Community Research

Tue 11 Dec 2012, 11:03

Really interesting question.

I think the crucial thing about the Charlbury Website is that it expressly tries not to be a "virtual community". Rather, it's an electronic facility for the existing "real community". That's why we insist on real names (which is very rare among online forums) and have a strong set of guidelines about civility and so on. I've always thought that the website should conduct itself in such a way that you might expect to meet another user in the Co-op or the pub or on the street the next day.

Offline communications still thrive; the Charlbury Chronicle (the town's newsletter) is as strong as ever, and the noticeboards are still full. My gut feeling is that older people tend to prefer the Chronicle and younger people the website, but that's an over-generalisation. The website seems to have become the place for "small ads" which would once have been posted in the newsagents' window.

Probably the website's greatest single-issue successes have been raising the issue of the poor-quality train service a couple of years ago, and providing information when Charlbury's been snowed in or flooded - it's noticeable that the number of visits always shoots up in such circumstances.

But most important, I think, is that the website provides an opportunity for people to find out what's going on in Charlbury, and so connect residents with the societies and businesses around the town - which helps them remain viable. It's also something of a "shop window" for the town: I've met people who say that the impression given by the website of a friendly, bustling town encouraged them to move here.

We currently get between 4,500 and 5,000 unique visitors a month, and have 1,600 registered, confirmed users. Given that Charlbury has a population of 3,000, that's not too bad. I occasionally wonder about setting up a website to provide a similar service for wider West Oxfordshire (seeing the number of Chadlington, Finstock etc. businesses and societies who ask to post here, and who we have to disappoint) but have never quite had the time!