Casual visitors to VideoSift might use it simply as an aggregator that points them to better-than-average video content, but regular contributors clearly put a significant amount of time and effort into their posts, comments, channels and blogs. I suspect that the feeling of participating in a community is an important part of the motivation for this activity.

In a "real world" community, we often see that people volunteer their time in the interest of improving and maintaining the community: it feels good, it benefits everyone, it helps people socialize with like-minded fellows and it also builds social capital for active and visible members. I'd like to see a discussion on the community aspect of VideoSift and how important this is for users of this site.

For example (these are just to get your mental gears turning; feel free to answer some, all or none of these in your response):

* Can you describe the feeling of community that you associate with VideoSift?

* Is your level of activity on VideoSift similar to that of other communities you may be a member of (virtual or otherwise)?

* What kind of community is VideoSift? E.g.: PTA, Scouts, high school, street gang, reading circle, sports team, merry pranksters, Shriners, neighborhood?

* How would you compare the community atmosphere of VideoSift to that of other similar sites, such as Digg, StumbleUpon or YouTube? Or any other types of sites, forums or newsgroups you can think of?


(Please note that responses to this topic may be used in a term paper I am writing about "voting community" sites as a new type of medium for communication and self-expression. I will discuss the basic genre, but will be focusing on VideSift because it is my favorite. See my profile text for more.)