Do online communities have a limit?

[Vidknight]

Recently I saw a blog by Marginalia about Killing Communities, and the blog was pretty interesting, so interesting in fact that it gave me a thought/theory about communities which is a limit. Now when I say limit I don't mean an actual limit because as long as there is enough server space you can have infinite people in a community. I mean something more along the line of identity, culture, and closeness. This is hard to explain so I'm going to use this forum as an example.

Right now this forum while active is pretty small it leads to people being more recognizable, and people are more close to each other so much so that you can recognize people just by their profile picture. It feels that this space is like a digital small village of sorts. But let say that this site user base all of sudden just increased by 10M users, and the average amount of users per day is now 50k. Now that closeness, and recognizability is mostly gone in my eyes, the culture is also not really there since it so large that there's not really an identity in the space except for we all use this site.

Of course I should specify that this largely depend on the type of space it is. I feel that a message board can have a larger community compare to a discord server where just having 100-200 active users in you server starts to complicate things.

But all of this is just my opinion at the end of the day, and now I'm curious do yall agree? why or why not? Do you feel that there's a artificial limit in online communities, or do you feel that online communities can house endless people?

[di]

Wow, I sure hope that isn't true for all communities on the web. It's a pretty grim description.

It seems the author is mostly inspired by something that's going on with Reddit (what that is I'm not sure, reddit's been "going downhill" for a long while, and I don't feel like researching it to be honest.) Having used that site, I can't disagree that a lot of the communities are weirdly vitriolic. And bigger reddit "communities" do have that "train station" feeling because there's so many people and they're all just usernames.

I think the author's point is that if you just focus on growth and making something huge, rather than making something kind, collaborative, and overall good, then inevitably that community feeling will die even if it was there in the beginning. And I feel that they're right about that, to be honest.

I don't think this is going to be a problem with Melon Land because I don't think that's the moderators' or administrator's goal. I think if theoretically this forum gets to be so massive to the point that it is difficult and unjoyful to moderate, keep up with, and communicate on, then Melon and the other mods will be transparent about that. I believe they have in the past. Maybe, in that case, the healthiest solution would be to end the forum altogether, and break off into other groups, so perhaps your theory is right

But as the stuff we talk about here is pretty niche, and there's no algorithms trying to get us reacting to ragebait and endless "content," I don't know if the huge growth is really something we will need to worry about. This site will attract specific people interested in the intersections of art / "old" web / creativity / tech who are also willing to use old-fashioned forum technologies, and that's not everyone.

Speaking anecdotally, I joined this place early on when it was a lot smaller, and I remember the regulars from those days. I've been in and out since then, since stuff IRL picks up. I honestly don't always recognize the new users here don't expect them to recognize me, but I've still never felt "unwelcomed" here or like I'm at a "train station," the phenomenon that Marginalia describes about Reddit.

IDK. Just some thoughts! ^_^

[holly]

Yeah i think i generally made the same exact conclusions for like making friends on the internet, u are just like exposed to just too many people when you are in a bigger community, but it sort of feels like a trap in some way. as being in a smaller community, like is inherently unpopular and therefor unpredictable and scary. so maybe when a community becomes too big, its purpose shifts in a way in the minds of contempt users. idk think of like how people use enormous subreddits, its like not even a community in a weird way it serves just a different purpose now. i dont think its scary that this happens to communties, more like its the human limit, and without physical bodies to limit how many people we can interact with our life, its easier to overwhelm, but i think big communities should more outright encourage people to talk in smaller circles.

maybe its like the physical burden of our bodies serve as a metaphor for how much we are able to fit within our own lives for personal enlightenment. those that serve to influence people beyond our conception of people in sums of mass, it very quickly lowers the value of the rich human lives of others

to answer ur question, i think that online communities do not have a limit, but how you a human have a limit to how much u personally might define a community

[holly]

what is ur personal limit to like feeling like you are personalizing someone, like basically like how often do you need to see someone (glance at their username and profile) to make them become like an acquaintance, excluding popular figures that get upvotes because theyre a mod or something. like 1 time every 5 days, once in a month? maybe a community stops feeling so familair when you cant recognize anyone and theres no guarantee that anyone u interact u will see again, expecially when people arent usually interested in continuing a conversation past a small comment. causing it to be a genuinely frustrating experience for someone interested in finding someone with a similar interest

[Rosaria Delacroix]

what is ur personal limit to like feeling like you are personalizing someone, like basically like how often do you need to see someone (glance at their username and profile) to make them become like an acquaintance, excluding popular figures that get upvotes because theyre a mod or something. like 1 time every 5 days, once in a month?

