[Mid] LONG - Hobby group observations - crosspost

The following is an indirect crosspost, which I thought you all might enjoy.

Have a pleasant weekend!

Aimee
[Catherine-Aimee Le Moyne]

************************************************************

Subject: hobby group article
Date: 10 Jan 98 03:44:33 GMT
From: kay.shapero@salata.com (Kay Shapero)
Organization: StormGate Aerie/Home of the FILK echo
Newsgroups: rec.music.filk

OK, looks like enough people are interested I may as well post this.
Think of it as filk material... :->

Note: I wrote this for a specific audience which was having problems and I
haven't bothered to modify the ending, so don't feel like I'm lecturing you
folks...

Recent discussion suggests it's probably time I reposted this. Think
of it as a sort of short dissertation on small group dynamics from a
somewhat anthropological view.

Specifically, I want to talk about what may be described as subcul-
tures, or hobby groups - groups of individuals bound together by a
common interest or theme, in which membership is voluntary. Such
things as chess and bridge leagues, folk dancing clubs, the SCA,
science fiction fandom in general, and furry fandom in particular.
This as opposed to cultural enclaves, where members from a completely
different culture can be found living inside of the territory of
another culture but paying as little heed as possible to the impera-
tives of the other culture, or ghettoization where members of a par-
ticular culture are forced into a subculture by some characteristic or
characteristics which are seen by the larger culture as forming an
obvious bond, and as being strange at best, unsavory at worst.

Now there are all sorts of motives for joining a hobby group, but they
can be divided rather loosely into (1) intrinsic interest in the
theme, (2) social (a friend or mate is part of the group), (3) politi-
cal (membership in the group may be of help to achieve ends in the
larger culture), and sometimes (4) out and out powerseeking; the
search for a small enough pond in which one can be a large frog.
There may also be a bit of overlap, especially between the last and
the first. But one thing seems clear - members of one category fre-
quently cannot understand, or even recognize the motives of those of
another. We shall now explore a few of the problems this can lead
to...

With any relatively recently created hobby group, people of the first
category predominate and include the people who created the hobby
group in the first place. If there are any recognized leaders at all,
they are of the first group, but unless there's some overwhelming
reason for a rigid formal structure, they tend to be somewhat anar-
chistic in nature, especially when viewed from the outside, or by
people of the fourth category (about which more later). Every one of
the other categories at this point has potential dangers, some more
than others.

Category two people will come and go (case in point, the girl/boy-
friend of the roleplaying gamer who comes to a few sessions, is bored
silly, and either breaks up with the gamer or pries him/her away from
the game) and unless they're particularly vindictive, they will not be
a problem. If they are, and can't pry the friend/mate away from the
hobby, they go forth and give interviews of the "Golf ruined my life!"
variety or go on talk shows explaining why Dungeons and Dragons is a
tool of Satan. This can be a nuisance, and does not do your hobby
group's public image any good. Accordingly, the smart club does not
simply sort of ignore category two members; it tries to find something
to interest them instead.

Category three people will be kind of rare in a new group unless the
other members are politically important already. For example, a golf
club started by professional movie makers might well attract wannabe
actors; a fishing league begun by Congressmen might attract anyone who
wants to influence one. Of course what the lions are famous for may
be the same thing as what the hobby group deals with, such as famous
cartoonists starting a cartoonist's club. In any case, if the group
and the fame are for two different things, category three folks will
act much like category two, while if they're the same thing they may
well resemble category one. Herein lies the danger; in their efforts
to be noticed by the "big guns", category three people can do some
pretty strange things and not all realize just how far it is safe to
go. So you get the "fanboy from hell" syndrome, to use an example
from comics/anime/furry fandom, and before long all the "big guns" may
be forgiven for an assumption that the average fan of category ONE is
a fanboy from hell. This pisses off no end of people, and again can
really wreck the image of your hobby group.

OK, here we go with category four... At first glance, it is tempting
to simply award this one the G. Gordon Liddy award en masse ("The
population of horses asses outnumbers the population of horses."), but
that wouldn't be fair. In fact category four people who are in this
category because they cannot achieve the power over others they desire
in the outside world for reasons OTHER than lack of competence, _and_
either also belong to category one, or are at least not bored with the
topic may be true assets to a club. Witness the caliber of staff many
a volunteer charity club has gained in the past from people who for
reasons of sex, age, or race were actively prevented from wielding any
authority. A true benevolent dictatorship can be wonderful for keep-
ing the rest of the world out of the hair of the vast majority of the
club (category one) while they enjoy their hobby. After all, one gets
enough aggravation in the "real world", and despite rumor, most folks
who partake in any hobby, be it bridge, the SCA, or furry fandom DO
"have a life" besides their favorite pastime.

