as in, “the melbourne writing community” or “the perth gamedev discord” or “the hylian ornithology forum”. all you have to do is use that format to name your website or forum or discord and everyone seems to go with it, as though all of a sudden there is a single canonical “Hylian Ornithology Community” or whatever, that you can be “in” or “out” of.
when the reality is just that now, since Bob started the HOC and bought the domain and everything, if you want to meet people with your shared interest in Hylian birds, you have to go to Bob’s house, because that’s where it all is, and if you don’t like being at Bob’s house, that’s it. Bob sucked all the air out of the room and now there’s no way to know where the folks who like birds but don’t vibe with Bob even go. they might as well not exist!
this means if you don’t get on with your community’s “Bobs” – folks who’ve set themselves up specifically to get Big and be it of whatever it is, and become ubiquitous – you end up feeling like you don’t fit in in your chosen hobby/interest/industry/identity at all, and that’s horrible! And wrong! Because in reality you maybe just don’t fit in with Bob and his mates! Or maybe you do and the vibe at Bob’s just doesn’t let that be expressed very well.
this all applies to non-region-specific communities too, but it’s way worse when it’s “the game dev your-city community” or whatever because you end up physically isolated too. maybe you moved to a new city and don’t know anyone, and you tried to meet people and connect via your interests/identity but the only discoverable venue sucks. you’re definitely not the only one bouncing off it, but where to? no way to know. they sucked up all the search terms.
probably now you feel alone and like this is all a personal failing of yours. and probably it isn’t. but even if it is, even if you’re a real asshole, there are other assholes. you should be able to connect with them about hylian birds.
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