💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2023 › 202310 › 20231020-gemini-as-a-community.gmi captured on 2023-11-04 at 11:21:30. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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There's been a lot of discussion in Geminispace about whether Gemini can be considered a community. I admit that I haven't read every post people have made about it, but I do want to document some of my initial thoughts as I read others' opinions. The topic is especially interesting to me as I feel the word "community" has surged in popularity in the Internet age--marketers and influencers are using the word to describe everything from a tight-knit group of confidants to a broad classification of people based on a single attribute about them.
To start, do I feel Gemini is a community? No, not really. Although there are exceptions, I tend to define a "community" as a group of people who, once something in common brings them in contact, largely get to know each other, and ultimately they trust and support each other. An initial commonality brings people together, but a community only forms when they go beyond that commonality and connect with each other. As such, communities form on Gemini as users meet and bond with each other through the medium, but Gemini itself is not a community.
My problem with the word "community" is that, like with many other once-useful words, the term has lost all its meaning. A proper community brings with it a sense of belonging: if you feel that you matter in a group, you'll be supportive of that group and defend it against others who aren't friendly to it. Companies and socialites try to abuse that sense of belonging to build brand loyalty, even in the entity they call a community (their subscribers, readers, customers, etc.) have no sense of cohesion as a group.
"Community" evokes a feeling of comfort, security and care, and that's exactly what they want you to feel to get you to trust them--and give them more money. Never mind that companies "care" about you the same way they "care" about the environment, they "care" about your privacy, or they "care" about social issues. Communities are charitable; companies are not. Communities listen to you; companies listen to their shareholders. Communities stick together if things don't go their way; the fanbase of a YouTube channel or Twitch streamer fragment and dogpile each other the moment the creator uploads a video outside his usual format.
Gemini largely avoids the intense emotions and fighting that plague the mainline Internet. However, many interactions on Gemini are still pretty transactional. People come to the protocol hoping to get something out of it: less tracking, slower pace, a focus on content, and so on. Many look for specific kinds of content on Gemini, and they stay if they find or leave if they don't. This happens regardless of the people who are creating that content. Some people form deeper connections and stay on Gemini to see discussions from particular Geminauts; that sows the seeds for a community to form. But being on Gemini itself is not sufficient to classify Geminispace as a community.
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[Last updated: 2023-10-20]