Virtual Community examples

The following are examples of several virtual communities I visit frequently. They are also my responses to Howard Rheingolds statement that virtual communities form “when people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships”.

• VW Vortex.com is is an automobile enthusiast community who’s common interests are engine, suspension and body repairs, modifications, upgrades and enhancements of all models of Volkswagen automobiles. Here one can seek advice for anything from how to change their oil, to upgrading your engine to a VR6 Turbo with nitrous. This website was created by VW enthusiasts for VW enthusiasts for informational purposes.
• FreeAdvice.com is an informational website where one can go to seek any kind of law, legal, or insurance questions or information. It is maintained by nationally renown specialists at dozens of leading American law firms, and by other capable attorneys and legal professionals. This website was created for the sole purpose of helping people understand legal situations better, and to help them handle all sorts of legal issues. FreeAdvice.com has been online for over 10 years now and has over 600,000 topics and answers in their law forums. I have used this website many times in the past to get a better understanding of how to handle certain situations. If I ever have a question regarding law or insurance, I’ll visit this website first before moving on to other sources.
• Overclock.net is a website is geared toward the pursuit of computer performance. Overclocking a computer is a technique that, when applied properly, can yield amazing computer performance improvements. If applied improperly, it can lead to one heck of a headache, or at worst, what I call “F.U.B.A.R.”, Fried Uniformly Beyond All Recognition. I use this website quite often when building computers for people who do not want to pay a whole lot for their machine, but do want to get a whole lot of performance out of it. It’s a great informational hotspot for novice and advanced overclockers alike. But I warn you, don’t play around with this stuff until you’ve done enough research to feel confident that you wont F.U.B.A.R. your computer.

The above virtual communities were formed out of a desire to help others in their quest for knowledge and advice. They were developed primarily as informational tools. How these websites evolve is up to the actively participating virtual community members (and of course, the Webmasters).

I do agree that in any online community there is, and will always be, the potential for users to form personally meaningful relationships with others. However, I do not believe this was the case for the above mentioned websites. If these virtual communities evolve into personal relationship hotspots, great for them, but I do not believe this was the foundational reason why they were created, as Rheingold suggested.