Webupon

Online communities, which are commonly called forums or messaging boards, bring people together unlike any other social networks or cliques. They welcome new individuals whom none in the community are almost improbably to have ever met before and keep together those active individuals who have been a part of the community since the beginning. It does not limit those who can join or suppress any individual but rather invites everyone openly.  Online communities spawn close relationships with people whom you would have never otherwise known or possibly even noticed on a social networking website.

Cliques confine those who can join but not online communities. They rather share the discussions openly and let practically all view the majority of the content. Those whom are appealed enough by some element in the community then register and are in just like that. The only initiation is filling out a simple form to only prove you are human and unique.

Anyone can share their opinions, thoughts, ideas, and knowledge freely and not feel the everyday pressures of speaking to anyone in person. You are anonymous and have a clean record since you have signed up with the community. From there you were born as others know it. No one knows anything about you unless you tell them, and they will only believe with a common unbroken trust until ill fortune breaks it.  People are more willing to speak their mind and show their true selves to others. Honesty flourishes and blossoms.

These communities usually have one overall goal or a main topic in which it focuses upon. These often draw people with at least one common interest together, and it almost always creates other bridges in which we relate ourselves with whom we have met in the community. We then become friends when finally have completed enough bridges. Because of the simple process of making friends, over time you become to know more and more individuals of the community until you know all or almost all of them.

Sometimes this can be a good thing or a bad consequence for a community not growing larger fast enough. The community can start to fear strangers coming in wrecking what they believe to be an already perfect community or the opposite which is possibly wanting new members to join for the joy of meeting new people and learning about them as well as having a more active community with fresh thoughts. This can either lead to a troublesome time period of a golden age of kindness and prosperity in its own right.

Many believe that moderators are there to, well, catch rule breakers and set them strait. That is one of the jobs but not the main goal of a moderator. The main goal is to promote the community and enact friendliness. Moderators want to be a friend of the community and not the feared of the community. They protect the community as best they can when a dissatisfactory occurrence happens.

Administrators are the ones responsible for making sure the website is running smoothly and without hassle to its member. They try to do everything they can to prevent a negative user experience due to technical difficulties. Just like the moderators they want the community to flourish and thus they promote friendliness to the best of their abilities.  They protect the community though prevention and learned filtering.

Members of the community are what make up the majority and are thus the most important group. They make the community what it is and can influence very heavily the direction of the community even in the opposite direction of what the administrators intended. This group is the hardest to please as members could just become inactive instantly. With no members you have no community. Administrators and moderators both work together to help try and keep this group happy, strong, and willing to interact with each other. If done properly, the community can easily last decades on end.

The whole purpose of the community is to interact and meet new people. You must have a positive mind set to have a good time. Those that do that are sure to learn new things every discussion and want to return the next day as a happy camper. Administrators and moderators are true friends to the community are protectors and friends to members. Members are the key to an excellent community while also the root to trouble.