The word community has many many meanings, and our definitions vary greatly. My own perception of what it means has certainly shifted and changed through the years. The one constant thread that winds through almost all perceptions is the sense of belonging somewhere: of have a familiar place to be, where, like Cheers, "Everybody knows your name".
This transition from DK3 to DK4 isn't as simple as a getting used to a new kind of technological platform, for a great many members. I have felt and read about many who have experienced considerable frustration, under which runs a gamut of emotions, not the least of which is fear of losing something intangible, but very important to a lot of people: that sense of belonging to a shared community online.
Those that have not formed that kind of bond with this place won't find it easy to understand how difficult this can be for those who have. Especially for those of us living in places and circumstances where face to face interactions with like others and liberal thinkers are hard to come by, for whatever reasons. People who have come to know, respect and care about each other online don't want to lose each other, understandably so.
Dkos was my very first experience with online community, years back. At the time, I was living alone in a tiny midwest town, in a small senior building where every single person was a lifelong ultra religious conservative, except me. It was like a 24/7 flashback to the racist, homophobic, bigoted, religiously abusive world I grew up in.
So when I discovered this community, I grabbed onto it like a drowning person grabs a life ring. That degree of desperation led me to invest way too heavily in this community, much more than was healthy for me in the long run. Because when the pie wars detonated, and I knew I had to leave, it was a horrendously wrenching experience.
From this, and other similar experiences after that, I learned a lot about online communities and communities in general. No community is a static entity: they are all in constant transition, as people come and people go and formats change. We carve out a comfy place, and we want it to always stay the same simply because we're human. But life just doesn't work that way: nothing ever stays the same forever. Everything changes with time. Everything. Transitions aren't really "events": they are a simply a natural and often difficult part of the life process.
I finally came back here, and as I've recently been reminded by my own struggles with DK4 that very nearly drove me off again, I have invested in this place again, but in much less intense and much healthier ways. Still, I would miss so many folks if I bailed out now, so will hang tough and see what happens when the dust settles.
I know that in this world as it is today, heart to heart connections with others has become a pretty precious commodity. I know I have made a substantial amount of these connections here, yes, even it it is all in cyberspace rather than in person. If the day does come when it's time for me to move on from here, I'll know it, because it will just feel calm and right to go.
But I am not ready to walk away from a place where there are people of the sort that made Sara's surgery possible, or where seven people offered their kidney to Kitsap, or where time and time again, I've seen people dig deep into shallow pockets to help someone in dire need. I'm not ready to walk away from a place where I can watch real activism still happening, and see people I know, if only online, actually fighting on the front lines, where I used to be am and no longer can be. Where people step up, hearts and dollars on the line, to buy fuel for our freezing Native brothers and sisters, and shelter for people in Haiti, people who day after day look beyond their own needs to see that of others less fortunate. I NEED to be around people like this: they are my hope for the future, the hope for everyone's future.
The sands have shifted under this community, no doubt. I'm no more comfortable with this that any of the rest who tend to join groups like Cranky Users! Some of us will choose this time to move on, and that is fine too: we each have our own paths to walk and our own innate timing to follow. Each day brings another new beginning, and yet more chances to choose again, and again, and again.
For now, I'm just going to find a nice flat bottom duck boat, and float on down the stream awhile longer, to see whatever there is to see.