The Myth of the Super-Connector

We tend to praise the "Super-Connector"—that one heroic Admin who welcomes every new member, creates every event, and replies to every question.

I used to think this was the gold standard of community management. I now realize it is a structural failure.

The Server Metaphor

When one person is the sole source of energy for a network, they aren't a leader; they are a server.

And unlike an AWS data center, human servers need to sleep. They have families. They get sick. They burn out.

In our analysis of pilot groups, we found a direct correlation between "High Admin Activity" and "Group Fragility." The harder the Admin worked to keep the conversation going, the faster the group died when that Admin took a holiday.

This is the Hub-and-Spoke Trap. If the Hub goes down, the Spokes disconnect.

The Fix: Decentralized Infrastructure

Sustainable communities don't need harder-working Admins. They need Resident Intelligence—infrastructure that handles the logistics, the memory, and the safety of the group, so the human connection can happen peer-to-peer.

This allows the human leader to move from being the "Switchboard Operator" (connecting every call manually) to being the "Architect" (designing the space).