PBase.com: What makes this a community?
What is a virtual community?
Dictionary definitions
Virtual - not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so
Community - a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals
Into the Blogosphere - Why is PBase a "virtual community"?
According to “Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community in the Julie/Julia Project” by Anita Blanchard, a virtual settlement exists when there are:
- a minimal number of
- public interactions
- comments
- guestbook posts
- pmails
- with a variety of communicators in which
- Estimate from the “all users” page – 440400 users
- there is a minimal level of sustained membership over a period of time.
- March 2002 – over 1 million photos online
- January 2003 – over 8 milliions photos online
Also in the Blanchard article, McMillan and Chavis (1986), a “sense of community” is defined under four characteristics:
- Feelings of membership: Feelings of belonging to, and identifying with, the community;
- Show and Tell Forum – users start a topic, for example, “Vegetables” and show their work and others
- Feelings of influence: Feelings of having influence on, and being influenced by, the community;
- HTML and Stylesheets forum – often filled with users who have questions or want comments or criticism of the CSS stylesheets they’ve applied to their galleries
- CSS –
- “No such thing as a stupid question right?”
- The user, ru1036, wants to change the font size and color of an already existing stylesheet – two users respond with advice on what the user should do
- Integration and fulfillment of needs: Feelings of being supported by others in the community while also supporting them;
- PaD Discussion forum – users post photos and discuss problems or achievements during their progress as a “photo-a-day photographer”
- “Your favorite image...November 13-19,2006 !”
- This is a weekly topic that is started by different users who hope to see other PaD photographers’ most successful or favorite picture of the week
- Shared emotional connection: Feelings of relationships, shared history, and a “spirit” of community.
- Show and Tell Forum – “Snappers meetup – Bristol”
- There are often user-organized meetups in areas with many PBase photographers
- PaD Discussion – “We’ve all been there”
- A user, mesullivan, discusses a very bad week including losing slide film in the mail. Other users comment on her situation and empathize with her misfortune. Some offer advice on how to let it not happen in the future.
