I think welcoming/unwelcoming is one of those things that most people initially assess almost immediately upon contact with a community. Yes, people who stay in the community will update their perceptions over time, but I have definitely been to enough meetups, dances, and general social gatherings to have a sense after one interaction with a community of whether I feel welcome and to have noticed that this affects my probability of returning. It even affects my probability of returning if I go with a friend, or know a subset of people there; being welcomed by one or a few people is not necessarily enough if the community as a whole doesn’t feel welcoming, even if those people are deeply connected in the community and think I will want to return.
I also think that what it means for long-time community members to feel like a group is welcoming is pretty unclear, because they themselves actually do not need to be made welcome there. I would be much more interested in thinking about whether EA is welcoming based on how welcoming newcomers (say, people who have participated in local or online EA groups at least once, but for no longer than a year) think it is, what proportion of newcomers return or bring friends, etc.
I think welcoming/unwelcoming is one of those things that most people initially assess almost immediately upon contact with a community. Yes, people who stay in the community will update their perceptions over time, but I have definitely been to enough meetups, dances, and general social gatherings to have a sense after one interaction with a community of whether I feel welcome and to have noticed that this affects my probability of returning. It even affects my probability of returning if I go with a friend, or know a subset of people there; being welcomed by one or a few people is not necessarily enough if the community as a whole doesn’t feel welcoming, even if those people are deeply connected in the community and think I will want to return.
I also think that what it means for long-time community members to feel like a group is welcoming is pretty unclear, because they themselves actually do not need to be made welcome there. I would be much more interested in thinking about whether EA is welcoming based on how welcoming newcomers (say, people who have participated in local or online EA groups at least once, but for no longer than a year) think it is, what proportion of newcomers return or bring friends, etc.