The rise and fall of offline communities

One topic that seems to be being considered a lot more recently is the formation of offline communities; usually formed from the online community taking the next step. What makes these offline communities form; what pitfalls are there, and how can they fail? Just a few issues I’ll be trying to cover over the next few months.

Initial Steps

For many, the formation of an offline community would seem a natural extension of meeting others of like mind online. But how does a meeting offline then progress towards the forming of a community?

The initial problem is that perennial online question: who qualifies as Gorean? Obviously, if the men founding the community are not themselves Gorean, it’s most unlikely that the resultant community will be either.

One of the most apposite tests I’ve heard is that you’re Gorean if other Goreans recognize you as such. This does presuppose that there is at least one Gorean in the group though, otherwise the whole testing criteria falls apart. Initially, at least, there needs to be two men who recognize in each other the qualities that they would describe as Gorean.

Is this all it takes? A meeting of two men who have the willingness to expand it further, to form a community? No, but without that initial start, the idea will not long survive.

The Oxford Dictionary gives the following definition:

Community: organized political, municipal, or social body of people having religion, profession, etc in common

Very good, as far as it goes; but there is more to a community then like-minded people; more then just these people meeting together. There needs to be a sense of identity, a sense of purpose, and also a feeling for the community, its responsibilities and obligations.

If there is no sense of identity, we may as well be a group of people who meet down the pub once in a while. Each emerging community must find their own identity, set their own purpose. For each member, the responsibilities to the group have to be thought through, outlined, perhaps even laid out in oaths sworn to each other, or to the Home Stone. But responsibilities there must be, or again the community becomes nothing more then a group meeting with a Gorean theme.

All these things, of course, need not be in place from the initial meeting. Many fledgling communities will add them as time progresses and the community grows.

From these starts then, the community grows, as others of like mind are first met, then added to the group.

Grows not only in numbers, but in the bonds between the members, the sense of unity, of belonging. Slowly, step by step, the small group rises from a group of individuals to become a small community. What makes the difference? The sense of belonging, of acknowledging ones responsibilities to others and the community, and the willingness to work in keeping the community together and aiding it grow.

This is one of the stages where the group will either succeed, or fail. If all the members are not united in the common purpose, or have different, conflicting ideas about the group’s aims, then the community may never form, but remain just a group of individuals.

In this first article, I’ve just outlined some initial thought. In further months, I’ll be taking deeper looks at the problems inherent with off line communities and in their building, along with the benefits to be gained from such communities.

I wish you well

Charon