So many comments!

Full disclosure, I've worked with Rushkoff. I like him. He's a nice guy.

These comments have been peppered by Happy Mutants who fear the mutation of BoingBoing. Your fears are relevant, they speak to upholding the essential spirit of a cherished cultural agglomerator. It is a spirit with magical breadth that appeals to a diverse audience, who enjoy a common counter-culture without having to subscribe to anyone particular value set.

Rushkoff's offense, it seems, has been to define a value set implied by the BoingBoing spirit. Some people such definition in itself to be exclusionary. If BoingBoing takes on some hypothetical purely participatory model, it abandons the audience share that prefers to eat the feed, but not prepare it.

Of course, this would never happen. That would be like BBtv killing the regular BB posts.

It's nice to see everyone taking a moment to really consider what -- and how much -- BoingBoing means to them.

But in starting the discussion, Rushkoff proved his point. We are disconnected from each other and some of us prefer it that way. For the people who want to connect, it's difficult to envision a model accommodating all the high aspirations Rushkoff lays out. It's worth trying, though, just to see how BoingBoing values -- the invisible thread that makes this so much more than a directory of wonderful things -- can mutate into new, even more wonderful things.

For my part, I don't know a satisfactory way to deliver quality crowd-sourced content in a blog or vlog or podcast. I think that reporting will have to come down from a central authority for people to understand it.

A BBWiki could be a good source of information, but it's redundant. The information is already out there and it's never been so easy to find. It isn't the information that needs to be found -- it's the population we've disconnected from.

So maybe some kind of BB social network is appropriate. Or a BB "Meet Up"-style network. Not something that changes the BB we have, but adds another branch to this tree with its roots all the way back the 1988 zine.

There were plenty of HMs who felt disenfranchised when bOING bOING moved online or relaunched or when the comments section was disabled.

There are doubtless many BB readers who don't read Gadgets or watch BBtv.

The concerns raised here should be considered by anyone lucky enough to engage the audience.

But we shouldn't be hostile to the idea of trying something new with this spirit and this community. If we stop mutating, we won't be Happy Mutants anymore -- we'll just be our own mini-mainstream.

Yet another sad footnote in China's epic battle against personal freedom...