A scene is simply a group of people united by something common, of any sort. There are scenes associated with about anything - the
punk scene, the
raver scene, the
snowboarding scene, the 'local
party scene', etc. When my dad was young he was in a scene related to
drag racing - which sadly has been killed off in
Southern California because they closed all the racetracks. Scenes need not occupy a geographical positon - i consider
Everything2 to be a scene, as well as other large
internet message boards and gathering places.
I believe that scenes have become a more important part of society since about the 1950s, when homogenous suburbs became the norm. Instead of living in a little town, where you knew everyone on the street, people were thrown into totally anonymous environments. Most scenes are small enough that you see the same people over and over again, which leads to a sense of community, but also sometimes to monotony and drama.
Scenes are little pieces of community created around something, and although their focus is different their internal dynamics are often largely the same. Usually there is some small group which makes up the core of the scene. In the punk scene, these are people who have bands, in the rave scene it is the DJs, in the racing scene it is people with good cars. On Everything it is the 'gods'. Also common in these scenes are 'scenesters', people who know everyone, hang out with the 'big names', and are well known. Other than that, there are all the other people who hang around
The whole scene thing can be problematic at times. The most popular pastime in the punk scene is talking/singing about how badly the punk scene sucks. Since everyone sees everyone, the drama can get quite nasty. Many people date in the scene, causing even more problems. If someone isnt able to properly integrate into a scene they are often labeled as 'poseurs' and shunned.
Although all of these scenes have similarities, there is something that makes Everything2 different. The 'gods' here actually have real power, other than just social power - they can delete nodes, place them on the page of cool, bless/curse people, etc. Although having a band talk bad about you could severely damage your place in the punk scene, you arent actually going to lose a set amount of points. Indeed E2 is an interesting social experiment, but like any scene, peoples lives are deeply involved, so things tend to get emotional, which is a bad thing.