Topics are the lifeblood of any digital community, the single most reliable indicator of a community's vitality and life-span. Again, Slashdot is a relevant example, a new kind of website. Recently, it's broadened to include those subjects and a growing focus on technology and culture. As it grows and broadens, some of its self-appointed border guards have become increasingly agitated and resentful. Sites are also affected by internal political divisions and factions which crop up wherever humans gather.
Online communications are fluid, continuously evolving.
Mailing lists and messaging software make it easier than ever to form smaller, adaptive communities - buddy, family, friend and work lists. It's striking how timid the most fearsome flamers become face to face. Big open websites with anonymous postings foster no such restraint. The Net is the freest medium in the world. Almost everyone reading this probably hopes it will remain that way, even as it comes under growing pressure from encroaching greedy corporations and government regulators.