One of the big online communities I take part in occasionally are the ones on reddit. The great thing about reddit is the ability to communicate with other people and discuss certain topics. The way the website is designed is made to make you feel that you are a part of a community. Moderators personalize the subreddit, which is essentially the online address for the community you want to be a a part of. And posts are made in a way that you can tell how many comments and upvotes there are. The main component that separates reddit from other online forums is that reddit has an easier understanding of how posts should be made and how comments can be used to provide feedback to everyone that wants to be part of the post.
The topics and subreddits can range from video games, to niche hobbies, to rare diseases some people can vent about, and even sources for an even bigger range of help to a problem. One of the communities that I am a part of is an anime from the 90's called Evangelion. Because the anime can be hard to understand for some a lot of people keep coming back to the community and asking questions, and giving answers as to what certain parts of the story mean and symbolize. I have made some posts on this community trying to get feedback and understanding, and mostly everyone is willing to help and explain. Its is not just discussion about the anime all the time, people can post memes, fan art, news about the final movie coming soon, and other things related to the anime. There was another community that i had stumbled upon called "HealthAnxiety". This community was for people who were struggling with anxiety specifically related to their own health or the health of a loved one. It was really something special seeing this community interact with each other and give positivity for people who were in a really dark place mentally. It makes you wonder what other kind of communities is reddit hosting that are really obscure but could still be helpful to others. These are some of the communities that I have been a part of, and with certainty I can say they are communities because there is always interaction with people because of shared interest. One of the biggest reasons why forums fail is because no one is active on them. Whether that be because the theme of the discussion is too broad or people are not interested in discussing at all, reddit succeeds where others fail by designing a platform that helps bring people together without having to show your face ever.
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