[Moto7451]

I had a friend try this in upstate New York. The result? One ruined friendship and an alienated family member. The property was sold and no one ever talks about it. Leaning to the “lord” part is precisely right and the eventual “peasant revolt” is ugly.

The eventual plan was kinda cool. Offer a vacation destination as a digital detox zone for the Digital Nomad set. They knew a number of people in that space they could have marketed to. I think if they avoided the weird living/working arrangement it would have been fine.

[fragmede]

Someone I knew died in a car crash, but somehow we all keep driving cars. Just because your friend's one attempt failed terribly doesn't mean the whole idea is rotten. I'm aware of a number of successful communities/warehomes that are making it work.

[Moto7451]

You’re taking my one added data point and extrapolating. I did not say that communes can’t work.

[spondylosaurus]

"People living together often butt heads" isn't even an out-there concept. (It's one reason I and others would argue that even communes should have individual living quarters—everyone having their own apartment in a shared building versus everyone having one room in a sprawling mansion. The former can have shared common areas, but the latter becomes one giant common area.)

And I'll throw another data point in the pile: I've had too many friendships soured by turning friends into roommates. In part because we were all immature and bad at handling conflict, myself included (ah, college!), and in part because there can be people in your life who you love and cherish but do not want to share a kitchen with. I'd imagine tensions would have been higher if only one of us was paying rent and the others were living there for free.

[bluepizza]

You heavily implied it by discussing a negative experience, its consequences, and speculating that the communal aspect was the root cause. I am a little bit surprised that you are denying that core point.

[spondylosaurus]

Is it really a commune/communal space when one person owns the entire property?

[fragmede]

whether or not that it is the case is an absolutely fascinating question, but one that does not have anything to do with bluepizza's point.