As those who read Usenet can tell you, this definition doesn't come close to describing the online world. True, the Net allows people to talk as equals. But rational argument rarely prevails, and achieving consensus is widely seen as impossible. These are symptoms of the fundamentally different ways identity is defined in the public sphere and on the Net. Traditionally, a person's identity is defined by contact.
Identity is rooted in the physical body.
This stability forces individuals to be accountable for their positions and allows trust to be built up between people. The Internet, however, allows individuals to define their own identities and change them at will. This kind of protean identity is not consonant with forming a stable political community as we have known it. Without embodied copresence, the charisma and status of individuals have no force. The conditions that encourage compromise, the hallmark of the democratic political process, are lacking online.