Best Online Communities

There are many sites claiming to list the best online communities on the internet. Online communities sometimes post platitudes on their site naming themselves the best. Web awards, such as Weblog, claim to give awards to the best communities based on user votes. With every site claiming to be the best how do you find the right online community?

Finding the best online community for you will require you to do some research. Surf the net, say online community experts, and find communities that fit your needs such as Second Life. Decide whether or not you want to blog and communicate via email or if you want to create an online persona and interact in real time through a virtual environment.

What Floats Your Boat

You will most likely sift through literally hundreds of communities before finding the online community for you. Take time to visit potential communities and spend time reading existing blogs, posts, and comments. If a community you are interested in offers a free membership you can join and see if it is a community you can benefit from. Click here to learn about social communities, and here to learn about chat communities.

Whatever Your Interests…

Whatever interests you have there will most likely be an online community where you can share and interact with others who share the same interests. There are many sites for animal lovers and pet owners. Dog lovers will find just what they are looking for on Dogster and cat lovers should check out Catster.

Citizen journalism is popular among online communities. Citizen journalism allows anyone with a computer to post articles on any subject. Global Voices and NewsVine are two admired communities for citizen journalists.

Are you looking for a mate? The online communities for match making are also the most popular. They advertise on TV and radio and are well known all over the world. Two of the most well-liked dating sites are Eharmony and Chemistry. Several new trendy dating sites are popping up and are lots of fun, according to their users. Nerve and Plenty of Fish are two of the hipper new dating sites.

Education communities can be found in abundance on the ‘net. Great Schools is a site that allows parents to rate and post comments about schools. TappedIn, now closed, was a community for educational professionals. Academics can interact and share what journal articles they are currently reading on Citeulike.

Sites like the popular Second life are virtual reality sites allowing users to create their own virtual worlds. From a realistic living room to a fantasy world populated by mythical creatures these worlds let users stretch their minds and create their own environments. Second Life, Active Worlds, and Runescape are three highly populated virtual worlds.

Are you a doctor? Interact with other doctors on Sermo. Flickr allows users to share and discuss photos and photography. Do you want to find old friends and work mates? Check Facebook. Share your web bookmarks with the rest of the world on Del.icio.us. Role play in popular Fantasy games like World of Warcraft. Find more popular Virtual Communities. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

It is difficult to find the best online communities. Users join communities based on their interests, not because it is highly ranked. The best online communities are not the most populated or most visited. The best online community for you is the one that allows you to interact with others who share your interests. To learn about free online communities, click here. More online worlds info here!