"community"

In my last post I described some people whose opinions I respect as being part of the "community".

I just want to clarify the quotes. I don't understand what "community" means in the MMO sphere. It's not my term. I suspect it is borrowed from some PR asshat who thought you could placate the masses by making them think that they were more than just a semi-random confluence of individuals, with a broad shared interest, each trying to shout the loudest.

The problem is: I believe that in most online communities there is a silent majority*.  And by virtue of their silence the persona of the community is shaped without them and only represents their views by chance**.

And since I am, in the main, part of that silent majority, when I hear developers say "we have such a great community," I think "don't patronise me you disingenuous prick***."

With that in the open, please don't take it as an insult if I describe you as being part of it.

* for evidence, just look at election turnouts in non-dictatorial democracies
** and when I say chance, I mean it in the fullest sense of statistical probability
*** again probability says the developer is male