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 How We Should Grow
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How can we keep
the Small Internet
from getting too big too quickly?

It only takes a shift in the wind
to bring thousands upon thousands
of new people down upon us
in the blink of an eye.

Let me be clear:
I _want_ new people to join us.
This game is too fun
to keep the new kids from playing.

What I don't want
is for our culture to die,
overrun by people who don't yet share
our values and principles.

Maybe we can prevent this from happening.

There aren't any spectators
on the Small Internet,
only participants.

Suppose, as a shared cultural value,
we voluntarily limit
the number of accounts on each server
to, say, thirty-two or fewer.
(An arbitrary--but small--number.
Choose your own number if you don't like mine.)

There would be no central authority
mandating and enforcing
this cultural value.

Rather, we would simply prefer not to hang out
on large servers or near large servers.

Having two hundred accounts on your server
would be seen as gauche, inconsiderate,
unpleasant to be around,
as if you were heating up fish
in the microwave in the break room.

Having close connections with such a server
would be worrying, cause for deep thought
about whether you should scale back the relationship
between your server and the large one.

What might the effects be
of us sharing this kind of value?

My hope is that
if this value was widely shared
on the Small Internet,
one out of every thirty-two
of new users (on average)
would necessarily be ready, willing, and able
to admin their own server.

If, for whatever reason,
they wouldn't be ready, willing, or able
to admin their own server,
then they would have to wait
for someone else to do it for them.

We _participate_ on the Small Internet.

Administration of a server
is one concrete expression
of our collective willingness
to participate.

So if a Hacker News article
sends a thousand new people
towards the Small Internet,
then our world will grow
only in proportion
to the number of people
who will stand up and maintain new servers,
people who will participate,
not just watch.

I'd be comfortable
with that rate of growth.

And I'd be eager
to see who signs up
for that kind of deal.