I wasn't sure where to post this. I imagine it will be of primary interest to the mods, but there may be some geeks/scholars of social interaction who dig it too.

The essay deals with group social interaction via software. Clearly the MP boards fall squarely (or would that be one large and two small roundly...? ;) ) into that category. It's very long, but reads easily.
http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

I'd love to hear others' thoughts on it.

Uh-huh, I love this stuff. I'll post more when I've finished reading and digesting it.

Veeeery interesting! :geek:

Thanks for the link SM. That article was very interesting! Interesting insights into group dynamics.

Cool Article. I find this stuff fascinating - anyone care to apply any of this to the proliferation and sometimes rivalry between Disney websites?

Of course, that topic may be against the community standards. But I find it interesting that in almost all the websites there's a distinction between the attached community and the "broadcast" point to point communication of the parent web site.

I think another intersting point was that a community tended to transcend the "technology" that bred it. You see that all the time here as you see people in other sites, other media, in person, and IM although most of us came to know each other here on MP.

I guess I didn't have anything else to say. Interesting stuff.

Here's my digestion, about MP. (Remaining in the guidlines)

And then, another really remarkable thing happens. Twenty minutes later, one person stands up and gets their coat, and what happens? Suddenly everyone is getting their coats on, all at the same time. Which means that everyone had decided that the party was not for them, and no one had done anything about it, until finally this triggering event let the air out of the group, and everyone kind of felt okay about leaving.

Can someone say, "Hiatus"? :D

So even if someone isn't really your enemy, identifying them as an enemy can cause a pleasant sense of group cohesion. And groups often gravitate towards members who are the most paranoid and make them leaders, because those are the people who are best at identifying external enemies.

Unless I'm missing something, I have yet to see this, really in MP.

The third pattern Bion identified: Religious veneration. The nomination and worship of a religious icon or a set of religious tenets. The religious pattern is, essentially, we have nominated something that's beyond critique. You can see this pattern on the Internet any day you like. Go onto a Tolkein newsgroup or discussion forum, and try saying "You know, The Two Towers is a little dull. I mean loooong. We didn't need that much description about the forest, because it's pretty much the same forest all the way."


It's really like this with MP, and Disney in general. If it's not the old, "Disneyland is just a theme park" type discussions. ;)

Now, in some places people say "Yes, but it needed to, because it had to convey the sense of lassitude," or whatever. But in most places you'll simply be flamed to high heaven, because you're interfering with the religious text.

I'm thinking of a thread. (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17966)

I have this image of two hula hoops, the old two-hula hoop world, where my real life is over here, and my online life is over there, and there wasn't much overlap between them. If the hula hoops are swung together, and everyone who's offline is also online, at least from my point of view, that's a different kind of pattern.

Don't forget: My first padder meet, was the first time I met anyone, that I met online.

A good read. ;)

Originally posted by MonorailMan
Unless I'm missing something, I have yet to see this, really in MP.


Michael Eisner, Paul Pressler, sometimes other websites (or posters thereof), MacDonalds, etc - the list goes on...

Originally posted by cemeinke
Michael Eisner, Paul Pressler, sometimes other websites (or posters thereof), MacDonalds, etc - the list goes on...

Maybe, but they are the enemy. Look at what the've done to the parks.

However, I can agree with the other websites parts.... ;)

I think we've all been to meetings where everyone had a really good time, we're all talking to one another and telling jokes and laughing, and it was a great meeting, except we got nothing done. Everyone was amusing themselves so much that the group's goal was defeated by the individual interventions. Ah, a derailed thread. :)

While that's darn right, stinkerbell, the nice thing, is that, well, on MP, staying confined to a certain topic isn't our job. However, there are some members, that believe that when a topic has a specific question, the "job" of the other members, is to discuss it. Almost like a board meeting. Then, these members get annoyed when we keep discussing the topic, but not directly related to the OP's idea/question. ;)

I can tell you I derail all the time... I think ive derailed the Anti-derailable daylight society at least 12 times

Originally posted by cemeinke
Cool Article. I find this stuff fascinating - anyone care to apply any of this to the proliferation and sometimes rivalry between Disney websites?

I thought it was a cool article too. But what's this about rivalry between Disney websites? I'm new here and don't understand. Can someone please explain?