examples and variants, and share them for mutual enjoyment, generating positive energy. The new scene draws fanatics... I've mentioned that previously on HN as well as the Fediverse: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353453> <https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/110550422846690414 https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/110550422846690414>

dredmorbius 2y ago

Oh, absolutely, it's a long-observed phenomenon of social decay within organisations and movements. There's a description of the latter I've spent far too long trying to track down without joy. There's a passage from Charles Perrow's book Complex Organisation giving several examples of organisational drift (not necessarily decline), posted previously: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27415476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27415476>. One of the more spectacular cases of organisational decline was the (formerly literary) magazine American Mercury, founded by amongst others H.L. Mencken. It eventually became an anti-semitic rag, now mostly or completely dead, though it seems to keep zombying annoyingly. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Mercury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Mercury> There's also video challen TLC, begun as a partnership between Nasa and PBS, now somewhat reduced as well.

dredmorbius 2y ago
Found that reference I was looking for, "Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution" by David Chapman, ~2015, <https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths>. Before there is a subculture, there is a scene. A scene is a small group of creators who invent an exciting New Thing—a musical genre, a religious sect, a film animation technique, a political theory. Riffing off each other, they produce examples and variants, and share them for mutual enjoyment, generating positive energy. The new scene draws fanatics... I've mentioned that previously on HN as well as the Fediverse: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353453 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37353453> <https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/110550422846690414 https://toot.cat/@dredmorbius/110550422846690414>