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User:NSK (Nikolaos S. Karastathis) started Cosmos for many reasons. One of them is that he perceives the traditional university and academia as a whole as being too hierarchical, way more than it needs to be. In many ways, NSK sees the modern universities as machines, and not what they should be: communities of scholars and students.
In Cosmos we should be as non-hierarchical as possible. We should learn, teach, and research as a self-organised anarchic community based on the principles of mutual respect and initiative, rather than as a hierarchical bureaucracy guided by unthoughtful rules printed on dead trees.
At the same time, we should prevent degeneration into an ochlocracy or a take over by a social clique or clan.
The best way to keep this balance without degenerating either into an ochlocracy or a hierarchy is to utilise education: People wishing to join Cosmos or certain parts of it will have to read some introductory material and get mentored for a few days to ensure they at least know how a self-organised community works.