Virtual communities
By Gregor Gorjan

Virtual communities were made with emergence of new media, specifically the internet. The members in such communities are usually geographically unrelated. But there is some issue that binds them together. Be it computer games, cars, various hobbies etc. they are closely connected through the issue.
What I find interesting is what happens if the issue or theme that binds them suddenly becomes forbidden. It appears that communities also fall apart in such case. I personally witnessed two such events. One was a Firearms half-life modification community. The community was relatively strong with a very lively political debate over firearms issues and it was very much easy to spot republicans and democrats. Suddenly the Half-life engine that was used to run this modification (multi-player online computer game) rapidly change. Half-life 2 came out, there were sudden changes in user checking (WON has changed to STEAM) and many users had problems with it. Suddenly the internal “battle” became more apparent as one group managed to sabotage the discussion board. The community instantly split in two. And soon 2 new modifications started it’s development, both claiming to be the legal successor. For about six months debates were whether this is good or bad and similar. Until recently when many users permanently left the old discussion board and joined to the other, due to often covert pressure from administrators and covert nationalism. But what I am trying to point out is that old community fell totally apart and it all happened very fast.
Another example I had witnessed was a community of old computer games - the so called abandonware site. Abandonware is a term that specifies computer games that are not supported by it’s authors anymore. It is technically still illegal to publish them, however since the author (company) doesn’t exists anymore no one will prosecute you for doing that. Some companies when they go bankrupt even give away the games for free. The site I am talking about was formed 2 years ago. The number of games on site was increasing due to sites policy that every game that is not sold anymore is considered to be abandoned. The number of people in community grew almost exponentially. But then suddenly ESA (Entertainment Software Association) stepped in with a very nasty threat. Apparently some other companies were holding copyrights over a lot of published games and unless we had a specific deal we are allowed to publish them they would have pursued legal action against the owner(s). So a lot of games have been removed form the site overnight, because owner had no other choice. People instantly became rebellious. The discussion boards had most users online at the same time (142 people). And suddenly a large community that was growing became much smaller. A lot of people had seen that since no good games will be on they should leave. They weren’t tied to it as if they would be in real community. And it was easy for them to leave or become a “lurked”. A “lurked” is a person that only watches posts form time to time and doesn’t contribute to debate. So the topic (theme) that was binding them was gone and so were the users. A few left and continued with dedicated work and soon community started to grow back but it will probably never reach previous status (unless there is some world-wide change of policy about copyrights)
Virtual communities, as Rheingold establishes (Rheingold, 1993b), developed their own language. But as things change fast on internet the language development progressed. And now they developed their own writing. The so called “Leet” language (or 1337), which includes jokes outsiders don’t understand and very loose structure. It includes words (and looks) like: h4x0rz, ch34732, n00b, w00t, pwn3d, pwn4g3, kekeke, 11… Leet language appears to be the next stage from so called AOL-messaging language.
Since new languages have developed perhaps even bigger focus should be set to culture within these communities. It appear that most of it is based on sci-fi and Mythical (such as Lord of the rings) series, books, films… It is important to study these communities because they combine intellectual as well as children.
Literature:
Jankowski W. Nicholas. (????) Creating community with Media: History, Theories and Scientific Investigations.
Rheingold, H. (1993b) The virtual community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading MA: Adison-Wesley, Avalilable online: http:www.rheingold.com/vc/book