[thepablohansen]

Agree on relatively strict self-selection being a necessary component for any thriving community. Also, most (dare I say all?) of my friendships have been formed not because I stumbled across an interesting person I decided to bond with, but because some external circumstance (living situation, hobbies) made it so that we were in close contact over an extended period of time.

[YT-Main]

That is what I was thinking in that you can only join a community after going to an event with it, the goal is to not turn communities into another subreddit but a place where people are truly connecting.

That last line is also completely true for me and the thought is events would lead to an increased amount of those chance encounters especially because people are meeting over things that they like.

[RGamma]

Good point; unfortunately I sort of missed clarifying that (it's implicit in the school/kindergarten part).

Forced, especially childhood, interaction may yet be the strongest connector of all.

In a way that's what one sets out to do by becoming involved in a club after all, although it's not really the same as it was...