Are there standard sociological progressions to online communities?

I don’t think it’s like real communities. I think people last in real communities a lot longer than they do in online ones. I also think it is inevitable that online communities come and go. The internet is a HUGE place with so much to sort though. Supersaturated even.
I also think that some people don’t portray their true personalities 100% online. In real life, in real communities it’s hard to not show your personality, but online you can be whatever you want and no one is the wiser. I think that would be something interesting to see… online personalities versus “the real you.”

Not a authority or student of online communities, but:

In the “real” world, we don’t choose the community of our birth.
The only reason we change communities is because our needs/desires aren’t met in the communities we are in. (our, we, my can be and individual or a family)
Usually changes are driven by needs (education, work, cost of living…)
Our needs/desires change as we mature and we tend to shift from physical need concerns to satisfying our desires that we couldn’t “afford” earlier.
The primary difficulty in leaving communities is that we leave behind friends. Real friends in the sense that they are physical and human. We share a range of humaness with these friends. But we know that new friends await us along with the opportunities we seek.

I don’t know why an online community would be different, except that change isn’t driven by physical needs.
In my case, I was doing a search for something and this site came up, so I checked out the information.
I found the site to be an interesting collection of discussions, so I started chipping in my 2c worth.
The questions fall into 3 groups:
Subjects/issues that are highly interesting and to which I’ll aways respond.
Subjects/issues that I have no interest in
Subjects/Issues that fall in between and may or may not inspire a response.
My participation will likely be based on the ratio of the above categories and if the quantity is sufficient to sustain my interest over time.

Of course there is the development of “relationships” to the extent that I can appreciate comments that specific individuals make about the subject. But the relationships aren’t “real” in the sense that they have no physicality. “Leaving” these “friends” isn’t the same as leaving friends in a real community. There isn’t a fundamental sense of loss.

Moving is optional and easy.

It actually does make me a little sad when people leave…even if I didn’t agree with them most of the time.

This has been a topic of great interest to me. While I am relatively new here, I have participated in on line commmumities for a number of
years.

There does seem to be a
definate pattern to things. And
just like real life communities,
people tend to adopt roles that are parallel.

I’m sure someone, somewhere has gotten some ridiculous amount of funding to study the topic

I use it as sort of a hobby. Naturally, there are some ppl on here I like more than others. If I had no spare time or whatever and stopped participating; I don’t think I’d miss it. But it is nice to be able to discuss things with ppl who seem to have a genuine interest.
Not like talking about your intermost secrets to a friend. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger, who has no preconcieved notions about you or your life. Friends tend not to want to hurt your feelings, even if you’re being an ass. Here ppl will tell you upfront, and offer a different viewpoint. To me, that’s the benefit of an online community.

This has been a huge issue on the other social site I joined about the same time as I found Fluther. There has been a lot of controversy and he said/she said stuff, in addition to some new trolls who seem to have nothing better to do than to try to offend people and harrass them. As one of the earliest members there, it is upsetting that our once utopian community seems to have been destroyed, but I feel it will bounce back once the dust settles, and that those who have left will return.

As for Fluther, I have maintained a more objective attitude towards this site, because I never considered it as a “social” site, but rather as a resource. I have learned a lot about others and shared most of my life story, but I never developed bonds with anyone here (although I do have my favorites). I’ve heard there’s a chat room, but have never been invited. I didn’t even know about people leaving, but I am sorry to hear that it is happening here, as well.

I saw a similar progression with Yahoo! Answers, which I joined in the Beta phase. These are the only 3 site that I’ve participated in, and a good friend had the same thing happen in the early days of AOL chat rooms several years ago. So it does seem that there’s a progression; and that the larger the population of the site, the greater the drama.

I think in a way it is inevitable, I am new to fluther and I am loving it. Nothing is static sadly; I doubt I will form deep meaningful relationships here, simply because I see online community as just that. A community of interchangeable people offering help or not in due time and space. I like fluther because it gets me thinking meaning you all do. But I doubt I will feel any pains of anyone staying or going. However, time will tell.