Community as an ecosystem

Previously I've described being part of the ecosystem in different contexts - fandom, the indieweb, locally - but I think what I really mean by that is community. An ecosystem is super important but it's also scientific. There's no emotion involved in an actual ecosystem. There's no rejection or embarrassment. There's this concept I think about a lot - about wanting the thing vs wanting to be the thing. So I want people to comment on my fic (mostly, I think. Kinda complicated) but am I being a person who comments on fics? I try really hard to be! I try to default comment. Because I think it's really important for that ecosystem. It would be easier to kudos and move on but it would have been easier for the author not to write the fic. I appreciate that effort, I can make the teeny weeny contribution of a comment. There's also the 'everyone wants to be a leader, no one wants to be a follower' paradox. Not me. I'm a very happy follower. As in an ecosystem, you can't only have apex…