IMO, Genius is a perfect example of this. There’s not a lot of new blood amongst mods and it shows. Most of us either involve ourselves in seemingly endless meta discussions or else retreat to our little niche communities so we don’t have to deal with the status quo.

It seems to be the same with the most active group of editors. It’s the same folks contributing every time, which is awesome to see, but things become stagnant and predictable very quick.

The 2014 State of Community Management Report, released by the Community Roundtable Network suggests that this may have something to do with the difficulty in measuring the value of social media communities in the first place.

Based on their findings (see first link), there may also be some correlation between “community maturity” (i.e. structures/processes) and the ability to measure value.

These communities are known as Communities of Innovation (CoInv). Coakes & Smith (2007) explain:

Why do organisations innovate? The answer seems to lay in the concept of “right to
market”…This means introducing the right products at the right time in the right markets with the right supply chain, and then continually updating, optimising, and retiring them as necessary.

They then go on to speculate that communities of innovation are -

the best support for sustainable innovation, and that the introduction and support of CoInv are a critical element of the corporate entrepreneurship process.

Mike shows his apathy towards haters by suggesting that they aren’t good for anything besides fellatio.

This is a Hip Hop trope that we’ve seen from many artists. The idea is that haters have very little impact on the success of an artist.

50 told me ‘go 'head and switch the style up
and if they hate then let 'em hate
and watch the money pile up.
-Kanye West

This line from Herc could easily serve as the epigraph for all of season one.

At its core, the Wire is about the failed potential of our social institutions to address real social concerns. Season one focuses specifically on bureaucratic obstruction and the unintended effects of a strong chain-of-command in our police department, coupled with weak leadership.

Although leaders are meant to protect and serve their followers, this is not the case within the BPD. Instead, leadership sacrifices their constituents to cover up their own incompetence. This is part of the reason McNulty is so antagonistic towards department leadership.

If our leaders are to enjoy the trappings of their position in the hierarchy, then we expect them to offer us protection.
- Simon Sinek

Typical chain-of-command in police departments