Five Niche Facebook Groups You Absolutely Need To Join

It’s generally acknowledged as a great thing that people have different hobbies and interests. It’s what makes our societies function. But, on the internet, this utility becomes a little less clear. Lurking beneath your Facebook feed of happy engagement photos, babies, and humblebrags is a bizarre and glorious secret world of pages and groups waiting to fill your lives with their incredibly niche joys.

Sometimes a concept may not resonate with many others (Karl Stefanovic: SMUG ROBOT only has one lonely member, while Sock Puppet Burlesque has 21 likes for example) but if someone hits the right nerve, they might find themselves with an unlikely community of members who feel just as strongly about Christian Memes (681,722 likes) or share the same passion for Dried Fruit (53,286 likes).

Feeling left out? Let us to guide you through the wonderfully weird underbelly of Facebook.

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Cool Dog Group

There are a whole plethora of dog enthusiast groups out there with varying degrees of quality. From The REAL Cool Dog Group that contains 80 members and boasts the description “You can all go to hell. You all make me sick. Don’t fuck us about.” to Cool Dog Group – Premium and the contentiously titled Even Cooler Dog Group.

The best and biggest, Cool Dog Group, has 279,997 members who like dogs. A lot.

“Cool Dog Group has become one of the first places I go when I need a pick-me-up,”says long-time member Meg. “When I’m feeling down, I go and check out all the cute doggos and hey presto! Everything’s fine.”

Cool Dog admin James Beavis says that the group originally started as a place for friends to post pictures of cool dogs. “[It] exploded because dogs are a lowest common denominator passion, to a degree — everyone loves them and they’re everywhere so there’s heaps of content and always new content,” he explains.

Meg agrees that the dog-specific content is a win. “I’m just so glad there’s a group that focuses solely on dogs. There are plenty of animal appreciation groups, but I am not so crazy about cats. I don’t dislike them, but if I can see 100 percent dogs, that’s ideal.”

Whether you’re having a ruff day, or need a new leash on life, Cool Dog Group is definitely one of the best places on the internet (sorry).

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Bin Lid Stands

Some art you love because it’s transcendent; its beauty and craft leaves you in awe. Other art can ground you; it reminds you of the ugly or precarious nature of life. The best can do both. Enter Bin Lid Stands.

Where you or I may see a mere rubbish bin, this niche group sees unyielding potential.

“This Facebook page is committed to supporting the sport known as bin lid standing” is the very accurate description, and the content is consistently as promised.

You might think this would get monotonous, but it doesn’t. There is a rich variety both of angling and caption that keeps things fresh, but most refreshingly, the community aren’t snobby, they’re appreciative and united by their passion for the sport.

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Genuinely Stoked Goats

Goats are an animal not celebrated widely enough. With the exception of goat’s milk and feta, we scarcely hear about the creatures themselves. In an effort to correct this grievous error, Genuinely Stoked Goats shows goats in a more natural, down to earth way.

It features the most sublime pictures of happy goats you will ever see in your life, goat puns, and celeb/goat comparisons. Honestly, who knew goats were so derpy and adorable?

There’s so much cute going on here, but the best part might be the tenuous way people tag each other or comment on each photo: “me when I saw your ex in public”, “this goat reminds me of you”, “this goat will be me tomorrow when I see you”.

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Cool Number Plate Group

To the cynic, personalised plates may send a clear message of more dollars than sense, but the self-dubbed “pl8s m8s” view personalised plates as existing for the purpose of being enjoyed, like rare and beautiful flowers.

Cool number plate group admin Angus McDonald describes the group as being made up of “people who see novelty in the statements of the useless artwork of personalised plates”. The submissions are a mixture of plates spotted in action along with posed plate-centric selfies. Of course, the ultimate goal of cool number plates is to take a selfie with a personalised plate car owner. One of the active members, Hannah, says the activity is “like modern day trainspotting”. “[It’s] an elusive goal that I am working towards,” she tells me.

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Tony Abbott Haiku Centre

This page is okay,

Content is quite good at times,

Laugh at the politics.

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Elizabeth is an award-winning journalist and writer living in Melbourne. She would appreciate it if you tweet her puns @Eliz_Beattie.