
Why You Need a Community: Opportunity Exposure and the Internet Echo Chamber - wporr
https://liamp.substack.com/p/why-you-need-a-community-opportunity
======
PragmaticPulp
The only online communities I've found valuable are the ones that mirror my
real-world network. People I have met in person, former coworkers, friends of
friends, or at least people in the same tight-knit industry or hobby niche.

The problem with the public communities is that it doesn't take long before
they're dominated by those who have the most free time on their hands. Free
time to post, free time to respond, free time to upvote/downvote and direct
the discussion. Generally speaking, the people who have the most free time to
be online all day, every day are not the same people who are out there getting
things done, doing interesting work, and otherwise having a good time in the
real world. That's fine if you're looking to waste time clicking around on
Reddit or Twitter, but it's not often conducive to forming real friendships,
relationships, or communities. Obviously there are exceptions, but the more
public and noisy the community, the more time you have to invest to filter
through to the weak signal in all of that noise.

~~~
thoraway1010
This exactly, and I'd add another thing - online only communities can become
dominated by the folks with the absolute strongest feelings / opinions. Most
offensive or most offended, most absolute in their thinking. It tends to drive
the folks I'm interested in hearing from out. In a social group they'd quickly
just not be invited to stuff, or might value other aspects of a relationship
and so dial back a bit. Online - not so much.

There's also very little consequence for blowing things up into bigger /
click-bait style headlining.

If community is bouncing ideas around, thoughts, etc, then that is much harder
online.

I've found getting off social media helps HUGELY in naturally helping get
other communities going.

~~~
demadog
This is so extremely true, it’s insane. I’m particularly thinking about these
“polymath” guys on Twitter that have a following for reading the Stoics, into
Keto, and following Naval and Tim Ferris. They sell their courses and continue
to espouse their strong takes on everything.

At a real life event they would quickly be seen as a know it all and too
domineering, and taken down a few notches. But online they grow a “community”.
It’s not all bad, and they share some good thoughts, but it is very different,
for better or for worse.

~~~
ZephyrBlu
I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds the preaching on Twitter a bit weird.

------
roldie
To me the most important part of that blog post is the bit about serendipity.
Serendipity or spontaneous interaction is one of the biggest factors that
determines relationships. I'm not sure if there's an official name for this
theory, but I remember studying it in grad school. The gist of the study was
that increased frequency in unplanned/spontaneous interactions was correlated
with increased likelihood of a relationship (or maybe the correlation was with
a stronger relationship).

Your friends from school are your friends because you had the opportunity to
see and interact with each other every day, and get to know each other.

Same thing with romantic relationships. If you keep running into that cute
girl or guy you kinda know, you'll have more chances to talk and to get to
know them well enough to ask them out.

I think this is partly why dating apps have been such a crapshoot for so many
people, they don't get the chance to interact past the initial swipe or chat.
This is also partly why it's difficult to make friends as adults. You simply
don't have as many opportunities to meet new people. And you don't have as
many opportunities to turn those new people into familiar people and
eventually friends.

Spontaneous encounters can only occur if you put yourself in a place for that
serendipity to occur. So if you join a community like the blog post
encourages, then you set yourself up to have more of those spontaneous
interacts with the same people.

~~~
wporr
I agree that this is the most important part of the post, and it should
probably be emphasized even more. I'm probably going to write a post about
this in itself.

Curious about the studies you mention. Have any names or links?

~~~
roldie
Pretty sure it was one of the required readings for a course taught by one of
these professors.

Erin Krupka
[https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Z1eLCr4AAAAJ](https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Z1eLCr4AAAAJ)

Yan Chen
[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=He8AKt4AAAAJ&hl=en](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=He8AKt4AAAAJ&hl=en)

I don't think it was either of their own publications, but these links might
be helpful anyway.

~~~
goodmachine
This is very helpful, thanks!

Do you have a link to the course reading list by any chance?

~~~
roldie
Sorry couldn't find anything, I must not have saved as much as I thought

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rmellow
In times of Covid, I've found that serendipity can be found in online parties
- I'm specifically referring to [https://spatial.chat](https://spatial.chat)
(no affiliation). This is able to mimic in-person social interactions in a way
that it's not 10 people speaking one at a time.

Instead, you can organically form smaller groups according to their
camera/avatar X,Y position (volume is inverse to distance).

In these "parties" I can meet friends of friends, who I wouldn't normally meet
by myself or online. There's enough social pressure to actually listen to
someone I don't know that might end up being very interesting.

~~~
temporaryvector
>I'm specifically referring to [https://spatial.chat](https://spatial.chat)

Kinda off topic, but I'm starting to see this kind of website design more
frequently these days, just a big "Join" button (or something) without any
information whatsoever about what is it I'm joining up for. I hate it and I
don't know why anyone thinks it's a good idea.

~~~
rmellow
For whatever it's worth, I haven't gotten any sort of spam or followups from
them. Haven't bothered to look for a ToS!

~~~
temporaryvector
The problem isn't so much signing up, the problem is that from their website,
without signing up, I have no idea what their service does and what are it's
features.

A small paragraph and maybe a screenshot would do wonders for my willingness
to try their service. But I'm basically complaining for the sake of
complaining because I dislike this trend.

------
type0
> The middleground can be thought of as a combination of people, places, and
> events that provide a way of getting the underground communities to interact
> with each other. It can be a place where people gather, like a bar or a
> cafe. Influential people, like investors, are good at bringing different
> communities together.

For some HN is that middleground, for others it's their higher ground to
bolster ones vanity. I do agree that IRL communities are invaluable but these
are not easy to find and/or fit into.

------
shruubi
I make a deliberate effort to not involve myself in any communities, either
online or in person. Social communities from my experience are nothing more
than a small group of people, or even a single person using the community for
their own ends until, eventually, everything becomes about them.

And sure, it can sometimes be lonely, but I find that honestly preferable than
the alternative.

~~~
h0p3
Maybe I have misunderstood your claim here. If you ever change your mind, it
would be my honor to get to know you.

------
Funes-
Alright, from my own experience, being part of thriving communities composed
of people geographically close to oneself seems to be hugely benefitial. What
about an online platform that facilitates _offline_ encounters with like-
minded people? Perhaps a free, more casual and decentralized version of
Meetup?

~~~
wporr
This could work, but people would need to embrace it for it to work. These
things tend to turn into hookup sites or platforms for other unintended
interaction.

------
goalieca
We need to do away with the downvote button. A simple reporting button for
trolling suffices.

~~~
wizzwizz4
Places with just upvotes do just as badly. (Facebook, for instance.)

