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Undertoad · 02-19-2002, 09:47 AM

OK! The reason it seems like that is more because I don't interfere.

In the olden days of the BBS, you'd find all kinds of sysops making all kinds of arcane rules, deleting accounts, deleting posts, being little dictators. They want to create cults of personality; the problem is that their visible personality is poor.

But I don't want to be dictator. I only want to participate, because I enjoy it. I don't want to be the final arbiter. I'm a technologist. Nobody elected me leader. So my take on it is that I shouldn't do much at all. Maybe I set a little of the atmosphere by suggesting what it's all about, but otherwise, it is up to all y'all.

That is not the current fashion, I think... I think the current fashion in online communities is that the leader/owner is a very strong leader, sets more of the tone, sets more of the personality of the group, etc. But if this is the fashion now, all you have to do is wait and the fashion will change.

The architect-type personalities amongst us, and Nic you surely are one, will want to introduce more structure. It's almost instinctive. But I think that's part of the point. All there is here is US. If we screw it up, it will be all our fault. We have to be open, and we have to be self-policing. All the architecture is in the people, and the diplomacy that works between us.

02-19-2002, 09:47 AM	#2
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	OK! The reason it seems like that is more because I don't interfere. In the olden days of the BBS, you'd find all kinds of sysops making all kinds of arcane rules, deleting accounts, deleting posts, being little dictators. They want to create cults of personality; the problem is that their visible personality is poor. But I don't want to be dictator. I only want to participate, because I enjoy it. I don't want to be the final arbiter. I'm a technologist. Nobody elected me leader. So my take on it is that I shouldn't do much at all. Maybe I set a little of the atmosphere by suggesting what it's all about, but otherwise, it is up to all y'all. That is not the current fashion, I think... I think the current fashion in online communities is that the leader/owner is a very strong leader, sets more of the tone, sets more of the personality of the group, etc. But if this is the fashion now, all you have to do is wait and the fashion will change. The architect-type personalities amongst us, and Nic you surely are one, will want to introduce more structure. It's almost instinctive. But I think that's part of the point. All there is here is US. If we screw it up, it will be all our fault. We have to be open, and we have to be self-policing. All the architecture is in the people, and the diplomacy that works between us.