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Kalessin, such forums do exist. They exist in our own selective processes
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Well, the forums I mentioned actually only exist in my fevered imagination [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. The judgement about whether or how the organisation or structure of an edifice (a bulletin board, a school etc.) reflects an assumed hierarchy and to some degree a consensus - or a form of oppression, elitism and restriction, is a difficult one.
Indeed, at all times we do have (in theory at least) the control and choice that you describe.
But structures also exist to facilitate and empower (I sound like a management textbook [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]) and to simplify access to information, interaction and so on.
Where the lines are drawn, and at what point guidelines become bureaucracy, labels become prisons, group dynamics become a clique, or shorthand becomes jargon and so on ... I doubt there truly can be a utopia where freedom of choice and empowerment coexist in harmony. Some kinds of freedom are more dangerous and imprisoning than any cell ... Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' was an interesting exploration of this whole area (among others).
This was one of my less serious posts, but I am always happy to share ideas about how structured and facilitated interaction can be a good thing, or can be a bad thing. And I'm positively ancient, remember, so I should always get whatever I want [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Peace [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Kalessin
PS. I am available for management seminars and breakout sessions for senior executives at a suitably exorbitant fee should anyone be interested, and promise to throw in references to Drucker, the Bell Curve, Emotional Intelligence and the 'Why Consultants Are Good For Business' theory at regular intervals [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]