|
==Introduction==
The traditional definition of a community is of geographically circumscribed entity (neighborhoods, villages, etc.). Virtual communities are usually dispersed geographically, and therefore are not communities under the original definition. Some online communities are linked geographically, and are known as community websites. However, if one considers communities to simply possess boundaries of some sort between their members and non-members, then a virtual community is certainly a community.<ref name="autogenerated1998">{{cite book|last=Pears,|first= Iain. |date=1998. |title=An Instance of the Fingerpost.|location =London: |publisher=Jonathan Cape.}}</ref> Virtual communities resemble real life ''[[communities]]'' in the sense that they both provide support, information, friendship and acceptance between strangers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wellman |first=B |year=1999 |title=Networks in the global village: life in contemporary communities |publisher=Avalon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhuOBRPS-pUC&q=impacts+of+virtual+communities&pg=PA331 |isbn=9780813368214 |access-date=4 November 2020 |archive-date=12 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512105935/https://books.google.com/books?id=vhuOBRPS-pUC&q=impacts+of+virtual+communities&pg=PA331 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While in a virtual community space, users may be expected to feel a sense of belonging and a mutual attachment among the members that are in the space.
One of the most influential part about virtual communities is the opportunity to communicate through several media platforms or networks. Now that virtual communities exists, this had leveraged out the things we once did prior to virtual communities, such as postal services, fax machines, and even speaking on the telephone. Early research into the existence of media-based communities was concerned with the nature of [[virtual reality|reality]], whether communities actually could exist through the media, which could place virtual community research into the social sciences definition of ontology. In the seventeenth century, scholars associated with the [[Royal Society]] of London formed a community through the exchange of letters.<ref name="autogenerated1998"/> "Community without propinquity", coined by urban planner [[Melvin Webber]] in 1963 and "community liberated", analyzed by [[Barry Wellman]] in 1979 began the modern era of thinking about non-local community.<ref>{{cite book|last=Webber, |first=Melvin. |year=1963. "|chapter=Order in Diversity: Community without Propinquity." Pp. |pp=23–54 in |title=Cities and Space: The Future Use of Urban Land, edited by |editor=J. Lowdon Wingo. |location=Baltimore: |publisher=Johns Hopkins Press.}} {{cite journal|last=Wellman, |first=Barry. "|title=The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers." |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=84 (|issue=5|date=March 1979): |pp=1201–31.|jstor=2778222}}</ref> As well, [[Benedict Anderson]]'s ''[[Imagined Communities]]'' in 1983, described how different technologies, such as national newspapers, contributed to the development of national and regional consciousness among early nation-states.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson, |first=Benedict. |date=1991. |title=Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. |location=London: |publisher=Verso.}}</ref> Some authors that built their theories on Anderson's imagined communities have been critical of the concept, claiming that all communities are based on communication and that virtual/real dichotomy is disintegrating, making use of the word "virtual" problematic or even obsolete.<ref>{{cite book|last=Prodnik|first=Jernej|chapter=Post-Fordist Communities and Cyberspace|editor=H. Breslow|editor2= A. Mousoutzanis|title=Cybercultures: Mediations of Community, Culture, Politics|year=2012|publisher=Rodopi|location=Amsterdam, New York|pages=75–100|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/111293835/Prodnik-Jernej-Post-Fordist-Communities-and-Cyberspace-A-Critical-Approach|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305174341/https://www.scribd.com/doc/111293835/Prodnik-Jernej-Post-Fordist-Communities-and-Cyberspace-A-Critical-Approach|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Purpose==
|