> It's a puzzling Internet we've spawned, I notice at times. Our incredibly diverse cultures and habits blend into one amalgam, a norm, and either we fit in that particular clique or we find another web site to subscribe to. Yet everywhere there seems to be a common belief that we can always find acceptance somewhere, on some forum, in certain company. Why is this? We find a group of netizens with similar interests and assume that we can assimilate ourselves into that group as if we've always been there. The startling truth is that this is not nearly as concrete as we had assumed. Nay, the web is comprised of individuals so varied and conflicting that (it is my theory) true acceptance is utterly impossible. Anywhere. An obstacle always seems to arise that tears groups of Internet "friends" apart and ejects them onto their own separate paths.
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> Take, for example, an African American web forum. Every poster is black, so they share a common bond, correct? I believe otherwise. At first, everything performs like clockwork, but after the superficiality has worn away, each person's true quirks begin to display themselves. So while each user on our example forum is black, some are Muslim, some are Christian, some are atheist... Some are old, others young... Some are left-wing, others right-wing... Some support violent video games and some don't. Yes, some are even vegetarians. Once these differences rear their heads, conflict is born.

I think it depends on *what* exactly is the common bond that brings the community together in the first place. If it's something very broad and general, such as "being African-American" -- something that will attract a VAST range of widely differing people -- they may find they don't really have as much in common as is needed to develop lasting friendships.

I have an impression that most Internet communities are brought together on such tenuous similarities. Or maybe it's a site for people who share one very particular interest, such as fan sites for something or other, or hobby clubs. But even the most demented fan or hobbyist might eventually lose interest, outgrow it or whatever. Or they will simply come to realise that you can't *have* a lasting friendship which is based solely on the eternal discussion of one topic.

I think the reason this community has lasted is because it *isn't* based on us all having the same interests or being members of some superficial category, but on having similar personalities. Or if not similar, at least *compatible* personalities. We were all attracted here by the content elsewhere on Rinkworks, which means that we are all, in some way, similar enough to Sam that we like his work, and therefore we are similar enough to each other to form lasting friendships within the community.