I started hanging around Metafilter last December. I think its one of the best out there.

There has been a lot of naval gazing at Metafilter lately - fueled mainly by two high profile exits and some recent spats. Nothing terribly uncommon in an online community. I still think Mefi is a great place to hang around - both for the quality of links and for the quality of comments (sometimes). Threads tend to get derailed when the hot button issues come up (Bush, Clinton, Arab/Israel, Abortion, etc.). At times, I have lost my cool too :(.

The reality is - if you keep membership open, the personality of any community would keep evolving. Internet evolved from being nerdcentral to what it is today. From what I hear, initially left leaning, erudite, creative types used to hang around Mefi. Over time, as the buzz spread, more people from elsewhere joined up bringing with them their own biases, beliefs and attitudes. Not everyone thinks that the changes have been for the better.

It is not unlike the Bay area where old timers keep complaining that the fast paced urbanization is drowning out the culture of the local communities. The only way to prevent it is to stop newcomers from moving in. I think closed societies eventually stagnate. Successive generations of immigrants' and their drive to make it in the new world has fueled innovation in USA. Eventually, most communities get assimilated by the second or third generation.

Trouble with online communities is that instead of melting into the cultural potpourri, they tend to self-explode after a certain time. Many become very clich?d. Some communities have chosen light moderation as the price to be paid to ensure that a certain quality and civility gets maintained (e.g. Plastic, Slashdot etc.). I kind of enjoy the spontaneity, the relative anarchy in Metafilter. Whether that can be maintained, only time can tell. I enjoy hanging around Mefi. But I would be careful about what I post there. e.g. I ran into this really funny page today: '26 Rules for being a good Republican' (via Medley). I almost posted it without thinking. But then I realized that it might not be considered funny by all and may cause trouble.

One community that I had been thinking about a lot in this context is Magnum. Magnum was supposed to be a meritocracy of equals, an agency run solely by photographers rather than by executives. Over the last so many years, Magnum has produced some of the best, humane, iconic photographs in the world. I read this book (Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History) last year. It brought to life some of the all time greats of photography. But it also showed at close quarters the ugliness and viciousness that lies just below the surface in Magnum. I guess that as you grow bigger and more successful, it becomes kind of difficult to retain harmony. If anything, the impact of the written word and the immediacy of the web can make it only more difficult. I hope that Mefi retains the charm and the stimulation that originally attracted me there. I think the majority of people who go there share my optimism and feelings.