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I was encouraged by a little nudge from Aaron over at Personal Development Partners to report on my progress from a committed goal of getting back to regular exercise in November.  Although the topic over there is very interesting, I would like to say a few words about the value of web communities.

People might wonder, “Why would I sit online and type short messages to people I may have never even met?”  Ok, for most other people they would be short messages – I don’t seem able to do that.  That’s neither here nor there; it’s not my point.  My point is that many people don’t see the point.  Get my point?

So I want to give you a few reasons why I feel that it is beneficial to find a community that you can join – and contribute to.  Just going and reading forums can be addictive – there’s a voyeuristic quality to it.  That’s why they call it “lurking,” as in lurking in the shadows.  So why participate in these communities.  Oh, oh, I feel a list coming on…

1. You get to meet distant people.  Sure you can meet people in real life.  But from Australia?  From Guatemala (or Canada 😉 )?  Not much of that happening pretty much in the populational and geographical center of the ole’ U.S. of A. (actually that center is about 2 hours south and west of here, but close enough.)
2. You can find people with similar interests.  This beats bar hopping!  I know people who have had romantic involvements with people that went really bad.  “Why did this happen to me?” they moan.  Well what did you have in common?  You both were willing to troll around in a smoky bar looking for love in all the wrong places.  Why not go where you can find people with the same mindset and interests as yourself.  I also know people who have met online and gotten married (well, only two off the top of my head – but that’s not insignificant!).  They knew (and loved) each other from the inside out.  Which brings me to my next point.
3. You get to know people by their character and their thoughts and opinions – not just their looks.  One of the big advantages to online communities is you don’t have the problem of judging the book by the cover.  You are forced to at least skim the contents.  I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of an online community and then have a party were members came from near (mostly near – this was college days…) and far (like states away…) to meet in person.  It is a huge shock!  There was one guy who was a close friend online, but when I met him I thought, “If I saw him coming down the street my way, I’d cross to the other side for safety!”  Hey, King Zombie, if you’re out there drop me a line… I haven’t heard from you for forever!  — Elias  (sorry about that, but you never know what Google will dredge up…?)
4. You get to have your own thoughts and assumptions about life challenged and stretched.  You can do this in person as well, but with such a high concentration of activity online – it is magnified and intensified.  There’s nothing like an advanced course in multiple perspectives that will open your eyes to how small your world view has been.
5. Oh, come on, there’s got to be at least 5 reasons!!  Oh here’s one, “they’re always there for you.”  No not in the sense of emotional support, although that’s available in many places.  I mean that it’s a place that’s jumpin’ in all 24 time zones.  It doesn’t matter when your where you are – you can hop online and engage with others.

Well that’s a little starter for reasons to participate with others online.  Now I’m still learning all this social networking stuff (is that the same as Web 2.0? I don’t really think so…  Ok, don’t drift off – stay on target…).  So I’m going to take this opportunity to try to link this post over to the community mention in the title up there.  I’m also going to do what I see at the end of so many other blog posts – let’s see how this works…

So, how about you?  Do you participate in online communities?  Why or why not?  Do you have other reasons why you do(n’t)?  Leave a comment here and tell me, er I mean us, about it.

(not too cheesy was it?  I sure hope I have my comments functionality properly enabled.  That would be embarrassing wouldn’t it?  I probably should’ve checked before I posted.  No time now, if I don’t go exercise I’ll miss my window of opportunity and have to go on to work!)

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