Community is quite possibly the biggest facet of the Internet era. Being able to connect to people all around the world, centred on a common denominator, has been an element of human nature since its inception; and the internet allowed an expansive, worldly feeling of community, not bound by physical space; instead bound by communication and interests. But what is an online community? What binds them together? Well, in my opinion, an online community is held together by any number of items of social currency. That is; ideas, beliefs, commonly held points of interest, or really anything which inspires unity or discussion. Sport, dogs, cooking, political views, anything that binds people together, they can be considered communities. An online community itself, is a collection of people connecting via a forum, social media platform, or other internet gathering device, holding common interests. They work together to communicate, pursues their interests, and generally create some form of content (opinions are a primary form of content.)
For example, an online community that I’ve participated in for a while; especially one that promotes content (sometimes to a negative extent) is Anfieldindex.com, and by extension Twitter. I say by extension because Twitter is the key promotion device used by the site; I as a weekly contributor; discussing all things Liverpool Football Club (one of the biggest sporting teams in the UK). Finding it was a slightly longer process; becoming a contributor to Twitter isn’t a difficult thing to do at all. Getting your voice to be heard, however, is a case of persistence and figuring out what’s meaningful in the community; as it is with lots of communities. After being on twitter for a few months, I decided to apply for a writing position at Anfield Index. Having had experience writing for other sporting sites before; especially about football, it was a good experience, I began writing, and it all came together. 11 months later; my articles were beginning to gain traction, and instigate discussion. Some of it would be agreement, others would be more negative comments disagreeing with my “ludicrous” opinion (that was actually in a tweet that responded to my article on twitter).
This is a perfect example of impressions and response within a community. Alberto Moreno is a player I like, and others dislike, for different reasons. I verbally illustrate my case for him, and others see it differently; as seen in the comments below the article.
As a side note, the article itself got over 10,000 views, so not everyone in a community is actively contributing. Sure, they may go on to tweet their views at a later date, but I wouldn’t become aware of this unless they were following me. In this way, communities are only as active as the people within them choose to make their voice heard. Twitter is a perfect vehicle for putting an opinion out there and letting people decide whether they endorse it or not. Finally, as an example of how powerful the Twitter medium can be, there’s Twitter itself endorsing active discussion. For example, I put out a poll asking who the preferred striker should be for next season.
As you can see, the vote got over 1,500 votes. The replies instigated by it measured up to around a hundred, maybe a bit less. Online communities are driven by active voices, and Twitter is perfect for channelling thousands of voices into something effective.
The Tirade - A Blog By Alex Barilaro 