Founders

What's the right (or maximum) number of people to have a functional "small group chat" that doesn't need heavy moderation and constant presence?

Yet it allows people to have sensible conversations about deeper or even philosophical topics?

Any experience or suggestions? Maybe @danicaswanson 😻🙏

I think this depends more on the specifics of the small group than the number of members. 

I'd say group chats of *any* size need responsible stewardship and (human) moderation if they expect to hold people's attention over time. 

That's especially true if the goal is to create a space that feels safe enough for deep dives. 

If I were starting a small group "from scratch" and wanted a ballpark figure to start with? Maybe 15 or 20. 

Still, this is heavily context-dependent. Some groups would be untenable with 10; others might be manageable with 40, or even 50.

A few things to consider:

- How well do the members know and trust each other? 
- What kind of posting cadence do you expect? 
- Are lurkers welcome, or is there an expectation that everyone will post? 
- Do you plan to discuss controversial topics regularly? 

Et cetera.

Writer, senior editor, music nerd, GenX eldergoth, monastery-bootstrapper. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson https://tinyurl.com/Black-Stone-Wordsmith

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Yes. The above is just my own take on it. 

I'll tag @bfg here since he's the one who asked the question. :)

Sociologists have studied this, look into the term "max tribe size"

positioning rants 🚀; bringing you ✍️ /buildbetter, 🎙️ /artistspotlight and🎙️ /web3magic; De*** & open-source HW/SW enthusiast; https://nf.td/bfg

Glad you found it useful. I'd also recommend following my colleague and co-admin @trigs (if you haven't already) for insights on questions like this.

I’m a writer and an editor. I love art, literature, music, and to drink good coffee. I practice Ashtanga yoga. I’m here to connect and learn. 

Agreed. I touched on that with the point about controversial topics, but really the list of things to consider for effective small group facilitation is quite long. 

Good communities are not easy to build! And they usually degrade over time if they don't have ongoing maintenance.

I agree with all points. I also think that the topic is very important. Depending on what is being discussed, more moderation will be needed. What also helps is to have some basic rules of interaction to start with.