Communities are hard. This is true whether you’re talking about in-person communities or online communities, but for right now I’m mostly talking about online communities. They’re hard to set up and cultivate, they’re hard to maintain and manage. The mechanics of an online community isn’t really the hard part, though there’s certainly some technical expertise to get them set up properly. What makes them hard is that a community is inherently made of people. There may be some sort of cohesive glue that brings folks together, to start to bond and connect and create that sense of community, but it’s still a jumbled pile of different individuals with individual needs, desires, personalities, and challenges. Even assuming you manage to get everyone moving in one rough direction and start cultivating community, keeping them moving in the same direction and keeping that cohesion… well. There’s a reason so many communities fizzle out before too long (or worse, explode from internal drama).
I think we’ve all experienced it to one degree or another. So, when you finally find a community that you like, and that seems healthy, you appreciate it. I really, really appreciated the XOXO community.
Continue reading “Thanks for All the Fish”