Virtual Communities - Making CyberFriends

Making CyberFriends
So far I have covered the "what" and the "how" (Technology and Tools) now I will discuss the "where", the "who" and the "why".

So Just Where Does One Find a Virtual Community?
As I stated previously a quick search will assist you in locating many online communities. Where you go and what you join will depend on the interests you are looking to share or your reasons for doing so. The services provided my many vary from community to community, just as those in real life do. Some sites provide their services for free and others charge a service for what is offered at their sites. You are not limited to belonging to one community however, one should weigh where you go and what you do with real life commitments. It may also be wise to review the advantages and disadvantages of virtual communities before you join any (covered in more detail later in this essay). WARNING - They can be addicting!
For reference purposes only and not as a recommendation to any particular community I have listed some of those I came across in my travels while researching this essay. The communities available are endless so those listed below are just a small sampling. I also refer frequently to Yahoo/Geocities as this is the community I belong to. Samples or narratives I used to support some of my beliefs will be my own or that of my online friends from Yahoo/Geocities. Want to know more about those listed? - Click on the name of the community.
Cybertown: It is a 3D community with a futuristic look. They provide services such as chat, inbox, message boards and e-mail. Time did not permit me to join (yet) but the information given in their overview indicates the community is 100% free.
Echo: Stacy Horn founded this community in 1990. The community covers topics from A-Z. There is a fee to join this community and it varies depending on the services you wish to use.
Electric Minds: This community claims to be one of the best virtual communities on the Net. It is a world-wide community of conversationalists and offers a complete set of tools and services for building your own virtual communities. Membership to this community appears to be free.
GeoCities: They say they are the largest and fastest growing virtual community on the Web with over 375,000 members, or "homesteaders", participating in over thirty themed communities or "neighborhoods" that cover a wide range of subjects. GeoCities and Yahoo joined forces to provide a more complete service for its members. GeoCities provides a place for its members to set up their websites. The Yahoo side provides services such as chat lounges, games lounges, e-mail, messenger and much more. Together they provide a complete package for their members. I have been a member of Yahoo/GeoCities for about 2 years. The website this essay is located in is part of the GeoCities community.
The Palace: It is a virtual community that has added sound and animation to text chat creating an entirely different experience. You can hang out at a variety of places from the moon to a virtual museum. Here you choose an "avatar" while online as an image chosen to represent you. They do not accept members under the age of 13 and there appears to be no fee to join this community.
Virtual Irish Pub: I found this site quite by accident, but thought it worth mentioning. You can log on as a guest or register and become a regular. Pull up a stool and enjoy a pint of Guinness at the Virtual Irish Pub. They even have a mission statement - "To offer a forum for people to globally congregate and communicate in harmony; regardless of gender/age/nationality/class/color/creed/sexuality or political beliefs". They also provide services such as horoscopes, recipes for cocktails, chat and more. There is a fee for joining this community.
The WELL: It is considered to be the grandfather of all the virtual communities and has existed for 11 years. It is the community most mentioned by Howard Rheingold. There is a fee for joining this community.

Joining Up
So you have surfed around and found a community that looks like a good home for you. Each community has it's own policies and registration forms. The information required to join will vary from community to community. A word to the wise - ensure you read all member policies when filling out the registration forms or your online profile. Some communities share information with other providers or mailing lists of products so read carefully what they can and will do with the information you provide.
Some sites have policies about or restrictions on the age of the member, review this information carefully to avoid a problem such as one I encountered myself. Yahoo allows for you to have more than one online persona against a registered Identity. In error, I put the age as Zero. As age Zero comes up as a child to them I was prompted to prove I was an adult in order to continue my membership in the community and use their services. Currently, the only way they have of verifying this is to provide a valid credit card. You will however not be charged to verify your age. Until I provided them with my credit card information, I was not able to access my e-mail or any other areas.
While Yahoo/Geocities and many other communities charge no fees for their basic services, they do provide extras for a fee. Many other online communities charge registration fees, monthly costs, and more for using their services. Be sure you understand clearly what your costs will be for joining such communities. Speaking of costs of being in a virtual community, you may wish to make sure that your ISP or service provider allows unlimited hours as it easy to rack up hour after hour in an online community and the last thing you need is an amazingly high bill for your time online.

The Who - What's in a Name?
Most online communities allow you to be either yourself or chose a name of your own. In my online travels I have seen some very creative and imaginative names. Most sites limit the number of characters and possibly the characters that can be used. Some have restrictions against foul language being used in an online identity (often referred to as ID).
Just what is in a name? Community members chose their names for a variety of reasons. Some pick their favorite actor/actress, a song, something edible, etc. The reasons behind a name are endless and often a great choice of topic for discussion when someone enters with a provocative ID. For example when I first joined ICQ, I chose the name of Miss Nitro because it was a nickname given to me by my husband since I am an avid fan of drag races (fuelled by nitro). In my yahoo community I am known as hearts_r4me. A name I chose because I collect hearts - jewellery, clothes, ornaments, etc.
The nice thing about it is you can choose your name and if you don't like it or want to be someone else it is quite easy to change your name or even have several names. I met one person who claims for some strange reason (he did not reveal it) to have just under a hundred online identities. The ability to create your own persona gives the online member anonymity. Anonymity is good but creates problems and issues (discussed in later sections).
Last but not least we come to the "why". However that is best answered by looking at the next section Life in CyberSpace. The reasons why will vary from person to person and you must decide for yourself why or for that matter why not to join a virtual community.
Next Section: Life in CyberSpace