When is an online community 'working'?

People will think that an online community either is/isn't working depending on a variety of criteria chosen by themselves. Obviously, not everyone has the same ideas about when something is working, and when it's not, so in fact there's no definite answer to this question. It's rather like when people refuse to buy a packet of cornflakes because the box that it's in is a bit battered, whereas other people aren't bothered, as the stuff inside is fine. So, as I've shown, people have different views on everything, including whether or not an online community is fulfilling its purpose.

In my opinion, there are many criteria that could be used to measure how well an online community is doing. Obviously, this depends on what type of community it was. If it was a forum aimed at helping people with problems about a product they own, then you'd expect that they would only return to that community again when they have another problem. In that scenario, the popularity of the forum would probably depend on how problematic the product was. But in other situations, such as online gaming, and internet chat, I think the most factors are whether or not people return to the community again, how often they return and how many return. The more people come back and input into the same community again, the more it will be shown to be 'working'.

What is an online community?

What is and isn't and online community will be different for different people according to their beliefs on what a community actually is according to them, so I thought I'd give my view before anything else is said.

In my opinion, an online community must feature three attributes:

• They must be online (obviously)
• They must involve more than one person
• They must have the functionality to be able to 'meet' new people online

Obviously, you don't actually 'meet' people online, but there aren't any other verbs that I can think of that would fit.

There are many different types of online communities about, but I'll list a few types that I belong to with a short description for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about :).

Forums
A web site in which you can make topics or 'threads', in which other people can reply to. One I regulaly visit is hexus.

Gaming
I'm sure you all know what this, pretty self-explanatory really. I generally play counter strike: source on the hexus server.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
This is a very popular chat network, in which people can join rooms or 'channels' that interest them in order to talk to others who like the same stuff as you. You'll find me hanging about #hexus.cs on quakenet.

vBlogging
Similar to normal blogging (what you're reading now), but made into a video designed to be entertaining. This is an example where you don't have to participate to be part of the community. I'm simply an observer on sites such as youtube.

Well, that was a brief bit about what I consider an online community to be. I may post some more specific examples of how I'm a member of each community I mentioned later.