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Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of a "family of invisible friends". Additionally, these "friends" can be connected through gaming communities and gaming companies. Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a specific site and thereby gain access to specific content or links.
An online community can act as an information system where members can post, comment on discussions, give advice, or collaborate, and include medical advice or specific healthcare research as well.
Commonly, people communicate through social networking sites, chat rooms, forums, email lists, and discussion boards, and have advanced into daily social media platforms as well. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Discord, etc.
People may also join online communities through video games, blogs, and virtual worlds, and could potentially meet new significant others in dating sites or dating virtual worlds.
The rise in popularity of Web 2.0 websites has allowed for easier real-time communication and connection to others and facilitated the introduction of new ways for information to be exchanged. Yet, these interactions may also lead to a downfall of social interactions or deposit more negative and derogatory forms of speaking to others, in connection, surfaced forms of racism, bullying, sexist comments, etc., may also be investigated and linked to online communities.
One scholarly definition of an online community is this: "A virtual community is defined as an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact around a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported or mediated by technology (or both) and guided by some protocols or norms".
Digital communities (web communities but also communities that are formed over e.g., Xbox and Play Station) provide a platform for a range of services to users.
It has been argued that they can fulfill Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They allow for social interaction across the world between people of different cultures who might not otherwise have met with offline meetings also becoming more common. Another key use of web communities is access to and the exchange of information. With communities for even very small niches, it is possible to find people also interested in a topic and seek and share information on a subject where there are no such people available in the immediate area offline. This has led to a range of popular sites based on areas such as health, employment, finances, and education. Online communities can be vital for companies for marketing and outreach.
Unexpected and innovative uses of web communities have also emerged with social networks being used in conflicts to alert citizens of impending attacks. The UN sees the web and specifically social networks as an important tool in conflicts and emergencies.
Web communities have grown in popularity; as of 2014, 6 of the 20 most trafficked websites were community-based sites. The amount of traffic to such websites is expected to increase as a growing proportion of the world's population attains internet access.
The idea of a community is not a new concept. On the telephone, on the ham radio, and in the online world, social interactions no longer have to be based on proximity; instead, they can be with anyone anywhere. The study of communities has had to adapt along with the new technologies.
Many researchers have used ethnography to attempt to understand what people do in online spaces, how they express themselves, what motivates them, how they govern themselves, what attracts them, and why some people prefer to observe rather than participate. Online communities can congregate around a shared interest and can be spread across multiple websites.
Some features of online communities include;
Online communities typically establish a set of values, sometimes known collectively as netiquette or Internet Etiquette, as they grow. These values may include opportunity, education, culture, democracy, human services, equality within the economy, information, sustainability, and communication. An online community's purpose is to serve as a common ground for people who share the same interests.
Online communities may be used as calendars to keep up with events such as upcoming gatherings or sporting events. They also form around activities and hobbies. Many online communities relating to health care help inform, advise, and support patients and their families. Students can take classes online and they may communicate with their professors and peers online. Businesses have also started using online communities to communicate with their customers about their products and services as well as to share information about the business. Other online communities allow a wide variety of professionals to come together to share thoughts, ideas, and theories.
Fandom is an example of what online communities can evolve into. Online communities have grown in influence in "shaping the phenomena around which they organize" according to Nancy K. Baym's work. She says that: "More than any other commercial sector, the popular culture industry relies on online communities to publicize and provide testimonials for their products".
The strength of the online community's power is displayed through the season 3 premiere of BBC's Sherlock. Online activity by fans seems to have had a noticeable influence on the plot and direction of the season's opening episode. Mark Lawson of The Guardian recounts how fans have, to a degree, directed the outcome of events of the episode. He says, "Sherlock has always been one of the most web-aware shows, among the first to find a satisfying way of representing electronic chatter on-screen. Fan communities on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit around sports, actors, and musicians have become powerful communities both culturally and politically.
Discussions where members may post their feedback are essential in the development of an online community. Online communities may encourage individuals to come together to teach and learn from one another. They may encourage learners to discuss and learn about real-world problems and situations, as well as to focus on such things as teamwork, collaborative thinking, and personal experiences.
Blogs are among the major platforms on which online communities form. Blogging practices include microblogging, where the amount of information in a single element is smaller, and live blogging, in which an ongoing event is blogged about in real time.
The ease and convenience of blogging have allowed for its growth. Major blogging platforms include Blogspot, Blogger, Twitter, and Tumblr, which may also combine social media with blogging or platforms such as WordPress which allow content to be hosted on their servers but also permit users to download, install, and modify the software on their servers.
