I think that Tom Coates’s thinking about online communities seeking self-reflexive rulesets is awesome. Most communities are pretty darn hierarchical, and while you need that at some points in your community—especially early growth—I’m not sure that it’s the best thing for the long term, no matter how benevolent the folks at the top are.

Change in such situations is hard, either because those in power rarely want to give it up or because people just generally fear change. I think that the reason that the Rumor [rocksmyfaceoff.net] Forum had the growth that it did is that both Bryan and I were willing to cede power in favor of growing the community. I mean, really … we’ve had a Web community for four years, and you can count on one hand the number of people we’ve banned in that time. It’s not as if we dodge tough issues, either: politics, music, and religion are our biggest topics!

And yes, I spend a lot of time thinking about community.