It's not politics or ideology, but I've loosely followed 'jokey' twitter for around 7 years. And in the beginning, everybody was doing their own thing. But slowly, as people recognized which formats/topics/audiences/etc were getting the most likes/retweets/follows, people began to homogenize to the point that now most accounts are indistinguishable.
I think a secondary factor, is that the standard practice is to mimic success rather than create it. And really that's just practical in our times. If you have the 2nd best widget making method in the whole world, you're behind only the guy with the 1st best, and the 200,000,000 people who watched his youtube tutorial on widget making.
I was thinking how this relates to music as well. The bands with staying power almost always have a lead singer with a unique voice. Because that's the hardest thing to replicate. Steven Tyler, Billy Corgan, Geddy Lee, Axl Rose, Eddie Vedder, Springstein, etc... The commonality is that their 'sound' is tied to their voices, and their voices just aren't easily mimic'ed.
Contrast with the turnover in say rap music. Or female pop. Or whatever that hipster banjo pop/rock stuff is. You're only hope is to use your brief period in the limelight to Kardashian your way into pop culture, because artistically, they've already got 100 new you's being cranked out of the machine. The ability to manufacture what people want, is pretty neat/scary.
I think this trend certainly applies to your analysis on forum sameness and behavior rewards as well.
I think a secondary factor, is that the standard practice is to mimic success rather than create it. And really that's just practical in our times. If you have the 2nd best widget making method in the whole world, you're behind only the guy with the 1st best, and the 200,000,000 people who watched his youtube tutorial on widget making.
I was thinking how this relates to music as well. The bands with staying power almost always have a lead singer with a unique voice. Because that's the hardest thing to replicate. Steven Tyler, Billy Corgan, Geddy Lee, Axl Rose, Eddie Vedder, Springstein, etc... The commonality is that their 'sound' is tied to their voices, and their voices just aren't easily mimic'ed.
Contrast with the turnover in say rap music. Or female pop. Or whatever that hipster banjo pop/rock stuff is. You're only hope is to use your brief period in the limelight to Kardashian your way into pop culture, because artistically, they've already got 100 new you's being cranked out of the machine. The ability to manufacture what people want, is pretty neat/scary.
I think this trend certainly applies to your analysis on forum sameness and behavior rewards as well.
