Good community

One of my concerns with my previous post on community was that it sounded like I was dunking on the communities I am in. I said I was in some lovely communities, and I am. Also I felt like it was more negative than I would prefer to be. And I knew it was going to take more thinking than just one blog post, so here's another. Focusing on good community stuff. In one of my Nanowrimo groups we had a fantastic ML - the group organiser. New people were always greeted immediately. Sometimes this meant people wandering into our corner of the coffee shop who weren't actually there for Nano. She would approach them, asking if they were here to write a novel. If they said no she would say "Well would you like to?" People generally were amused and intrigued. It wasn't embarrassing or weird. It was more important that people were welcomed than that some people might be unnecessarily welcomed. You're thinking, That's okay for her, being all outgoing and having superhuman socialising skills. Except…