Internet forums, sometimes called bulletin boards, are websites that allow users to post topics also known as threads for discussion with other users able to reply creating a conversation. Forums follow a hierarchical structure of categories, with many popular forum software platforms categorizing forums depending on their purpose, and allowing forum administrators to create subforums within their platform. With time more advanced features have been added to forums; the ability to attach files, embed YouTube videos, and send private messages is now commonplace.
Members are commonly assigned into user groups which control their access rights and permissions. Common access levels include the following;
Social Networks are platforms allowing users to set their profile and build connections with like-minded people who pursue similar interests through interaction. The first traceable example of such a site is SixDegrees.com, set up in 1997, which included a friends list and the ability to send messages to members linked to friends and see other users' associations. For much of the 21st century, the popularity of such networks has been growing.
Friendster was the first social network to gain mass media attention; however, by 2004 it had been overtaken in popularity by MySpace, which in turn was later overtaken by Facebook.
In 2013, Facebook attracted 1.23 billion monthly users, rising from 145 million in 2008. Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts, and by 2020, had more than 2.7 billion active users. Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, also owns three other leading platforms for online communities: Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
Most top-ranked social networks originate in the United States, but European services like VK, Japanese platform LINE, or Chinese Social Networks WeChat, QQ, or video-sharing app Douyin (internationally known as TikTok) have also garnered appeal in their respective regions.
Current trends focus on the increased use of mobile devices when using social networks. Statistics from Statista show that, in 2013, 97.9 million users accessed social networks from a mobile device in the United States.
Researchers and organizations have worked to classify types of online communities and to characterize their structure. For example, it is important to know the security, access, and technology requirements of a given type of community as it may evolve from an open to a private and regulated forum. It has been argued that the technical aspects of online communities, such as whether pages can be created and edited by a general user base (as is the case with wikis) or only certain users (as in the case with most blogs), can place online communities into stylistic categories. Another approach argues that "online community" is a metaphor that contributes to actively negotiating the meaning of the term, including values and social norms.
Some research has looked at the users of online communities. Amy Jo Kim has classified the rituals and stages of online community interaction and called it the "membership life cycle". Clay Shirky talks about communities of practice, whose members collaborate and help each other to make something better or improve a certain skill. What makes these communities bond is the "love" of something, as demonstrated by members who go out of their way to help without any financial interest. Campbell et al. developed a character theory for analyzing online communities, based on tribal typologies. In the communities they investigated they identified three character types.
Online communities have also forced retail firms to change their business strategies. Companies have to network more, adjust computations, and alter their organizational structures. This leads to changes in the company's communications with their manufacturers including the information shared and made accessible for further productivity and profits. Because consumers and customers in all fields are becoming accustomed to more interaction and engagement online, adjustments must be considered to keep the audience intrigued.
Online communities have been characterized as "virtual settlements" that have the following four requirements;
Based on these considerations, it can be said that microblogs such as Twitter can be classified as online communities.
Dorine C. Andrews argues, in the article "Audience-Specific Online Community Design", that there are three parts to building an online community:
When starting an online community, it may be effective to create web pages that appeal to specific interests. Online communities with clear topics and easy access tend to be most effective. To gain early interaction by members, privacy guarantees and content discussions are very important. Successful online communities tend to be able to function self-sufficiently.
There are two major types of participation in online communities:
Lurkers are participants who join a virtual community but do not contribute. In contrast, public participants, or posters, are those who join virtual communities and openly express their beliefs and opinions. Both lurkers and posters frequently enter communities to find answers and to gather general information. For example, there are several online communities dedicated to technology. In these communities, posters are generally experts in the field who can offer technological insight and answer questions, while lurkers tend to be technological novices who use the communities to find answers and to learn.
In general, virtual community participation is influenced by how participants view themselves in society as well as by norms, both of society and the online community. Participants also join online communities for friendship and support. In a sense, virtual communities may fill social voids in participants' offline lives.
Sociologist Barry Wellman presents the idea of "globalization" - the Internet's ability to extend participants' social connections to people around the world while also aiding them in further engagement with their local communities.
Although online societies differ in content from real society, the roles people assume in their online communities are quite similar. Elliot Volkman points out several categories of people that play a role in the cycle of social networking, such as:
An article entitled "The real value of online communities", written by A. Armstrong and John Hagel of the Harward Business Review, addresses a handful of elements that are key to the growth of an online community and its success in drawing in members. In this example, the article focuses specifically on online communities related to business, but its points can be transferred and can apply to any online community.
The article addresses four main categories of business-based online communities, but states that a truly successful one will combine the qualities of each of them:
Amy Jo Kim's membership lifecycle theory states that members of online communities begin their life in a community as visitors, or lurkers. After breaking through a barrier, people become novices and participate in community life. After contributing for a sustained time, they become regulars. If they break through another barrier they become leaders, and once they have contributed to the community for some time they become elders. This life cycle can be applied to many virtual communities, such as bulletin board systems, blogs, mailing lists, and wiki-based communities like Wikipedia.
