Brood (noun, intransitive) – To think deeply about something that makes one unhappy.
Background
This is a reflective piece. I’m not exactly sure where it’s going to end up; only that I’ve got a jumble of thoughts and concerns floating around that I need to process and have personally found blogging to be the most effective means of doing this. It’s also a topic I want to broach with my online colleagues, because my contributions to our ongoing discussions are about to decline.
As I may have mentioned in passing elsewhere …

A work colleague and I got into a discussion recently about online communities; the common threads or characteristics that occur amongst them and what key differences exist; and particularly whether there are recurring and crucial elements that, when present, make certain communities succeed, and when absent, make others fail.
Of particular relevance to my recent indulgence into Ubuntu is the epiphany I came to during the course of the discussion: The greatest examples of passionate online collaboration and vibrant community interaction I’ve seen occur in the open source and free software …