I will be following this post.
I want to say this:
Anyone who knows me also knows that I have neither sought nor desired a status within any community, real world or otherwise. However, status finds me, in that I've had leadership roles placed upon me, some of which I excelled at, and others I should have not been near. I don't seek approval of others for a feeling of self. This removed some of my paranoid outlook on life, which when crashing from full mania was always a problem. I'd become paranoid the neighbors I'd never talked to were out to get me at times, when it turned out that once the hypo or full manic me or even better, the calm "normal" me, meet these people, they were ok all along and had no idea of my thoughts, actions, etc.
I suppose my coping mechanism, get to know them immediately, so that I have an idea of if they really are out to get me based on interaction and not my misconceptions.
Then we get into my trust issues. That's a whole different thing.