This is intended to be cross-posted on
eve-chatsubo OOC Forums and in posting it here, I am making an exception to a rule I have adopted which will become clear as I go on.
I think sufficient time has passed for it to be possible to calmly reflect on recent events concerning the 'EVE RP community' and the internet resources provided by various volunteers who care about RP in EVE.
For one reason or another it became clear to some that a single OOC forum was not meeting various needs. They therefore founded another forum and we now have two OOC forums serving the EVE RP community. The pre-existing single forum was eve-chatsubo, the second forum is backstage@inspiracy.
I must confess that at first I rather felt this was happening for the wrong reasons and was likely to do harm to the EVE RP community. I think this was a result of being too close to the issues. I also think it is true that the initial 'break away' took place in a rather torrid atmosphere with some recriminations and unfortunate attitudes on display across the spectrum. However, the experience of the last few weeks has been one where it is clear that the core admin and mod teams of each forum have a couple of things in common:
1) All care deeply about RP in the EVE game world and wish to support it.
2) All are genuinely concerned to foster environments where discussion of various kinds is possible.
If that's so, why the need for two forums?
Well, it comes down to a philosophical disagreement as to what type of environment best promotes the values, needs and desires that are shared. It isn't necessary for me to rehearse that disagreement, I believe it is passing well understood.
What I feared, irrespective of genuine intent, was that fracturing would take place in the community but really this was misplaced because the diversity factor, which I recognised but was concerned wasnt fully reflected in events, really did win out in the end.
To my mild surprise there has been a gentle cross-pollination effect. People who posted on one forum, having been quiescent for a long time, posted on the other, and vice versa. Debates have ranged across the two forums on occasion with, not repetition, but actually a net increase in viewpoints, insights, arguments, conclusions and ideas.
This has to be a good thing.
The psychological reality is that a forum is regarded as a single environment. Therefore when people want one thing out of an environment they generally look to one forum, when they want another thing they look to another forum. Some people only want to interact in one type of environment, others want several. This is natural and it's good. The indirect communication that can take place between disparate groups as a result of having more than one discussion environment is also good.
From my point of view, another forum has turned out to be a personal boon. I can post somewhere without being concerned about some conflict or hoo-hah about my personal views arising. Indeed, in making this post on Backstage, I am breaking the rule that I don't want to post there as the admin of eve-chatsubo, but I think in this instance the exception is worth making.
Having come to this view, I think the lesson has application elsewhere in the field of providing resources for EVE RP. Indeed, when there's only one resource the dread spectre of politicisation, real or imagined, rears up periodically. It's not a surprise. A monopoly is by its nature a powerful thing. To avoid politicisation then it seems necessary, slightly paradoxically when you think about it, to have a diversity of resources.
The ideal, in my view, is to provide a diverse menu of open resources, rather than a 'choice' (that is no choice at all in reality) of ghettos.
With forums, so with OOC-type channels, IC-type general channels and other resources that can be imagined or might come into being in future.
It is certainly true that trying to be all things to all people is a terrible burden and, in the end, a mad objective.
No longer having to try to be all things to all people is a liberation and I commend it to everyone.
Cosmo
Author
Topic: Thoughts on Community Diversity (Read 2734 times)