Any good online communities to research?

I have this weird class called Writing 1: Cyberspace and our professor asked us to "explore" an online community and then write about it. I wanted to know if there are any interesting online communities out there. Parameters: no pornographic stuff or anything inappropriate in that respect, nothing that will cause "psychological damage" (nothing that will brainwash), and it should have things like forums, chats, etc.. I was looking more along the lines of political communities but if there is anything interesting that isn't political, that's fine too... thanks in advance!

Any good online communities to research?
I think a really interesting community is the Second Life community. I've spent a day or two zipping around Second Life world, but apparently there's more going on there than I experienced. I've heard about people who have Second Life spouses, businesses, homes, etc, that are separate from their real lives. There is also a way to make actual money in Second Life! I'm not sure how, but there's even a linden to dollar exchange rate. Linden is the Second Life monetary exchange (at least, I think that's what it's called). It's definitely worth checking out!





www.secondlife.com
Reply:Well, one interesting community would be Wabuf. Its actually neat how they went from just a bunch of kids who did some drawings, to a community filled with artists. They also have a lot of people there that have a unique sense of their own.





http://forums.wabuf.com