It feels like a corollary of memetic assholery in online communities. Essentially the R0 [0] of being a dick.
If I have a community, bombarded by a random number of transient bad actors at random times, then if R0 > some threshold, my community inevitably trends to a cesspool, as each bad actor creates more negative members.
If I take steps to decrease R0, one of which may indeed be "blunt- and harshness to new contributors", then my community may survive in the face of equivalent pressures.
It's a valid point, and seems to have historical support via evidence of many egalitarian / welcoming communities collapsing due to the accumulation of bad faith participants.
The key distinction is probably "Are you being blunt / harsh in the service of the primary goal, or ancillary to the mission?"
> It's a valid point, and seems to have historical support via evidence of many egalitarian / welcoming communities collapsing due to the accumulation of bad faith participants.
Could you provide references to some of this historical support?
Kinda a silly example, but several subreddits that started out with the aim of making fun of some subject (i.e. r/prequelmemes and the Star Wars prequels, or r/the_donald and then Presidential candidate Donald Trump) were quickly turned into communities earnestly supporting the initial subject of parody.
I don't think this is silly at all. And the fact that reddit's admins occasionally have to step in with a forceful hand over what the mods do only speaks louder to GP's point.
If I have a community, bombarded by a random number of transient bad actors at random times, then if R0 > some threshold, my community inevitably trends to a cesspool, as each bad actor creates more negative members.
If I take steps to decrease R0, one of which may indeed be "blunt- and harshness to new contributors", then my community may survive in the face of equivalent pressures.
It's a valid point, and seems to have historical support via evidence of many egalitarian / welcoming communities collapsing due to the accumulation of bad faith participants.
The key distinction is probably "Are you being blunt / harsh in the service of the primary goal, or ancillary to the mission?"
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number