An idea -- a net where no one knows your name or bio. #
People listen to what others are saying without an idea of who's talking. All you know is that they were chosen to be part of the group because they're interesting, known to think well/carefully, have respect for other points of view.#
There are criteria to be accepted, like a university has criteria. #
Maybe you have to take a test. I know entrance exams are inevitably skewed to favor white men. Hire a team sociologists to try to overcome that. #
Limit to say 10K people. Like a good-sized town. #
I live in one, so have an idea how communities this size work online. With good moderation, the communities solve problems, people help each other. #
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)