With intensified boom of forums nowadays, you may find yourself asking “What do these online communities have that they are slowly but surely spreading like wildfire?”For starters, let us name a few good things one can get from joining in forums.
First and foremost,
reason why forums are so popular is because they are engaging. In a forum, “forumers” are given
maximum real person to people interaction. Unlike Chats or Instant Messaging, a forum can let a person interact with not just one or two persons; in a forum, you can practically let
entire world know about what you think or feel. And what is more beautiful is that there can be anonymity in a forum. Well, being anonymous has its own advantages and disadvantages but let us not dwell on it. The important thing about it is that, in a forum, you can choose to be or not to be anonymous.
Another very nice thing about forums is that they provide participants
feeling of community and kinship with other forum members. Even if at times, you may not know each other, it is comforting to know that you share things in common. In most instances, participants really develop connection; we are not talking about internet connection but a real personal connection. Sometimes, conversations just don’t end up in
forums; others may even correspond in emails and end up talking on
phone. In other words, by participating in a forum, access to companionship, acquaintances, closeness and even relationships, is easy.
Aside from
social interactions happening in forums, there are also forums that are more into
professional side and/or forums that target a specific community such as forums for
marketing community, for
writing community, for oppressed women, for women in general, and even for specific societies and organizations. The same thing goes for this kind of forums; people interact, share ideas, plans, help and support each other and/or simply talk to each other. The only difference is that they mostly talk about a specific topic. For instance, a forum for women only talks about issues that are unique to women such as PMS, menopause, make-up tips, women’s career and
like.