15 online community examples and what they do well

What the best online communities have in common

None of these communities rely on people just hanging out. Each has one clear job, rules members can see, and a mechanic that rewards the people who show up most. Here's the short version before the details.

15 online community examples

1. Stack Overflow

Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky launched Stack Overflow on September 15, 2008, and it now holds over 24 million questions. Its tour is blunt: "It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat." Reputation unlocks privileges, from 15 points to upvote to 2,000 to edit others' posts and 10,000 for moderator tools.

Copy this: one narrow job, with trust earned through reputation.

2. Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia on January 15, 2001. On October 29, 2026, English Wikipedia counted 7,256,930 articles and 270,134 active registered users. Editors work under the Five Pillars, which include a neutral point of view and civility.

Copy this: a few written principles that let strangers collaborate.

3. r/AskHistorians

Founded on August 28, 2011, the subreddit had over 2.7 million subscribers in April 2026. Answers must be in-depth, comprehensive and sourced, moderators remove the rest, and a 20-year rule keeps out questions about recent events.

Copy this: strict quality rules attract experts instead of scaring them off.

4. Hacker News

Paul Graham started the site in February 2007 and renamed it Hacker News that August; Y Combinator owns and funds it. The guidelines include "Be kind. Don't be snarky," and downvoting stays locked until members pass a karma threshold of about 500.

Copy this: short rules, active human moderators and earned downvotes.

5. MetaFilter

Matt Haughey created MetaFilter in 1999. Creating an account costs a one-time US$5, and new members must wait one week and take part in a front-page thread before posting one of their own.

Copy this: a tiny fee and a short wait filter out spam and drive-by trolls.

Tip: Friction doesn't have to be expensive. A US$5 one-time fee, a one-week wait or a karma threshold changes behavior more than a long rulebook.

6. Ravelry

Casey and Jessica Forbes beta-launched Ravelry for knitters and crocheters in May 2007. Its about page counts "over 9 million" members and nearly half a million patterns.

Copy this: anchor the community to a tool people need anyway.

7. Indie Hackers

Courtland Allen created Indie Hackers in August 2016, sold it to Stripe in April 2017 and spun it back out as an independent business in March 2023, with Stripe as a seed investor. Founders share their stories transparently, and members give and receive feedback and support.

Copy this: a norm of sharing real numbers gives people a reason to return.

8. LEGO Ideas

Fans submit set ideas, and a project needs 100 supporters in its first 60 days to stay active, then more supporter milestones on a deadline, up to 10,000, to qualify for one of LEGO's "three reviews each year." If LEGO produces it, the creator gets 1% of the total net sales plus 10 copies.

Copy this: give members a real stake in the outcome.

9. Strava clubs

Strava says it has over 195 million athletes in more than 185 countries. Club leaderboards reset at 11:59 pm every Sunday, showing the top 100 on the web and the top 10 in the app.

Copy this: weekly resets keep leaderboards winnable for regular members.

10. Figma Community

Figma introduced Community in beta on October 22, 2019, as a public space to publish live design files "that anyone in the world can inspect, remix, and learn from."

Copy this: let members build on each other's work.

11. Product Hunt

Ryan Hoover started Product Hunt on November 6, 2013 as an email list, and AngelList acquired it in 2016. New launches are ranked daily by the community.

Copy this: a daily ritual with a fresh leaderboard builds a visiting habit.

12. Kaggle

Kaggle lists "34M+ Members" and a progression system with Expert, Master and Grandmaster tiers, earned through Bronze, Silver and Gold medals. A member's overall tier is their highest tier in any track.

Copy this: tie status to demonstrated skill, not post count.

13. Harley Owners Group

Harley-Davidson created H.O.G. in 1983, and Wikipedia lists over 1 million members. Local chapters are sponsored by dealerships and run by volunteers.

Copy this: give an online brand community offline chapters.

14. Apple Support Community

Apple's forum has 10 levels, from 0 to 80,000 points. Members earn 6 points per helpful upvote, up to 30 per reply, and Level 6 unlocks a private area called "The Lounge."

Copy this: recognize helpfulness, and customers will answer each other's questions.

15. Lenny's Newsletter

Paid subscribers pay $20 a month or $200 a year and get "a thriving private Slack community (30k+ members strong!)" along with meetups and AMAs.

Copy this: bundle a private community into the paid tier.

When a community disappears: Sephora

Sephora's Beauty Insider Community forum went read-only on June 3, 2026 and was retired in August 2026, taking member threads, badges and ranks offline. A brand community lasts only as long as its owner wants it to.

Note: Before you pick a platform, confirm you can export every member, post and comment, and keep a copy somewhere you control.

How to apply these lessons

CommentCamp, our product, is a free way to build your own community on your website: comments and community spaces for blogs and WordPress sites, with optional member levels, quests, helpfulness badges, Q&A with accepted answers and reactions, so lessons like rewarding helpful answers carry over. It's $0 for site owners, and WordPress comment import, full data exports and an optional local comment mirror are on the roadmap to keep your content portable. It's in private early access, so join the waitlist for an invite.

Whatever you build on, pick one mechanic, not five: a narrow job, a visible rule set or a weekly reset. Our guides on how to build an online community, community gamification and the best community platforms cover the next steps.