The hottest Community Dynamics Substack posts right now

People online often create fake personas to gain attention or money. Trusting influencers for moral guidance can be naive, as their main goal is usually to entertain or sell something.
Not everyone we meet online is meant to be friends in real life. It's important to be careful about what personal details we share and to maintain boundaries between online and offline relationships.
Jealousy can happen when partners are attracted to fictional characters or idealized versions of people. This type of jealousy feels more intense because it involves competing with something that doesn’t even exist in reality.

Phones are a major reason why many people feel lonely and have less sex. They take away real-life time we could spend with friends and family.
People today are spending more time on their phones than ever before, sometimes up to ten hours a day. This means less time connecting with others in person.
Even though there are fewer places to socialize, it's also about how much we choose to focus on our phones instead of real-life interactions. We can choose to use our phones less and try to connect with people more.

Joseph Smith had unique and complex beliefs about God and spirituality that diverged from the mainstream ideas of his followers. He believed that humans could become like God and that creativity was a path to divinity.
Smith faced opposition and challenges from both within and outside his community, including issues arising from his controversial practices like plural marriage. This led to tensions among his followers and eventually to his downfall.
After Smith's death, the Mormon community experienced a significant shift as leadership changed hands. Brigham Young led the migration to Utah, where the community adopted a more structured approach, moving away from the free-spirited culture that characterized Smith's time.

There can be a digital counterculture that exists within the internet. It shows that people are rejecting mainstream, commercialized online spaces and creating their own communities.
The normie Internet is all about popular content and visibility, while the subterranean Internet is more about anonymity and rejecting mainstream trends. It’s like two different worlds online.
Even if underground communities get absorbed into mainstream culture, it’s still a sign of resistance. People are finding new ways to express themselves and challenge the corporate internet.

The decline of Stack Overflow wasn't caused by AI but rather by a loss of community spirit and strict moderation rules. Many users felt unwelcome due to the site's increased focus on quality control.
A new algorithm has greatly improved how we find the shortest paths on graphs, making it more efficient at solving these problems without needing to sort all the data.
Java, despite being seen as old-fashioned and less exciting, remains crucial in software development, proving its reliability and versatility over the past 30 years.

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Support scenes often dilute and struggle to represent the true complexities of the issues they're meant to address.
In large groups or communities, the dynamics tend to favor normalcy and popularity, leaving outliers feeling excluded.
Personal acceptance and understanding of one's flaws can be more valuable than seeking validation or belonging in external groups.

A community's shared beliefs can drive reactions of disgust and aesthetics are deeply intertwined with morals and affiliations.
Local housing regulations often have classist roots, leading to unintended consequences like increased homelessness and cost of living pressures.
Aesthetics in housing can be used as a tool for status, hindering change and progress in neighborhoods, but changes have historically occurred when societal attitudes shift.

Effective Altruism movement lost its original spirit
Some criticized effective altruists feel misrepresented as the movement changes
The movement shifted from evidence-based decision making to socially desirable narratives

Online expert communities follow a general lifecycle model with stages of orderly growth, deluge, crackdowns, meme slope, and terminal plateau.
Uncontrolled growth of online communities can lead to issues like repetitive questions, declining discussion quality, and the need for elaborate rules.
As online expert communities evolve, they might face challenges like elitism, loss of meaningful discussions, and a shift towards off-topic topics.