Yes, the people, not disembodied anonymous avatars.
It is too easy to ostracize members of a group in online forums, too easy to silence dissent.
My physical neighborhood has a diversity of lifestyles, backgrounds and opinions that just does not exist in a place where people are quick to act on their shallow judgments.
A middle eastern immigrant family, an elderly black couple, a flag and sign maximizing Trump supporter, a Black poet and his African Studies professor wife, a Facebook PR team lead, a retired HP programmer.
To me, this a community. People living together in peace with very different opinions and lifestyles. We’ve all got each other’s backs.
A couple of months ago I marched over to the Trump sign household and had a three hour long conversation with the wife… who surprisingly happened to be a bit of an old hippie and pot head and said she didn’t realize how upsetting some of her husband’s flags were to people. Since then it’s just been an American flag with a “Jesus Loves You” flag beneath. No more crossed AR-15s with skulls!
I'm not sure how that implies that the term "online community" is an oxymoron. As I'm typing this comment I'm watching some friends in a Discord server engaging in a passionate discussion with varying viewpoints on an issue close to them. I'd consider most of them good friends despite the fact that I haven't met half of them in real life. What makes that not a community?
I said “feels like” not “is”. And you’ve also qualified your statement by saying you know half of these people in real life meaning it isn’t purely an online community.
So how do you know these people? And how do those people know the people you don’t know? How did everyone meet? What’s the organizing factor around this particular Discord? Is it purely topical and open to the internet at large or is it an extension of a friend group that met offline?
