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Being part of an online community can be a wonderful thing. There are many possible benefits, and I would like to tell you about some that I have personally come across, based on my own experience with online communities.

Several years ago, I got my first internet connection at home, and I began meeting and chatting to people online. I met people who lived in my town and others who lived around the world, all from the safety of my bedroom.

At that time, I was a single mother with a 2 year old and a 2 month old. When my children went to bed on an evening (around 6pm) I was alone in the house and had about 6 hours to entertain myself before I went to bed. I spent this time speaking to my online friends in chat rooms, instant messengers and over webcam.

The benefit for me at that time was that I didn't have to be alone. I talked to people about how my day had gone, how my children were doing, usual chitchat that most people have with their family members. I didn't have anybody to speak to in person, but I had plenty of people a click away who I could chat with.

At another point, I was attempting to set up my first website hosted on my own computer and I was having trouble understanding what I needed to do. None of my real life friends knew anything about computers let alone building websites, so I turned to an online community. I found a forum dedicated to helping people set up home web servers and they helped me to find out everything I needed to know to get myself set up.

Later in my life, I found an online community invaluable again. This time, my life was at crisis point. My marriage broke up, and suddenly I was alone. We had moved to a new town and I hadn't met many people there. My family were far away, some on the other side of the world. I was devastated and finding it hard to keep myself together. The online community that I was part of at that time was wonderful. Any time of day or night that I needed somebody to talk to, I opened my web browser and there were a wonderful group of people to talk to, to support me through the tough times and help me see that there would be good times again.

I have found that because people in online communities don't know anything about you that you haven't told them, it is easier to get honest impartial advice from them. They may only have your side of the story, but they also don't have their judgement clouded by not wanting to offend you as your real world friends might. This effect is magnified by joining a new community

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