Community portals are the simplest way to increase friends who share similar interests as yours. You can put in your personal information, interests and hobbies so that others can invite you to be their friend after viewing your profile. And you have the choice to accept or decline that request. You too can search friends of your choice. In this way you can have many friends of your type and share your feelings. If you know how to use these portals in the right way then these will be of great value. Nowadays, politicians throughout the world have been using these portals to increase their popularity.

Talking about the long lost friends, I caught up with one of my friends from Class I after 10 years through such a portal. But such portals can be quite destructive if you do not know how and for what to use it. Such portals are more likely to cause more harm to immature boys and girls. They may be lured by others to do unwanted things. That is why, they should be careful and aware about such things. These portals if used properly are of great advantage. So, it is you who can manipulate or be manipulated by these portals.

— Bikram Neupane, Naikap

There are various positive and negative aspects of community portals. Some positive aspects are that we can enjoy the moments when we meet our friends and share the happiness and sorrows we faced in our lives. We can also know in which profession our friends are in and build relations accordingly for the future. This will be beneficial for both of us. Some negative aspects are that if the behaviour or nature of the friend is not good, then we may lose our privacy. I once met my schoolmate in a portal. When we were in school, we used to sit, play and eat together. We were like best friends. He told me that he is currently working in investment bank. I told him about my achievements including the prize I won for best worker. He was very kind. He talked about my achievements with his boss. His boss called me up and offered me a lucrative job offer which I accepted. I now currently work in this bank with him. So, I had this good fortune as I became a member of such a portal.

— Sushobhit Pokharel

Community portals have been very beneficial for me to find old friends and to make new friends of different ages, ethnic groups and academic arena. I feel the negative aspects depend on the way we use community portals. We have the options to share our information to the extent we wish to, and hence I find nothing wrong with it. But, there are times people can create a new profile with our names pretending to be us. I haven’t had any bad experiences since I have become a member in Orkut and Facebook. I have found my college friends and I am having great fun interacting and sharing things with them.

— Rajendra Prasad

Pangeni

Every portal has both positive as well as negative effects. Especially talking about community portals, there is no doubt that they have been the best place for internet lovers to share their feelings, choices and often their own personal and family life. In this fast moving world no one has enough time to meet their relatives, friends and close ones. Community portals have been the best solutions to stay in touch to those who are far from their home, family and country. As a user of such portals I have very good relationships with my friends around the world. We share each and every moment of life like happiness, sorrow, celebration etc. Since we are from different cultures and different communities, we also get a good chance to learn about different colours of life. In spite of it being so familiar with no age limit groups of people, it has some limitations too. There is no secure procedure and technique which has control over the abusers of such portals. They have distorted the real meaning and value of community portals. Using vulgar words, uploading pornographic images should stop. Everyone should respect others, which maintains healthy environment within community portals.

— Bhimraj Poudel,

Dhapasi 6

Yes, nowadays such community portals are popular wherever we go. Definitely, such a portal has positive as well as negative sides. But while going to such a public place we should be extra careful about our personal matters. It can be a good place when we share our views and ideas and have fun with our friends. It’s totally up to us to make it a wonderful and beautiful place. But people are misusing such portals by gossiping about unnecessary things. People mostly show off their ego, wealth, material possessi-ons, etc at such community portals. Gossiping about th-eirs and others’ personal matters is another thing people do normally in such a place which is really bad which can create a problem between existing relationships and make them enemies.

— Kes Bahadur Pun,

Simpani, Pokhara

These days community portals have become a very popular place for the gathering of young and old alike. They get a chance to meet even their long lost friends and chat about the past and present too. The positive side of these portals is that people can meet and talk about each other. But the negative aspect of such a portal is that people have to behave according to rule of this portal and cannot go against the rule. They cannot express their individual objections whenever they are unsatisfied with such rules. They have to stay silent though the rule is inconvenient.

— Mohan Narsingh Shrestha, Kupondol

Community portals are actually contributing greatly to keep friends virtually connected in this busy world. In the past, many years ago, whenever people had to settle in different countries or had to go abroad for higher studies, the end of their relationship was inevitable. But with the advent of community portals, the scenario is amazingly different. These portals create a very friendly environment and help long lost friends stay in touch with each other, by sharing messages, photos, jokes and much more. I don’t agree that these portals have anything to do with invading someone’s privacy. The ‘privacy setting’ can always be configured to make sure only friends can view each others profile. I, personally, have never had any bad experience ever since becoming a member of a portal. But I’ve had good experiences almost every time I use such portals. Sharing jokes and ridiculous applications is always fun.

— Sparsh Dutta,

Biratnagar