Tropical Zen

One of the neat things about community is that there is some level of mutual accountability. I think, in fact, that that is a requirement in my definition of community, and probably true for the general definition as well.

I’ve decided to let anyone read, but you have to be registered to make comments. By requiring such registration for tropicalzen, there’s at least a little bit of accountability here, or more work for them to make a spammy or nasty remark. One of the things I don’t like as much about the “purely democratic” nature of the web is that there is no accountability; this is part of what makes flame wars easy. The way to combat flame wars is for the community to get together and say, “we’re not speaking to this person anymore” — accountability.

I’ve thought about this often; it seems to keep coming up all over everywhere, or the lack is sorely missing. We talk about a gay community, but there isn’t one–not in Seattle, and not in Puerto Vallarta. The scene is too big and there is no accountability. It’s strange to come from a large group of friends where checking references is easy, meeting new people is harder, and if somebody is a real jerk they can be ostracized, to a new city where everything is the opposite. More on that later, I think.

It’s okay to have anonymity and still have accountability; I don’t need to know your legal name, only who you are in relation to my community. It’s the relationships that *make* it community.

Welcome to it; I hope you’ll find some interesting people and ideas here.