I don't really consider people acquaintances until we've spoken meaningfully a few times- within both online and offline circumstances. Maybe three or four good conversations- not just bland pleasantries, though I do enjoy a simple conversation about the weather or going ons as much as the next guy. Chatting away idly about the weather with strangers is a pretty normal part of the Canadian experience. But a proper conversation would probably be about a personal interest, or some commonality- it takes a handful of those to stick someone with the title of acquaintance. I don't typically consider anyone a friend until we've known each other, and engaged with one another consistently, for at least two or three years.

I'm notoriously picky about the titles that I assign people in my life, though- and am heavily introverted, so sometimes there is a lopsided effect in terms of people in my life assuming we are far closer than I would consider us to be: my current social circle consists of one person I would call a good friend, one person I would consider a friendly acquaintance, and a handful of varying shades of closeness acquaintance wise- some more distant as our friendship has faded post college, others I would consider acquaintances limited to a particular set of social circumstances: people I would meet up with in the context of group activities, or a shared interest, but otherwise don't consider myself to be friends with.

[holly]

I don't really consider people acquaintances until we've spoken meaningfully a few times- within both online and offline circumstances. Maybe three or four good conversations- not just bland pleasantries

I use the term acquaintances meaning like, a person who you recognize sort of to gather a sense of familiarity, not even someone you've talked to really. I feel the exact same way abt relationships, i end up considering most people i interact with as acquaintances lololol, makes me feel weird how ppl would get upset if they knew i didnt consider them a friend  . I find that most definitions of friends that people in my real life use are very shallow. only had maybe 2 friends in my entire life with my updated idea of what a friend is (have always just didn't interact very deeply with people, but had a lot of "friends" to surface level talk to, but in reality none of us knew each other). i guess to people, a community can still feel like a community even if you dont have someone to talk to, and when the familiarity is gone it feels like a wasted avenue. relates a little to how a big community can feel fake on the internet atleast for me ig

[Vidknight]

I don't think this is going to be a problem with Melon Land because I don't think that's the moderators' or administrator's goal. I think if theoretically this forum gets to be so massive to the point that it is difficult and unjoyful to moderate, keep up with, and communicate on, then Melon and the other mods will be transparent about that. I believe they have in the past. Maybe, in that case, the healthiest solution would be to end the forum altogether, and break off into other groups, so perhaps your theory is right

Honestly never really have any doubt in my mind that this will become a problem for Melon land. Melonland is a niche within a niche so it wouldn't really become all too big which I'm perfectly fine with. Makes it much slower pace, and have topics easier to follow

to answer ur question, i think that online communities do not have a limit, but how you a human have a limit to how much u personally might define a community

I actually haven't came to that conclusion . That does makes more sense the human brain can only have so many relationships, and when a community is so large, and massive it quickly fills up the brain, and it leads to the feeling of the community being detached in a way. I still do think that Online communities can become too big, but this does gives me something to think about!

what is ur personal limit to like feeling like you are personalizing someone, like basically like how often do you need to see someone (glance at their username and profile)

To me I only really start calling someone an acquaintance once I start talking to them 1 to 1, and a friend if we talk for more frequently. Example I'm in this splatoon forum that is really small, and is pretty inactive there was this one guy I saw his post from, and replied to some of his threads. Didn't really think much of it until one day we started to chat over discord learned a lot about him, and now a year later I consider him a pretty good friend. What I'm trying to get at here is that for me to call someone a friend it would need to be a bit of a long process so basically the same thing that Rosaria said

 

I don't really consider people acquaintances until we've spoken meaningfully a few times- within both online and offline circumstances. Maybe three or four good conversations- not just bland pleasantries,

Now somebody might think why would I care about closeness if I don't really call them acquaintance, or a friend. That's because while I wouldn't call them a friend that feeling of familiarity make me much more willing to participate in the community. I feel more comfortable posting in a thread with the same regulars since I know what to expect, what their style, etc. Hell that's exactly what I did here I lurked a good bit until I felt that I had a somewhat decent understanding of a good amount of users personality. In a larger space it feels much more hectic as it's like an endless revolving door of people, and you have no sense of familiarity with any members as such I'm less willing since I don't if what I say will lead to discussions, or an argument.