Real community isn’t a buzzword

Projects and companies are starting to promise “a community” around their work…

…but community is an incredibly loaded word. And one that’s not often used properly.

Getting people to check by in your Discord server to clear their updates and check if they missed anything isn’t community. If it was, every app on your phone is a community.

Having a Facebook Group where you periodically broadcast your wares to an anxious crowd isn’t community. If it was, every Shopping Network product is also a community.

Community is more than those things.

It’s a group of people who choose to go out of their way to be together around a common cause or interest, often even when it’s inconvenient. There’s an investment of energy and care into the people by the people.

That takes time. That takes selective invitation. That takes the messy work of forging real relationships. That takes a long-term commitment to doing things right when the cheaters compel you to cut corners unduly.

That’s real community.