The Search for Deeper Meaning in the Online Vampyre Community

Something that I've noticed regarding the Online Vampyre Community is that once all of the questions are answered, we are still left seeking. By "the questions" I mean "Am I a vampyre," "How do I feed," and similar Vampyre 101 topics. After polling an extremely small portion of the online community on the question "What do you think is the biggest deficiency in the online vampyre community," the top response was "deeper meaning."

There is plenty of social interaction in the online community for those that seek it. There are even plenty of practical resources for feeding, both sanguinary and energetic, for those willing to seek them. It seems that a deeper meaning is what we are most lacking. Discussing and debating etiology and philosophy sometimes produces fruit but really, after we know who is who and how to feed what really is left to do other than to share memes and argue with one another?

One suggested remedy to the lack of deeper meaning was to bring the community back to in-person meetups and groups. While I feel there is merit to this line of thinking I also think that it has its own shortcomings. In-person meetings and groups will no doubt help forge deeper connections between people and people are much more likely to act on their best behavior when discussing or debating face-to-face. However, that doesn't really solve the issue of finding deeper meaning. The one instance where in-person meets may help with meaning is if the meets are built around a common goal or belief system, in which case we have what amounts to a House or Clan. There's nothing wrong with that but, depending on how strict you want to be with the definition of House or Clan, the same thing can be done exclusively online.

Even if we hypothesize the in-person meet as a place for mostly like-minded individuals to get to know one another and discuss beliefs and experiences, it’s inevitable that different cliques will develop based around shared experience. These groups of even more like-minded individuals will branch off to do their own thing and possibly form a House or Clan (which could mostly be done online in the first place). I’m being speculative, but it’s easy to see how the argument for in-person meetings as a source of deeper meaning can become circular.

This brings me to my suggestion: deeper meaning will naturally evolve out of a common goal. Unfortunately, finding a singular common goal among the members of the online vampire community is a challenging task. Any attempt to do so would result in splinter groups forming devoted to one philosophy or other and it could also possibly spur conflict with other groups. We would be taking a step backwards in the "community" sense. In the other direction, it could even be said that simply having online spaces that are so open and welcoming to every flavor of vampyre identity does a disservice toward finding a common goal to latch onto.

Maybe the best course of action would be to find a personal goal to work toward within the community in order to bring one's participation greater meaning. Maybe that meaning is educating newcomers. Maybe that meaning is researching and documenting the history of the community. Maybe that meaning is networking in order to start an in-person group in your region. 

Ultimately I think the quest for deeper meaning in the online vampyre community is a lot like the quest for deeper meaning in life. I'm not sure that any one person can tell you what any of it means. The nihilist will say that you have to provide your own meaning. I think that the important thing is that we're all here, together, helping each other as best we can. The fact that we even still congregate and ask these sorts of questions says a lot about our investment in the vampyre community overall. Afterall, if we're not here to help each other then why are we here at all?