To qualify all my ranting so far:

a) Most web designers aren't great with "community" concepts because being a designer has largely been more about designing communication artefacts than communities in the past, so why would they be expert in such things, given a traditional design education?

b) As a result (and this is why I classify Jon Worth as having a politicians view of web communities) they don't really understand the notion of "building a community" and for them, blogging is an experience by which they "do their stuff" and the community "just happens." The politician in Jon Worth goes a step further and says the point of "doing your stuff" is to advocate, rather than just pontificate...

c) The key point is that the purpose of ET is largely, well, to be ET. There's a lot of hope for the future and people join because it helps them do things they want to do (publish articles about peak oil, or whatever floats your boat; or develop and refine their own understanding of various issues). In a way this whole diary is about how to begin to pull out elements of the content generated and turn it into something for advocacy.