What is a community? How can you tell if you belong to a community? Are there different ways of belonging to a community? What communities do you belong to? Why?
[note: I'm going to answer these before I read the other comments, just to see what I think before being cultivated by the thought-plows of others....]
What is a community?
I think there are probably bunches of different flavors with not-entirely-overlapping descriptions, so your communities may vary. Mine probably will too, even from each other. But plunging boldly in, I think community is more in the doing than in the being... no, wait, actually I think that the doing makes the being. Community is something that we make by doing, and the doing is some form of interaction. (I can think of some communities with some members where the arrows only go one direction -- i.e. they get something, but don't give something back -- and I can think of circumstances where that's just fine, but I can't think of any example where those people would be the sustaining members of that community, so I think that communities must have a certain number of members for whom the arrows go back and forth. Hence, interaction.)
How can you tell if you belong to a community?
I notice that some bunch or clump of folks shares news and has some common foci of attention and common media of exchange/interaction; usually I notice this because they start taking up a particular shape of space in my thoughts, I guess.
As for ecological community, I can tell I belong to one when the other members affect my biological processes, and I theirs. But I belong to lots of them probably without noticing. (I find that unfortunate, actually. Hmm.)
Sometimes communities are defined by the namer/line-drawer. There's lots of overlap that way, and some definitions are more understandable/useful to me than others.
Are there different ways of belonging to a community?
Almost certainly.
What communities do you belong to?
Um. The ones I can think of off-hand are: fandom; sorta-kinda-on-the-outskirts of con-running fans & SMOFs (there are no SMOFs! Fnord!); women-type people around my region who are interested in spirituality and creativity and right living, especially the ones that go to a retreat I go to each year; (some of) the fantasy writing community/ies; the Village, which is a part of Baggiecon, which is a large clump of folks who camp near one another at the Winnipeg Folk Festival each year in Manitoba; an amorphous large time-transcending community of artists; the Midwest bi communities; and so forth. Oh, and my home town: although I am far from it now, there's still a way in which I will always belong to that community.
Why?
Dunno. I followed what I cared about, and that's where I ended up. Or else I got born there, and they shaped me (and possibly a little bit vice-versa too).
Why one stays in 'em is an interesting question too, I think....‡
usually I notice this because they start taking up a particular shape of space in my thoughts
I recognize that, yes. Thanks for that description.
I notice you don't mention any online groups (alt.poly, LJ) in your list of communities. Do you think online groups aren't or can't be communities? Or is it something about you, that you don't feel community-ish about online groups?
Why one stays in 'em, yeah. Kind of like why one stays in some relationships when they have difficulties. Why one might feel fascinated by communities that might not be the greatest thing for one. blah blah blah...
I notice you don't mention any online groups (alt.poly, LJ) in your list of communities. Do you think online groups aren't or can't be communities? Or is it something about you, that you don't feel community-ish about online groups?
Neither, actually. There are a lot of communities I could list but didn't; that list was in no way intended to be exhaustive, or even be anything other than a few examples of various sorts just off the top of my head at that moment.
If someone asked about on-line communities I was part of, I'd probably start by listing (semi-chronologically):
MUGgers and MERITSS people, particularly those who played Karnath (a game by Tom Arachtingi and Bill Seurer, lo these many years ago; I was Snark, and a few other characters, if anybody from that long ago ever happens to read this. While the interactive opportunities were minimal, they were not entirely lacking, so it counts, in my mind....)
I never really got to hang around the Mines of Moria bunch on Plato much, so that was a bunch I only caught the smallest glimpse of, but it was pretty tantalizing at the time....
FidoNet and the echoes thereof, also lo (almost) these many years ago; particularly the Feminism echo....
alt.polyamory
I recognize alt.callahans as a community, although I am just a lurker-in-the-rafters and an infrequent one at that; I went to alt.callahans before alt.poly existed, though, so these two should probably be swapped around
the WELL (I forget when I started on the WELL; I should go look it up. It was either late 80's or early 90's, and probably the latter....)
