An extension & refinement of the MOP theory.
The function of any given community is social noise reduction: a community allows groups of people with certain sets of attributes to access each other with fewer “misses” — i.e., without accidentally interacting with a person lacking any of these attributes. (Whether or not this is a good thing depends pretty heavily on the circumstances; however, ultimately, a country club, a Bilderberg conference, a birdwatching forum, and a hackerspace all have in common this basic definition.) Gatekeeping is therefore a huge part of the function of the community.
In a sense, the gatekeeping rules of any community define that community. After all, gatekeeping rules ideally act as a test to ensure that members approximate the ideal community member, but functionally, gatekeeping rules specify who gets into the community and therefore what the range of attributes are of community members. Gatekeeping rules are rarely explicit, and many are inherently implicit: after all, community norms, tolerance for particular community members, and desire to be part of the community all have major gatekeeping ramifications despite never being written or systematically enforced.
Communities are not the result of people coming together so much as they are the result of people seeking a temporary separation by some arbitrary category. They happen naturally, as people congregate toward other people who can fulfill needs and desires. When a community becomes diluted such that different sub-groups within it have different…
