An online community (also known as a virtual community) is a group of people who have membership on a website and share common personal or professional interests. The online community may participate in forums, chat rooms, web and personal profile page publishing, status updates, gaming, and much more.
Some older examples of online communities include Geocities, SomethingAwful, and Tripod; newer examples include MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Online communities often have internal hierarchies that range from "newbie" (a new member) to veteran members. They often have volunteer administrators (admins) and moderators (mods) to ensure community peace and rules are upheld.
The online community of certain games, particularly MMOs (massively multiplayer online games), is viewed as vital to their survival.
The guides below highlight various online and virtual communities, whether through social networking sites or online games.
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