Hi Christopher:
> What are we doing right that the rest of the Internet isn't?
>
> Are OM shooters just naturally more cultured and intelligent?
As a 4 year SysOp veteran on America Online, I have a few observations on that
subject. First, message boards and mailing lists have the potential to
develop a community if there is long term interaction among the members/users.
Users have to find that the content is valuable enough to visit it on a
regular basis. Contributors need to get a sense that their expertise is
valued and lurkers need to find out that they can get a great education by
taking the time to regularily review the content. When those things happen,
the Internet is at its finest as a comminications and education vehicle. It
takes a few years for any list to develop such a following. When it does it
is kind of magical.
I've lived in many places and have always noted that the more isolated folks
are the more they take an effort to interact. It seemed one of the loneliest
places to live are in cities, where often people have poorly developed
communities. From a physical viewpoint, there is nothing more isolated than
people in Cyberspace, but the paradox is that the ease of communications in
this medium creates great potential for free communications.
Another factor here is that hobbiests long to find comrades with equal
interest and knowledge. Not many kids were into collecting U.S. commerative
postage stamps when I was a pre-teen, so I had only a local shop owner to
interact with on that. Had the Internet existed, I could have done trading
and sharing of knowledge with anyone having the same access. I recent watched
my son discover a Magic The Gathering (collectable cards) following on the
Internet, as well as the buying and selling of cards on the Internet. What I
see is that the Internet has allowed use to shrink the world with respect to
our interests. IMHO, the Internet is of the utmost value in increasing the
quality of life in todays world. One can find like minded people with even
the most obscure interests on the Internet.
The best places are those in which we can expect that fact will prevail over
fiction. In the early stages of gestation, message boards and lists seemed
filled with unchallenged opinions. As a community of experts evolve, users
can expect that truth will prevail. That seems like a rare thing in a medium
where anyone can say anything. Folks value truth and community - wowfully
lacking in modern society - hence they appreciate a virtual community, even if
it is a strange concept to others.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
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