i will study Abelard with you…but this Aberlard guy? i don’t trust him.

bada boom.

i actually really like the idea of habitat…and i think your points about posting policies and even just aesthetics of a site make a huge difference in fostering an online habitat for particular types of community creation. but my own experience leads me to the conclusion that some type of common interest matters more than aesthetics (certainly true in the case of my own blog readership) – you gotta sense that people are going to be “your kind.” and what i wonder is how to convey that kind of intangible in an online environment. how do we “read” the habitats we happen upon? what makes a person stop on a given site and consider joining in a conversation?