A similar model can be found in the works of Love and Wenger, who illustrate a cycle of how users become incorporated into virtual communities using the principles of legitimate peripheral participation. They suggest five types of trajectories in a learning community;
The following shows the correlation between the learning trajectories and Web 2.0 community participation by using the example of YouTube.
Successful online communities motivate online participation. Methods of motivating participation in these communities have been investigated in several studies.
Many persuasive factors draw users into online communities. Peer-to-peer systems and social networking sites rely heavily on member contributions. Users' underlying motivations to involve themselves in these communities have been linked to some persuasion theories of sociology.
One of the greatest attractions of online communities is the sense of connection users build among members. Participation and contribution are influenced when members of an online community are aware of their global audience.
The majority of people learn by example and often fellow others, especially when it comes to participation. Individuals are reversed about contributing to an online community for many reasons including but not limited to a fear of criticism or inaccuracy. Users may withhold information that they don't believe is particularly interesting, relevant, or truthful. To challenge these contribution barriers, producers of these sites are responsible for developing knowledge-based and foundation-based trust among the community.
Users' perception of the audience is another reason that makes users participate in online communities. Results showed that users usually underestimate the amount of audiences in online communities. Social media users guess that their audience is 27% of its real size. Regardless of this underestimation, it is shown that the amount of audience affects users' self-presentation and also content production which means a higher level of participation.
There are two types of virtual online communities (VOC):
For all VOCs, there is the issue of creating identity and reputation in the community. People can create whatever identity they would like to through their interactions with other members. The username is what members identify each other by but it says very little about the person behind it. The main features in online communities that attract people are a shared communication environment, relationships formed and nurtured, a sense of belonging to a group, the internal structure of the group, and a common space shared by people with similar ideas and interests. The three most critical issues are;
For an online community to flourish there needs to be consistent participation, interest, and motivation.
The research concluded by Helen Wang applied the Technology Acceptance Model to online community participation. Internet self-efficacy positively predicted perceived ease of use. The research found that participants' beliefs in their abilities to use the internet and web-based tools determine how much effort was expected. The community environment positively predicted perceived ease of use and usefulness. Intrinsic motivation positively predicted ease of use, usefulness, and actual use. The technology acceptance model positively predicts how likely it is that an individual will participate in an online community.
Most online communities grow slowly at first, due in part to the fact that the strength of motivation for contributing is usually proportional to the size of the community. As the size of the potential audience increases, so does the attraction of writing and contributing. This, coupled with the fact that organizational culture does not change overnight, means creators can expect slow progress at first with a new virtual community. As more people begin to participate, however, the aforementioned motivations will increase, creating a virtuous cycle in which more participation begets more participation.
Community adoption can be forecast with the Bass diffusion model, originally conceived by Frank Bass to describe the process by which new products get adopted as an interaction between innovative early adopters and those who follow them.
Online communities are relatively new and unexplored areas. They promote a whole new community that before the Internet was not available. Although they can promote a vast array of positive qualities, such as relationships without regard to race, religion, gender, or geography, they can also lead to multiple problems.
The theory of risk perception, an uncertainty in participating in an online community, is quite common, particularly when in the following online circumstances;
Clay Shirky explains one of these problems like two hoola-hoops. With the emersion of online communities, there is a "real life" hoola-hoop and the other an "online life". These two hoops used to be completely separate but now they have swung together and overlap. The problem with this overlap is that there is no distinction anymore between face-to-face interactions and virtual ones; they are the same. Shirky illustrates this by explaining a meeting. A group of people will sit in a meeting but they will all be connected into a virtual world also, using online communities such as thewiki.
A further problem is identity formation with the ambiguous real-virtual life mix. Identity formation in the real world consists of "one body", and "one identity", but online communities allow you to create "as many electronic personae" as you, please. This can lead to identity deception. Claiming to be someone you are not can be problematic with other online community users and for yourself. Creating a false identity can cause confusion and ambivalence about which identity is true.
Cyberbullying, is the "use of long-term aggressive, intentional, repetitive acts by one or more individuals, using electronic means, against an almost powerless victim" which has increased in frequency alongside the continued growth of web communities with an Open University study finding 38% of young people had experienced or witnessed cyberbullying. It has received significant media attention due to high-profile incidents such as the death of Amanda Todd who before her death detailed her ordeal on YouTube.
A key feature of such bullying is that it allows victims to be harassed at all times, something not possible typically with physical bullying. This has forced Governments and other organizations to change their typical approach to bullying with the UK Department for Education now issuing advice to schools on how to deal with cyberbullying cases.
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