Reflecting on "dead" communities, engagement, and AI

--- title: Reflecting on "dead" communities, engagement, and AI published: true description: Is the community dead, or are your contributions lacking engagement? Are you an active participant? tags: discuss, community, watercooler cover_image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1461088945293-0c17689e48ac?q=80&w=2071&auto=format&fit=crop&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&ixid=M3wxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8fA%3D%3D # Use a ratio of 100:42 for best results. # published_at: 2026-03-31 15:26 +0000 --- _Admittedly this is a bit ranty, and if that's not your jam, feel free to skip._ I stopped scrolling most social media feeds when the slop arrived. First it came in the form of images, big awkward hero images that were psychedelic or had too many arms and fingers. Then it shifted to listicle after listicle. Then the articles that inserted a new line after every... single... sentence. I was over it. The personal voice and opinions were gone. The images were uncomfortably odd for my brain to process. The attention grabbing tactics were at an all time high and it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. So I stopped scrolling. The community that existed on those platforms were dead to me. This means I missed things like your promotion or new job or even some significant tech news. Eventually the important things did find me, but I never found myself _missing_ scrolling. I took that energy to engage somewhere else. Fast forward to people saying "this community is dead" or "that community has an engagement problem". The "community" has likely been taken over by garbage that doesn't foster engagement, so the people left. Myself included. Communities are living, breathing organisms and when you fill them with trash, they simply cannot thrive. This isn't a post to bash on the admins or the moderators, if they even exist on a particular platform, because that's a hard job, and where do you draw the line in this AI-enabled world? You need content, but you also need engaging content. You need engaged users, but you may need to re-engage users who left. Do we even have the tools and understanding to manage this? Do these platforms have community managers or teams evaluating this? Now more than ever people are looking for community, on and offline. They crave it for a variety of reasons, but a sense of belonging, trust, and safety remains. They want to be part of something that connects them to other people in a positive way. People will cultivate community spaces when they feel empowered, dare I say emboldened, to do so. Active and engaged participation is the goal, not casual drive-by headline reading. You want people excited and enthusiastic to show up. And show up regularly. So why mention this? Why post this? 1. Because I love to complain. But mostly if I'm complaining about something, it's because I'm passionate about it. I strongly believe active participants in communities encourage others to do the same - be active participants. 2. Because I think we are over indexing on "communities are dead" and blaming AI. Have you considered that your AI-generated content isn't engaging? Have you considered comments are more important than views, and provoking a discussion is maybe more meaningful? Have you considered you might be the problem, with or without AI? 2026 is apparently the year where I'm just going to say "we have to live in community" over and over again until I hear people say it back to me. But it's true! If you want an engaged community, you need to lead by example and cultivate the environment you are looking for. Does that mean I'm suggesting you can't use AI in your blogs? No. But it does mean you should evaluate your blogs for engagement, AI or otherwise. Would you read it? Would you comment on it if someone else wrote it? Are your actions or participation a value-add? Because we can't put admins, moderators, and community managers solely responsible for supporting healthy communities. There needs to be some level of personal accountability. And maybe it's more obvious in offline spaces. You won't attend another meetup or event where you felt unsafe or uncomfortable. So if a weird AI hero image made you uncomfortable, why would you read the content underneath? Are you seeing the connection here? So I'm really interested in challenging this idea that a particular community is dead. Is it dead? Did you or do you positively or negatively contribute to it? And what does it mean to you if it's gone forever? How important is a community to you? And how actively will you participate going forward? _Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@mauromora?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">mauro mora_</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/timelapse-photo-of-people-passing-the-street-31-pOduwZGE?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>