Communities with zealots tend to be auto-limiting.
- Communities with zealots tend to be auto-limiting.
- In some cases, even auto-extinguishing.
- A zealot here means someone who thinks their particular cause is an infinite good, and thus overrides other concerns.
- If other members of the group who are less idealistic than the zealots also agree that it's morally good (just perhaps not quite as important as the zealots think) then the group can auto-intensify.
- The zealots are the most engaged in the community, because it is about advancing the cause they care about the most.
- Their reaction to everything will be "here's why this thing is not as good as it could be on the one dimension I care about."
- They become inadvertent cynical idealists.
- They are motivated by the problem domain but any specific proposed solution isn't perfect so all they add is stop energy.
- They also react negatively to anything that doesn't pass their purity test.
- That means that people who are less engaged, or more pragmatic, drift away from the group because all they're getting is negative energy.
- As the less engaged leave, and only the highly engaged stay, the average level of zealotry increases.
- This makes it less of a welcoming place for less motivated people to join.
- In the end, the group becomes one that makes very little impact in the world.[zr]