#online-communities

so i’ve been watching my little clan interact lately and it’s wild how tight it gets tbh like our leadership loop on discord is basically an emergent hierarchy but nobody called it out rn idk if this is theory or just vibes but

so i’ve been looking at my 12‑person discord squad (they call it a ‘clan’ lol) and the network metrics are crazy. density is .89, average degree centrality over .8 – basically everyone’s linked to everyone else. but when i ask about shared values or collective identity, half the guys say they’re just “here for the games” and don’t buy into any clan lore.

using tönnies’ gemeinschaft vs gesellschaft lens, it feels like we’ve got the structural side of gemeinschaft but the normative side is totally gesellschaft. is anyone else seeing this kind of mismatch in micro‑communities? i’ve tried a quick survey with a Likert scale on “sense of belonging” and the mean was 2.3/5 – surprisingly low for such a tight graph.

any thoughts on why the structural cohesion doesn’t translate to normative integration? maybe it’s the competitive focus, or the lack of offline rituals? looking for anyone with similar data or a theory that fits. tbh i feel kinda weird posting this, but would love some feedback.