Ramblings of a Belgian

Online communities… Where to begin? I will warn in advance that this will jump all over the place as I am collecting stray thoughts and typing out on the spot ideas from reading particular things just now.

I always find it hard becoming part of online communities. I am part of some and with some I still am part of it to this day. Others however I have strayed from because their viewpoint changed, moved away from what had attracted me to become part of the community in the first place. But to actually take part in an existing community? It is hell to me for a couple of reasons.

First off, everyone already knows eachother, to get yourself into the ‘scene’ as the newbie is damn hard. I am sure everyone who has done so can relate to this in one way or another. It is just like in real life when you transfer schools or later in life start at a new job. You are the newcomer and it’ll take time for the oldies to accept you into their established circles. This takes time and in real life we can deal with it much better than online, at least I can. Online it can discourage you if it takes too long to be welcomed into the inner circles. Most times you simply form a new ‘circle’ with the other newbies. You co-exist with the older members but at the same time the gap between the two groups remains noticeable and it can often drive me away from a community. I of course do no expect to get accepted by everyone but it is nice when you’re new to have a veteran reach out to you beyond the obligatory ‘welcome to the x’.

Second one is a whole other playfield. Opinions. As one quote goes “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one and everybody thinks everybody else’s stinks.” Now in the online world usually it is not simply one person that shares the same opinion. It is an online community so usually the opinions will be the same on the matters. So when you as a new guy/girl says something that goes even slightly against this opinion you are marked as a ‘troll’. Hello ‘so not becoming part of this community!’. That is of course if the reactions are so out of line that it becomes counter trolling or for simpler terms, down right rude. A lot depends on how the difference in opinion is voiced but more often than not even if this is with all respect and a complete lack of swearing or rudeness, the old pack will jump down your throat and rip it apart. Only in rare cases will you get a veteran give you a well thought out responce without a single attack on your behalf.
Now this is something that doesn’t even have to happen to yourself when you’re new. You simply have to witness this happen to someone else and be it that he/she deserved it or not, that rude behaviour will create an aversion with the community. It makes you think ‘what if I at one point do not agree with the common opinion of the community?’ It will put a fear in you where you’ll simply keep your mouth shut instead of speaking out in hopes of engaging in an exciting argument/debate over differences in opinion.
It has come to a point where arguments are viewed as bad. Everyone has to think the same. You are either with us or against us, that is how the online community world is most of the time. In a way understandable but in another so discouraging for anyone to hop on the wagon late game.

You can compare it to an online game. You have the ones that play it since the open beta and the official start. Introduce the players that join after the first expansion. In an MMO like WoW this is not at all a problem. There will be people who will simply go ‘Pff noob, stop wasting my time.’ and others will teach these new people, take them under their wing. The difference between new and old is lighter as many older players have alternate characters.
Now we enter the FPS. Here the difference between a first hour player and a two months in player becomes so huge it usually has the new player give up. I have experienced this myself with battlefield 2 as I came late to the game. This being the first Battlefield that introduced unlockables… yeah BF2 doesn’t rank high on my played hours list.

So yeah, I have great difficulty jumping into communities for all those reasons and probably more. Becoming part of a community takes dedication and frankly, all I already typed up plays a huge part in whether or not you believe that dedication to be worth it.
So I believe as a veteran of a community you play an important role. You are to show the new people why it is fun to dedicate their time to the community you are part of. You have to make them want to become part of it.
And this is the problem nowadays… hell who am I kidding, this has always been the problem. New things scare us, it breaks the norm and introduces too much unknown variables.
Yet we all forget that is how we started out way back then. We had to ‘fight’ for our place in the community, to become a respected member of it.
Now the ‘respected’ part is only within the old pack and only till you dare deviate from the accepted viewpoint in the community. It takes only one thing to divide a community, mirroring the real life interactions between any group of friends. So yeah… I guess it’s simply something I need to get over.

Have to add though, I always had far less problems getting into a ‘community’ when transferring schools. Perhaps it’s because we were kids back then… Life was easier then I guess?

I’ll just stop there. I think I vented enough over what came to mind.