... and a few other places -- including the few, the proud, the absolutely barking mad Mob from 104, alt.well.fans.neil-gaiman *snrch*
Oh, and I used to be a very small-time member of alt.shoe.lesbians, back when....
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What is a community?
I think there are probably bunches of different flavors with not-entirely-overlapping descriptions, so your communities may vary. Mine probably will too, even from each other. But plunging boldly in, I think community is more in the doing than in the being... no, wait, actually I think that the doing makes the being. Community is something that we make by doing, and the doing is some form of interaction. (I can think of some communities with some members where the arrows only go one direction -- i.e. they get something, but don't give something back -- and I can think of circumstances where that's just fine, but I can't think of any example where those people would be the sustaining members of that community, so I think that communities must have a certain number of members for whom the arrows go back and forth. Hence, interaction.)
How can you tell if you belong to a community?
I notice that some bunch or clump of folks shares news and has some common foci of attention and common media of exchange/interaction; usually I notice this because they start taking up a particular shape of space in my thoughts, I guess.
As for ecological community, I can tell I belong to one when the other members affect my biological processes, and I theirs. But I belong to lots of them probably without noticing. (I find that unfortunate, actually. Hmm.)
Sometimes communities are defined by the namer/line-drawer. There's lots of overlap that way, and some definitions are more understandable/useful to me than others.
Are there different ways of belonging to a community?
Almost certainly.
What communities do you belong to?
Um. The ones I can think of off-hand are: fandom; sorta-kinda-on-the-outskirts of con-running fans & SMOFs (there are no SMOFs! Fnord!); women-type people around my region who are interested in spirituality and creativity and right living, especially the ones that go to a retreat I go to each year; (some of) the fantasy writing community/ies; the Village, which is a part of Baggiecon, which is a large clump of folks who camp near one another at the Winnipeg Folk Festival each year in Manitoba; an amorphous large time-transcending community of artists; the Midwest bi communities; and so forth. Oh, and my home town: although I am far from it now, there's still a way in which I will always belong to that community.
Why?
Dunno. I followed what I cared about, and that's where I ended up. Or else I got born there, and they shaped me (and possibly a little bit vice-versa too).
Why one stays in 'em is an interesting question too, I think....‡
no subject
I recognize that, yes. Thanks for that description.
I notice you don't mention any online groups (alt.poly, LJ) in your list of communities. Do you think online groups aren't or can't be communities? Or is it something about you, that you don't feel community-ish about online groups?
Why one stays in 'em, yeah. Kind of like why one stays in some relationships when they have difficulties. Why one might feel fascinated by communities that might not be the greatest thing for one. blah blah blah...
no subject
Neither, actually. There are a lot of communities I could list but didn't; that list was in no way intended to be exhaustive, or even be anything other than a few examples of various sorts just off the top of my head at that moment.
If someone asked about on-line communities I was part of, I'd probably start by listing (semi-chronologically):
MUGgers and MERITSS people, particularly those who played Karnath (a game by Tom Arachtingi and Bill Seurer, lo these many years ago; I was Snark, and a few other characters, if anybody from that long ago ever happens to read this. While the interactive opportunities were minimal, they were not entirely lacking, so it counts, in my mind....)
I never really got to hang around the Mines of Moria bunch on Plato much, so that was a bunch I only caught the smallest glimpse of, but it was pretty tantalizing at the time....
FidoNet and the echoes thereof, also lo (almost) these many years ago; particularly the Feminism echo....
alt.polyamory
I recognize alt.callahans as a community, although I am just a lurker-in-the-rafters and an infrequent one at that; I went to alt.callahans before alt.poly existed, though, so these two should probably be swapped around
the WELL (I forget when I started on the WELL; I should go look it up. It was either late 80's or early 90's, and probably the latter....)
... and a few other places -- including the few, the proud, the absolutely barking mad Mob from 104, alt.well.fans.neil-gaiman *snrch*
Oh, and I used to be a very small-time member of alt.shoe.lesbians, back when....
And some more.'
no subject
I love this group...