Network-effect makes a big difference too. After all—you have to arrive here some way—usually by being told about it by friends. Sure, some people arrive by accident—just happen to be browsing through HP fanfic or something… but a lot will arrive through their friends… and a lot will stay because they find friends.
...which leads us back to people’s friends tending to be same-sex. If there are few people of your own sex in the group then it’s got less… er… ambient friend-potential…
you have to work harder to be with a bunch of people that have a different culture than yourself. Genders have different cultures, so add that on top of the new culture of LW itself and unless you’re a particularly socially-capable person (and LWs tend not to be), then it’s less likely that you’ll find friends.
Obviously this is a generalisation and likely only a very small part of the pressures involved in a very complicated process… but it’s there.
Network-effect makes a big difference too. After all—you have to arrive here some way—usually by being told about it by friends. Sure, some people arrive by accident—just happen to be browsing through HP fanfic or something… but a lot will arrive through their friends… and a lot will stay because they find friends.
...which leads us back to people’s friends tending to be same-sex. If there are few people of your own sex in the group then it’s got less… er… ambient friend-potential…
you have to work harder to be with a bunch of people that have a different culture than yourself. Genders have different cultures, so add that on top of the new culture of LW itself and unless you’re a particularly socially-capable person (and LWs tend not to be), then it’s less likely that you’ll find friends.
Obviously this is a generalisation and likely only a very small part of the pressures involved in a very complicated process… but it’s there.