The discussion begins with justin explaining what an online community is—groups of people connecting via the internet around shared interests, often using forums, chat rooms, or mailing lists. He highlights the difference between online communities and social networks, emphasizing that communities are intentionally built for deeper engagement, relationship-building, and long-term interaction, unlike the more passive, broadcast-focused nature of social media. He also contrasts communities with audiences, noting that communities prioritize meaningful discussion and personal connections over rapid growth or information dissemination. Othman_tork expresses uncertainty about whether they belong, to which JimPas warmly welcomes them, explaining that membership is automatic upon joining and encouraging participation. vegankasap shares a personal realization of what it means to feel part of a community, while Judy_Hawkins describes building a thriving, engaged community on Discourse after migrating from NaNoWriMo. BhaskarBhusari praises the democratization of online communities and their potential to support democratic structures.
Everyone everywhere is looking for community. Sometimes community is found in person. Other times it’s found elsewhere. One of the most prominent alternative places to find community is online. So what is an online community? Let’s find out!
Hello!
The whole subject is new to me and I guess I need extra support as I still don’t know if I am a part of the community or not
Please, help
Hello @Othman_tork, welcome to the community! 
Whether you are speaking of this forum - Meta - or another one, once you join you are part of that community. How much you engage in will help you get more comfortable posting and replying to people. If you find you can help something with a problem, by all means suggest something.
While many/most of what is on here on Meta is “technical,” many posts are not. You can find a good number of topics in the Community category. You can find that by clicking on the hamburger menu between the search icon and your avatar at the upper right. Then click on Community.
The best way to get a feel for a forum is to check out topics in different categories.
If you have a specific problem you can post it in an existing topic about your problem or start a new topic for it.
Again, welcome to the community.
I was like “where i am, what is this” then i started to realize what community means and how it feels to become a member of a community, without even understanding it. Thanks. This is nice to feel welcomed in a verse. 
I’m a member of a community that coalesced on a large forum, NaNoWriMo.
Over the course of a few years, we’d all been showing up on the same topics that had a culture of being nice to each other, both general topics (What got you smiling today?) and topics particular to writing.
Then Nano melted down, and I spearheaded a move to our own little Discourse instance and we are now just shy of a month with a dozen of us generating posts all over the place. I’m the Admin, and I’m watching with delight our very engaged statistics. We’re working at collecting more of our scattered flock.
There’s plenty of ways to define “community” but being part of one that is delighted to show up daily and share our successes and difficulties and like each other’s posts all over the place – it’s great.
Wow!
@justin , such a great introduction to subjects.
When really the democratisation of such communities happen, they will be a great support to existing democratic frameworks in whatever form and wherever they exist 
