This could work, but people would need to embrace it for it to work. These things tend to turn into hookup sites or platforms for other unintended interaction.

I agree that this is the most important part of the post, and it should probably be emphasized even more. I'm probably going to write a post about this in itself.

Curious about the studies you mention. Have any names or links?

Pretty sure it was one of the required readings for a course taught by one of these professors.

Erin Krupka https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Z1eLCr4AAAAJ

Yan Chen https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=He8AKt4AAAAJ&hl=en

I don't think it was either of their own publications, but these links might be helpful anyway.

This is very helpful, thanks!

Do you have a link to the course reading list by any chance?

Sorry couldn't find anything, I must not have saved as much as I thought

I think that more niche communities tend to be more valuable, but they still run the issue of intellectual isolation

I didnt have time to talk about it, but I think that the COVID crisis could be helpful for maturing this part of the internet. Its not that I dont think its possible for serendipity to be found online, but that we still need to develop a framework that is able to mimic it well