Translations:Community Gatherings/5/en

A common misunderstanding is that community gatherings are inherently informal and therefore unstructured. In practice, most functioning gatherings carry considerable structure, much of it unwritten. There are conventions about arrival times, about how newcomers are introduced, about what is discussed openly and what is not, and about when the evening is expected to end. Regular attendees absorb these conventions over time; newcomers may not perceive them at all. This gap explains a large share of the friction that arises at otherwise well-run events.