I wonder whether creating and splitting off the subgroups could actually be a mechanism to preserve the large community. Some people seem to come to LW meetups for wrong reasons; for example they prefer clever arguing and ignore the science; it would be nice to have them form the separate “clever arguers club” and leave. If people sort themselves out, everyone is saved the unpleasantness of having to kick out people who clearly don’t belong and disrupt the goals of the group. (“Let the heretics leave peacefully.”)
But of course this has the risk that the disruptive people would prefer to stay in the majority group (e.g. a disruptive clever arguer may dislike the presence of other clever arguers); or simply have enough time to participate in all subgroups.
I wonder whether creating and splitting off the subgroups could actually be a mechanism to preserve the large community. Some people seem to come to LW meetups for wrong reasons; for example they prefer clever arguing and ignore the science; it would be nice to have them form the separate “clever arguers club” and leave. If people sort themselves out, everyone is saved the unpleasantness of having to kick out people who clearly don’t belong and disrupt the goals of the group. (“Let the heretics leave peacefully.”)
But of course this has the risk that the disruptive people would prefer to stay in the majority group (e.g. a disruptive clever arguer may dislike the presence of other clever arguers); or simply have enough time to participate in all subgroups.