One of the very common objectives of any online community is to make a virtual spot for people with same interest where they can discuss on a particular subject. Since I started reviewing online communities I came across thousands of such group of people talking on various subjects like movies, music, hobbies, art, games, computers etc. But there was only one community where I saw all community members who have different hobbies, likes and dislikes but one major thing which is common among them is their zodiac sign. No matter if you believe in zodiacs or not but If your zodiac is Virgo then I would like to force you to take a look on Virgo Rulz.
At a very first look, you will find Virgo Rulz like any other forum gaming community on orkut but when you dig inside a bit you will notice a presence of strong and close friendly ties between its members who simply love to be with people who are more proud being a Virgo than any other thing in their life. I have always found Virgos as really good friends and an only zodiac which can tolerate a Taurean like me. Though it is my personal opinion about Virgos but what according to me is really great about this orkut community with more than 100k people is their fantastic sense of humor, a kind of place given to each other and a real fun environment created to make everybody feel comfortable and surrounded.
The community description of Virgo Rulz starts with the following lines
“Traditional Virgo Traits
Modest and shy
Meticulous and reliable
Practical and diligent
Intelligent and analytical
on the dark side….
Fussy and a worrier
Overcritical and harsh
Perfectionist and conservative.”
After scrolling down the community’s page a little, and simply viewing those 5 recently replied topics, one can easily understand what an active community this is. One of the largest thread has more than 400,000 replies and similarly there are many other such active threads, mostly games threads like ‘Most sweet/innocent person above you’, ‘last person who scraps wins’, ‘rate the pic above you’ etc which has stunning number of replies.
The community was started by an IIT, IIM-A graduate Vikas Agarwal who is also an internet savvy person and when orkut was new in India he was just looking for a community of his interest. When asked about the idea of Virgo Rulz, Vikas said that “The community was started with the idea of creating an online community of similar minded people. I thought of various attributes (such as hobbies/ habits, objectives, location, education etc) and finally zeroed on zodiac. Even in those times, there were few communities on Zodiacs (incl. Virgo), the biggest Virgo community had 10,000 members but it had mostly Brazilians and other western people. That’s when I decided to started Virgo Rulz (“VR”) consisting of Virgos of Indian origin only”. Vikas started getting response soon and since then, the community is getting more than 50 joining request every day. It soon became popular among Virgos of orkut and more advancement and changes were added to the existing Virgo Rulz community, like an extension of Virgo Rulz is VR++ where only serious discussions on Virgo zodiac sign are encouraged rather than entertaining games threads. It has 3000 members. More to add, Virgo Rulz expanded its presence to other social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook too.
However, the community Virgo Rulz has comparatively more games threads than any serious discussions but it solves the purpose of online communities to share views, thoughts and make a strong relationship which directly or indirectly affects the society online or offline.
When asked, “Why Virgo Rulz is different than other communities?” Vikas said “VR is probably different in terms of its DNA, people have joined other communities because of their interest which may get change after a while. However, your sun sign is part of your identity and one can’t change his true self. Probably that’s why people love spending time in the community because they are inherently similar in terms of key personality traits.”
The strongest fact of Virgo Rulz which also makes the possibility strong of its long existence is the love and addiction of its members. I am thankful to Vikas for recording opinions of few active VR members which I am sharing with you here:
“Chandni: I have always liked this community, I made great friends here like sharan, neetu, I fell in love with a guy too, got betrayed and hurt, was broken… but life keeps on moving, so am I. I am emotionally attached to this community, I come here, I tease people, I enjoy, I get banned but I love this community and I will never stop coming here.”
“Kushal : I love this community because I got many good friends like Kunal, Ashish, Chandni, Aman. It is my first community on orkut and the only community where I really enjoy and love to be here. Thanks to this wonderful community and its members for being my friend.”
“+Whoops: VR was my first community to chat in and make friends, it meant a lot to me, it helped me learn, how to socialize among people. Not just VR, orkut itself helped me a lot, before orkut I was a Noob in computers but now after 4 years, computer became my passion.”
Like Chandni, Kushal, Whoops and many more VR addicts feel the same, VR community is an amazing example of best real time virtual hangout. With more than 100k members, there is only one moderator to handle the entire community. Kaustabh, who single handedly moderates the community, has proven himself the best after the owner and creator of Virgo Rulz, Vikas Agarwal.
Other interesting things to check upon, is an exclusive VR video created by Chandni on YouTube, more than 150 different pictures/graphics of Virgo on Picasa album uploaded by VR members and many interesting polls on the community page. Virgo Rulz has everything to make you smile. Simply, Virgo Rulz online.
{ 4 comments }
loved your article, thanks for writing this wonderful piece.and special thanks for adding the video, i am sure all community members will like it, really nice work.
keep writing good stuff
Thanks Chandni for appreciating my small effort to feature your wonderful community, I am thankful to all, specially, Vishal and you for helping me out. Thanks to all community members who contributed in this article. Wish you all a very happy new year in advance
Great: YAYAAAAAAAAAAAAYY
Great: YAYAAAAAAAAAAAAYY