Remember when this thread used to be a blog? It was all the way on the last page. Anyway.
It's is "often" said that the internet has a 1-9-90 paradigm. This represents a ratio that all content on the internet is produced by 1% of its population, aggregated or remixed by 9% of its population, and silently consumed by 90% who make no additions or changes to it. In some ways, this naturally works because you often have people who show up to just read something to unwind. At the same time, you have people who have a vested interest in doing things, themselves, but either don't get a lot out of consumption or have the time to do both.
A while back, Natalie raised the issue that the over-arching gameplay of NationStates is inclined to produce power-users, or those in the "1". These users make things aimed at the 90, such as info pamphlets which really should have been made by NationStates, itself, or programs and activities where extremely limited energy and interest is expected in advance, for it is all theatre anyway. While there is a remote possibility to get players from the 9 via regional officership programs or as staff of active ministries, it is true that if someone is in the 9 on NationStates, they might as well be in the 1, for that is to where power and prestige solely flow.
Yet I feel there is more at play than just the habits attached to users from a browser-based political simulator from 2002. In the earlier days of the internet, people were jumping at the chance to add their talents to the new community that they were a part of. Whether this was sharing music or art or just writing about whatever they want, the freedom of the platform and a strong personal drive to make their mark within it was powerful motivator. That motivator has since been lost, and I've wondered where it has gone.
In the modern day where internet accessibility has scaled things up to a massive userbase, is it that people do not feel able to compete? Do they feel that their contributions are valueless against professionals? Are they over-strained by late-stage capitalism demanding every moment of their time and creativity? Perhaps the answer is "yes" to all of the above. Perhaps their time as 90-consumers are spent in communities of the internet with 100,000 members which have full-time paid development staff making software, stories, and media that were previously communally-sourced.
This is the point where it is patently clear to me that I am a stubborn admin, running a community on an increasingly outdated meta. In a world where things ARE more top-down, in a world where staff roles ARE increasingly perceived to be a separate class of people. In a world where membership is transitory and yielded to those that can come up with the best new media, perhaps it is no surprise that the end result is consolidation and monopolisation.
The new meta is a paradigm of 1-99 -- exemplified by the YouTube culture of power-users chasing after the purest algorithm adherence, as smaller creators are erased from the face of the earth. It is the same force that drives the destruction of forum RP, where the only worlds and characters are those you make yourself. That format is now lost to Discord's gif-sticker-react culture where you may select an ambiguously safe, prepackaged message that you anticipate will be more predictably-received than putting yourself out here.
These are thoughts that need to be considered as Calamity Refuge enters its fifteenth year. It is unlikely that we will ever have a paid development staff, and it is as possible as ever that we will be erased from the face of the earth when led by an increasingly aging and depressive admin. As I open up discussions, commands, threads for input, I do become bothered by when they receive no feedback, no messages, nothing at all, for we are no longer at a point where I am able to do what the community needs.
However, since it is unlikely that the Refuge will join the monopolisation meta, one thing is clear: The community is unlikely to survive without the 9. It is unlikely to survive without communally-sourced ideas and creativity, talking and sharing amongst friends. People figuring out what they want to do, what they think it should look like, how things should work, what we should be working ON. It will fall to everyone in the coming year to determine this community's fate and vibrancy, for everyone has a share in it and of it.
It's is "often" said that the internet has a 1-9-90 paradigm. This represents a ratio that all content on the internet is produced by 1% of its population, aggregated or remixed by 9% of its population, and silently consumed by 90% who make no additions or changes to it. In some ways, this naturally works because you often have people who show up to just read something to unwind. At the same time, you have people who have a vested interest in doing things, themselves, but either don't get a lot out of consumption or have the time to do both.
A while back, Natalie raised the issue that the over-arching gameplay of NationStates is inclined to produce power-users, or those in the "1". These users make things aimed at the 90, such as info pamphlets which really should have been made by NationStates, itself, or programs and activities where extremely limited energy and interest is expected in advance, for it is all theatre anyway. While there is a remote possibility to get players from the 9 via regional officership programs or as staff of active ministries, it is true that if someone is in the 9 on NationStates, they might as well be in the 1, for that is to where power and prestige solely flow.
Yet I feel there is more at play than just the habits attached to users from a browser-based political simulator from 2002. In the earlier days of the internet, people were jumping at the chance to add their talents to the new community that they were a part of. Whether this was sharing music or art or just writing about whatever they want, the freedom of the platform and a strong personal drive to make their mark within it was powerful motivator. That motivator has since been lost, and I've wondered where it has gone.
In the modern day where internet accessibility has scaled things up to a massive userbase, is it that people do not feel able to compete? Do they feel that their contributions are valueless against professionals? Are they over-strained by late-stage capitalism demanding every moment of their time and creativity? Perhaps the answer is "yes" to all of the above. Perhaps their time as 90-consumers are spent in communities of the internet with 100,000 members which have full-time paid development staff making software, stories, and media that were previously communally-sourced.
This is the point where it is patently clear to me that I am a stubborn admin, running a community on an increasingly outdated meta. In a world where things ARE more top-down, in a world where staff roles ARE increasingly perceived to be a separate class of people. In a world where membership is transitory and yielded to those that can come up with the best new media, perhaps it is no surprise that the end result is consolidation and monopolisation.
The new meta is a paradigm of 1-99 -- exemplified by the YouTube culture of power-users chasing after the purest algorithm adherence, as smaller creators are erased from the face of the earth. It is the same force that drives the destruction of forum RP, where the only worlds and characters are those you make yourself. That format is now lost to Discord's gif-sticker-react culture where you may select an ambiguously safe, prepackaged message that you anticipate will be more predictably-received than putting yourself out here.
These are thoughts that need to be considered as Calamity Refuge enters its fifteenth year. It is unlikely that we will ever have a paid development staff, and it is as possible as ever that we will be erased from the face of the earth when led by an increasingly aging and depressive admin. As I open up discussions, commands, threads for input, I do become bothered by when they receive no feedback, no messages, nothing at all, for we are no longer at a point where I am able to do what the community needs.
However, since it is unlikely that the Refuge will join the monopolisation meta, one thing is clear: The community is unlikely to survive without the 9. It is unlikely to survive without communally-sourced ideas and creativity, talking and sharing amongst friends. People figuring out what they want to do, what they think it should look like, how things should work, what we should be working ON. It will fall to everyone in the coming year to determine this community's fate and vibrancy, for everyone has a share in it and of it.
