People do not have to pay to be in the Shiver Community (or Shiver for short). Paying for community means that ones community can be stripped away the moment they face financial hardship (the moment when they most need their community).
Exclusive
Any community that is open for all is an empire. There is a limit to how many relationships a person can hold. Once you move beyond that limit, one must use creeds, ideologies, nationalism, religion, etc in order to define your community. Gobbling up as many people as possible to join your creed, ideology, nation, religion, etc is empire-building and is imperialistic.
We believe that the only way to prevent imperialism within our communities is to limit your Shiver Community to the relationships you actually have. We believe that the best way to build power is to create federations with other like-minded communities.
Mutual
A Shiver is built upon the consent of everyone who is a part of it. No one can be forced to be part of the Shiver Community, no matter their identity or pre-existing relationships.
Escapable
Any community that one is not allowed to leave without financial, relational, and/or physical repercussions is a cult. A Shiver is one where people are allowed to leave freely, the moment they no longer wish to participate.
Tolerant
A Shiver makes space for anyone who is not actively harming its people. A healthy community does not tolerate bigotry.
Identifiable
Any community that tries to have plausible deniability, that tries to exist and not exist simultaneously is not safe. Shivers take accountability for the actions of their people. A Shiver Community is built upon the trust of everyone within it.
Non-Secret
It is not always safe for a community to exist publicly. But it is essential for the people of a Shiver to be public to one another. A Shiver does not hide from its own people.
Non-hierarchical
Hierarchy destroys relationships. You can never fully trust someone who has power over you. While we do not have control over the power dynamics that exist in society, there is no hierarchy within a Shiver. Everyone is equal.
Transparent
A Shiver Community is transparent with regard to all power dynamics between people within the community. We live in a society that insists upon hierarchy. It is not enough to be non-hierarchical within the Shiver Community. We must expose any hierarchies imposed by organizations outside the Shiver and mitigate those power dynamics by holding those in our community with power accountable as to how they wield that power against the people in our community.