The real trouble comes when you get someone who is either not QUITE
competent to run even a small hobby group, or just plain too selfcen-
tered to take into consideration the feelings of the members of the
hobby group. It is from THIS category that most direct challenges to
the original leadership of the hobby group tend to come. And this
confuses the heck out of the category one folks, who can't understand
why this newbie seems to think that they are running some sort of
Horrible Dictatorship. It's actually fairly easy to take the leader-
ship away from someone who doesn't really want it in the first place.
Which means you can wind up with someone nominally in charge who
doesn't quite know what he is doing, and worse, is unaware of this
fact. This doesn't necessarily mean disaster, if the newbie is will-
ing to learn. If, however, he isn't, doesn't realize he simply
doesn't know everything he thinks he does, and is also of the mindset
that assumes that all people everywhere are primarily actuated by
power seeking, and that all actions must be explained in that light,
Katy bar the door! As soon as it becomes obvious that the group is
not running in the style in which either it did, or in which the
category four leader WANTS it to, the search is on for the political
enemy who must be trying to take the club away from it's rightful
king..er leader. If the new leader is the only category four member,
this can damp down pretty quickly once everyone else appoints him
designated twit and ignores him. But if there are any other category
four types about THEY will all promptly start attempting to seize
power and SAVE THE CLUB. At this point your best bet is to sneak out
the back, lock the door, tiptoe off down the street and start a new
club...

Continuing on, let us consider power struggles and power seeking in a
bit more depth. One classic way to gain power in a small group set-
ting, is to find one or more other people who agree with your opin-
ions, and start up a clique. For examples of this, consider the
stereotypical handful of highschool kids (as seen in everything from
the movie "Heathers", to a recent Dinosaurs episode) who set up the
"in group", in which members must wear the "right" clothes, go the
"right" places, shop the "right" stores, and think the "right"
thoughts. Now most folks have a small group of friends with whom they
are comfortable and have fairly similar outlooks, but in a classic
clique, conversation among the "in group" tends to focus on the (vital
to it's existence) "out group" and why they are "out". With one of
these cliques found within a hobby group, discussion between the core
members and their hangers-on may consist heavily of what's wrong with
the hobby group, which, however it's stated REALLY boils down to the
fact that includes the "out group". All members of the "in group" are
of course constantly reinforced in their opinions of the "out group"
by sheer repetition. (You now know why I avoid "war boards". But I
digress.)

Mind you, the opinions are not stated directly as "they're not like
US", but usually follow characteristics that exist OR ARE ASSUMED TO
EXIST in the "out group". The net result, should the clique be left
alone for awhile, can be a lot like a cyclotron - let's take an exam-
ple from a writer's club, and a clique within the club. Round one -
Individual one: "That guy puts too much sex in his stories." Individ-
ual two: Y'know, you're right - that guy is practically writing por-
nography.", "Individual three: "Yeah, I never did like that guy's
writing." Wait two days while individual one talks to individual
four, individual two talks to individual five, individual three talks
to individual six. Round two - Individual two: "That guy's latest
story is a bit steamy don't you think?" Individual four :"Yeah, I
heard somewhere that he writes pornography on the side." Individual
three: "Hey, that's just what I heard too!"

Keep this up for a few more rounds and you'll have all parties firmly
convinced that the guy in question is a professional pornographer, and
that EVERYBODY knows it.

Mind you, this can happen by accident - if someone's TRYING to do that
it can get even worse. Especially if he decides that the only way to
get control is to convince everyone else in the whole hobby that
they're all in Terrible Danger from the Outside and only following His
Plans will Save The Hobby From Destruction. And figures out the
easiest way to do this is to create rumors about the hobby group in
the next cultural group up the stack (aka "the outside world", though
in the case of furry fandom this could be SF fandom in general) and
about how horrible it is because of certain factors and people, then
tell everyone to clean up their act so the outsiders will not think
bad things about them any more. Mind you, this almost never works -
what this approach usually does is, if sufficiently successful, kill
off the group.

I've seen this before; it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the
subject of the hobby group, or the intentions of the founders. It may
evn be inevitable past a certain size. About the only thing I can
think of that may help to delay or avoid the problem is for everybody
to remember that it is SILLY to try to sink the ship just because
nobody will let you be captain.

From: Aimee M Moran <amoran@ambersystems.com>
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Received on Fri Jan 16 16:55:37 1998