Communities meet an extremely important need when it comes to the human experience. By nature,
human beings are very social, and they are driven to interact in groups for all kinds of reasons.
Early in our history, communities were formed mainly due to geographical proximity. As
these people interacted, however, they found other reasons to work together in communities. This
included sharing of food and resources, as well as to be able to provide for a common defense.
Over time, man's reasons for forming communities became much more diverse, and the need for geographical
proximity continued to fade. Today, there are countless communities, both on and off-line, whose
purposes include:
- To provide a forum for users to socialize based on common interests or beliefs.
- To empower people to take action to make positive changes in the world.
- To allow people to help one another when they are facing a common difficulty.
- To provide an environment where people can collaborate and work together.
- To share information to help one another.
- To make it possible for businesses to provide support and services.
Clearly, the Internet provides an environment where people to interact without having to be in close proximity.
And for those who are close, it helps them to keep in contact more frequently without having to wait for events
to bring them together.
A good community web site offers several different ways for its members to interact, such as
email, message boards, blogs, chat, live help, private messaging, etc.
It also makes it easy for them to stay in the loop by subscribing to notifications of online events.
And, of course, you as the site owner will benefit from being able
to keep your community in the loop so they are less likely to fade away over time.
Communities OnTheWeb web sites meet your communities needs by:
- Maintaining a complete member database.
- Providing forums for members to interact.
- Creating online discussion boards and live chat rooms.
- Supporting newsletters, blogs, and special announcements.
- Continuously improving and adding new features.