Re: Virtual communities

You might want to take a look at my site at
http://www.channelvip.com/philosophy/collage.html

This is my expose of an efnet channel community i've
been a part of for six years. It offers a non-academic
view, covering a period of six months, in which the
community had an outburst of near hysteria, leading up to
a rebellion or revolution. You might
see it as an example of how -not- to have a community
and extrapolate from there how to avoid the pitfalls in
building healthy
communities. The site is not complete (I am currently
working to pull all the "devil's details" together
into a more coherent presentation of my ideas. I
think what is useful here is that it gives an inside
view of a subculture under a hierarchal system, revealing
the effects of this system on the psychology of its
denizens, especially where it supports and encourages latent
psychosis to manifest en masse. The model I am trying
to promote is one where praise and shame, rather than
punishment and reward, are used to deal with deviant
or latent psychosis in a collective setting. What
I find discouraging however is that punishment and
reward seems to "work" in so far as holding the
community together, even though it breaks down
individuality within that community. People seem to
be willing to do and sacrifice anything to stay connected
to a familiar setting, and there are always people who
are all too ready and willing to exploit this element
in human nature.

It's a complex problem and I'd like to hear from you
and/or others who might have some insights to share
on the subject.

anitah@channelvip.com

Replies:

Re: Virtual communities, by Joke, 2/11/00 Re: Virtual communities, by John, 2/12/00

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