THIS SKOOL CATEGORY THING… IS IT ABOUT CATEGORIES… OR ABOUT SAFETY?

🔥

Right… hot take incoming and yep I’m probably about to ramble my way through this one (eye roll at myself already)… but the more I read that giant thread in Skoolers and the gazillion comments flying around, the more I kept thinking…

Hang on a minute.

This isn’t actually about “Relationships vs Money vs Tech” at all or is it? (Look I know we all see things through different lenses, this is an open conversation, and simply sharing another perspective… we have millions of them, thats the beauty of being HUMAN) ❤️

On the surface… yeah, of course, people are talking about categories, discovery, rankings, the Games, fairness, all the practical stuff. Obvs that matters a big time lot.

If you’ve been grafting away for months building something, showing up every day, getting your community growing and then suddenly your category gets moved mid-game… yeah that’s gonna sting a bit. I’d be sat there like…

OOOOOFFFFF ok then… what just happened there.

But underneath all that admin-y talk and system talk and rule talk… what I actually see bubbling away is something way more HUMAN.

Safety.

Because when people build something day after day on a platform… their community, their income, their friendships, their identity as a creator, all the little inside jokes, the momentum, the energy… that stuff stops feeling like “just a platform.”

It starts feeling like HOME. (yes I’m getting a bit woo here… just go with it).

And when something shifts without warning… categories move… rules change… rankings wobble… suddenly the nervous system, the body, the emotions go HOLD UP A SECOND…

Are we actually safe here or not?

Not safe like danger danger obviously.

But safe like… can I trust the ground I’m standing on?

Because the reality is… most of us building online are kinda building on rented land.

Skool. Facebook. Insta. Wherever.

Amaze-balls platforms (obvs team Skool here), EPIC HUMANS, brilliant badass communities… but at the end of the day the land isn’t ours.

The rules can shift of courseThe systems can change. And change… can be uncomfy AF.

And when that happens suddenly and publicly… it doesn’t just trigger logic. It triggers FEELINGS. Lots of em.

People start thinking things like…

Can this all change overnight?

Is what I’ve built actually stable?

[insert what came up for you]?

That’s why this whole thread feels bigger than just categories.

And also…… I don’t think it’s JUST the categories that triggered people. I personally think the way it happened probably played a part too. Because when something changes suddenly… and people don’t really know why… or there hasn’t been much communication around it… the human brain fills in the blanks.

And our brains are VERY good at filling in blanks with worst-case scenarios. (mine certainly is anyway eeeew).

So it’s not just the change. It’s the surprise. It’s the not knowing.

It’s the “wait … what just happened and why?”

Most humans can deal with change.

What we struggle with more is uncertain change without context.

And again… tote HUMAN.

Back on track and technically… yeah… this is a category tweak. Some admin decisions. Probably Skool trying to stop people gaming the Games and tidy up Discovery and make the platform better long term.

Makes huge sense when you zoom out.

But emotionally… it can land like the rug got tugged a bit.

And when humans feel the rug move under their feet… they get loud, passionate, protective, defensive, thoughtful, messy… sometimes brilliant… sometimes what-the-fuckey… sometimes both at the same time.

Classic HUMAN humaning.

And honestly… I kinda love us for that.

Personally I actually think these conversations are healthy AF. Platforms evolve. Systems tighten. People question things. Dialogue happens. Stuff gets refined.

That’s literally how ecosystems grow 🌻

But the interesting bit for me isn’t the categories.

It’s watching what this conversation reveals about how deeply people FRICKEN CARE about what they’re building here. (getting a bit emosh thinking about that tbh).

Because you don’t get this level of emotion if people don’t give a toss.

The fact people are speaking up, questioning things, defending each other, debating respectfully… sometimes a bit spicy… but still…

That tells me something important AF. People aren’t just using Skool. They’re invested in it. And when HUMANS invest heart, time, and energy into something… they want to know the ground beneath them is solid. ❤️

Anyway… just my messy-brain hot take while sipping coffee and reading through a huge thread like a nosey human detective (totes did)

Nosey though…

Did anyone else read that whole thing and think“hmmm… this feels bigger than categories…”

Or did your brain go somewhere completely different with it?

Right… off I pop.

WOOPing…

12 comments