I have definitely felt a sense of community through online interaction. I have been part of a Spice Girls community for nine years. The community started in one location in 2000, and then in 2002 most of the users moved to another location because of issues with the first community's owners. With nine years of history and many posters having 20,000+ posts (nearly all of which I've met IRL) you learn a lot about these people - and most people's online identities have been about the same as their offline ones. Over the years, I have met hundreds of the members at concerts and events, and most of my long-standing now IRL friendships originated online.
The "real life" models suggested by McMillan and Chavis very much match my experiences of online community. From my experience, I've felt "part of it" and a full member since the beginning. When I joined, it was rare to find Spice Girls fans apart from myself as their popularity had dwindled, and suddenly there were thousands of them. Many members, sometimes not with the most amount of posts are influential through their valued postings and ability to help each other. If someone needs a rare picture or file, it will usually be found regardless of if the user is new or old. There is little hierarchy beyond the moderators who make sure nothing gets out of hand.
The final model-point of "shared emotional connection" is perhaps the most important for this community, which was recently seen on the Spice Girls' reunion tour. The community was brought together much more than it had been previously. Many users arranged to go to the concerts together, and the offline concerts were not just a concert but a meeting place to meet old friends, and some members for the first time. In this sense, the community made memories and history together, and even though the tour was now a year ago, the community is still buzzing and sharing pictures, files and information from those times. While there is the odd flamer or spammer, there is otherwise a fantastic community spirit which I rarely seen elsewhere on the internet.
Therefore from my experience, the real-life model is entirely relevant - though for other forums and communities, this may not be so.
Friday, 13 February 2009
W4 - Topic 1b: Sense of community (Blanchard)
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I can relate to most of this (except it's not the spice girls!). I've been part of a similar sounding community for about 10 years now. I definitely agree that most people's online 'personalities' have very closely matched them IRL.
ReplyDeleteHOwever, with the community I am talking about, and yours presumably, we have been members since they were founded, or very near to the begining. My forum has now been privatised and only friends of long standing and well respected members are accepted as new members-prior to this there was certainly some hostility towards newer members and i wouldn't have regarded them as part of the community, mainly because of a lack of knowledge of prior happenings. Is this the same in your community?
Indeed, many of us were "founding members" in a sense. New members are sometimes looked down upon if they don't know what they're doing but you get also get the gems who really become part of it, so they're still welcomed. But although a few of the founding members have made spin-off forums where there aren't any new members and valued people are invited, the original community is still the centre of everything :)
ReplyDeleteThis would make an excellent candidate for your website analysis next week James -possibly you're ahead of me?
ReplyDeleteI think your experience is very much what people such as Rheingold, Jones and Blanchard have in mind when they talk of virtual communities. Nowadays it is recognised that -unlike "Fight Club" what happens in "SpiceSpace" (or whatever virtual community you care to name) doesn't stay in "SpiceSpace" (aka cyberspace) -it goes into 'meatspace' and back again. The two in tandem can 'supercharge' the feeling of belonging to a community. And it is this that cybertopians contrast positively to traditonal community based on shared geography and dying folk culture.