@patricia

The Mastodon archipelago does have a "this is a nice neighbourhood, and we like to keep it that way" aura to it.

However that is not necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing.

Ages ago I made an "entropy law" for online communities, that eventually they all end up in nazi propaganda and Viagra spam.

Any community always balance on the edge. Sooner or later it will fall over, and rarely recover. It's a ongoing balance between recruitment and decay, engagement and trolling.

@patricia Few communities survive Trial By Troll.

However, troll defences also create friction for activists.

I am not naturally into "nice neighbourhoods", but as a strategy it makes sense.

@patricia Not exactly. I'd see it in terms of long-term entropy and short-term balance. A little friction can be a good thing. (Too much and you got yourself a walled garden instead.)

Or to change tack, a city isn't homogeneous, people will largely stay in their groups, but the rest of the city is discoverable and available.

While suburbs are balkanised, into golden ghettos, and not so golden ones, all physically separated.