Talk:The Libertarian Theory/@comment-26247925-20171113093109

But... the community is already decentralised. As pretty much everyone knows, it all started when Luca created the Community For Mappers, a mapping community directly separate from the Wiki. There were probably some other independent communities before his, but his was the most influential, and its effects can still be seen today.

For example, Luca and Dylan, as well as many other member of the CFM, had many subscribers, and therefore a lot of influence. Compare this to the Wiki, whose only influence comes from the Maps for Mappers page. The CFRM engaged in regular conflict with other big mappers, notably Daniel. They even influenced the creation of yet another alternative community - The Mapping Union.

The TMU and the CRFM both created Google Plus communities, which quickly became so large that I would argue that both communities were individually on par with the Wiki. That is, until they merged, of course, to create The Mapping Community, one led by Luca himself and so all encompassing and influential that the Wiki was becoming increasingly insignificant.

Of course, the TMC created enemies, such as Romanian. They had expected Romanian to back down, but instead Romanian created his own community of friends. The TMC was also known for being very corrupt, establishing a junta, being excessively stringent against certain people and certain art forms, and so this of course created even more splinter groups.

Now there are tens of mapping communities. The TMC became The Mapping Union again not long ago. But their influence still stands. If we compare this to the Wiki, we can see that the Wiki is definitely not the centre of the community anymore. There is no centre. Perhaps in early 2015, it was the wiki. Then it became the CFM and the TMU in 2016, and the TMC when they merged. But as of now, there is no centre. There is no community influential enough to have excessive control over the community.

Your point about different styles growing is already evident. People in the former TMC were very likely to copy the styles of Luca, Dylan, Fedex, and other larger mappers. In Romanian's community, of course, it was circle tool countryballs. There is no style for the Wiki, because no-one here maps anymore. And these styles aren't just restricted to one platform. Both of these large communities already have large followings across many different platforms, and it is unlikely that we see splintering into different platforms. Instead, it is likely that Google Plus will be at the forefront of the most conflict between "styles", as you might like to call them.