Brian Shaler posted The Phoenix Tech Community over on his blog.

I posted a comment:

Thanks for an interesting post.

Some comments: ReadPhoenix may have 100+ listings, but not all are tech. Many are graphics design or marketing focused. The site does not make it easy to know what the various blogs are about. You pretty much have to look at each one to see for yourself. I’d guess there are about a dozen that are about tech (i.e., software/hardware development).

Thanks for the mention of Refactor Phoenix. Attendance at each meeting varies, but it seems to be tied to expectations of a formal presentation. Personal experience tells me that very few Valley geeks want to hang out in the evening for the sake of geek socializing. They will come if they think they will get a free lecture that might help them in their job, but otherwise it’s a tough draw. And even fewer geeks are willing to step up and offer to give a presentation.

I’m believing that a big difference between here and places such as Seattle or S.F. is that Phoenicians are far more passive, far more interested in being spectators than doers.

I’d love to be proven wrong. There’s some level of frequent socializing in the Web design/Web marketing crowd, but for pure tech geekery (that is, people who write actual software or build actual hardware) things are pretty glum.

Unless your event has a sales/marketing/entrepreneur spin (Refresh, Social Media Club), or an ass-load of free, job-related talks (CodeCamp), the geeks stay home.

I’ve reposted it here hoping to get some feedback. I’d like to hear opinions to the contrary, or hear how the situation can be changed.

I’ve spoken with people who run various local user groups (I run the Phoenix Ruby Group and Refactor Phoenix ). Most told me that meeting attendance is directly correlated with having formal technical talks, with particular topics drawing more than others. I understand that few people have the free time to be attending geek gathers multiple times a month, so there’s some selection pressure, but there’s also a heavy emphasis on job pragmatics. It seems few people are geeking for the fun of it.

If you look at the attendance for self-organized events, such as BarCamp Phoenix or Phoenix Happy Dev House, you’ll find (relatively) very few people, and generally the same people. Most folks just don’t care.

Plus there is a strong tribal element. Web designers tend to want to hang with Web designers; .Net folks will stick to net groups, and so on There are exceptions, but rare. People find some comfort level in their little community and prefer to stay isolated than broaden their horizons. Perhaps it a “big fish, little pond” thing.

I’ve been trying, with Refactor Phoenix, to create an agnostic geek commons, a gathering that tries to step away from one or another single-technology focus. I’m losing my enthusiasm, though. I’m increasingly of the mind that, despite the efforts of about a dozen or so outstanding Zonies who do put the effort into making things happen, Phoenix may just not be the place for this.

Prove me wrong.