Virtual Communities

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is attractive, even addictive. (p. 3)
Example of Virtual environment: IRC
One of these rich and vital computer-linked cultures is the Internet Relay Chat (IRC), a multi-user synchronous "chat" line that was designed for social rather than business use. The IRC is comprised of various channels that indicate the subject matter being discussed within (such as the homosexual sex channel) in order to manage the traffic flow resulting when hundreds of people use the IRC simultaneously. Users type words on their screens which instantaneously reach other users; but without the benefit of nonverbal cues that express subtlety of meaning, IRC users must use a series of symbols in order to communicate efficiently with one another and develop a unique sense of community based on the unconventional boundaries of the medium. For example, IRC users compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues by typing what are essentially stage directions to one another that serve to indicate a range of emotions: ...

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network is good and must be protected (Krol, 1992, p. 35). Abuses such as hateful or antisocial postings on bulletin boards and using other people's names or identities on IRC are discouraged and can be punished by means of ostracization from the community or through system operator-enforced severing of an individual's link to the IRC (known as the "kill" function). Thus, the construction of the boundaries of community within cyberspace is not a completely arbitrary matter, and CMC may not be as egalitarian as its advocates suggest.

Disadvantage
? Computer bulletin boards serve to "add the final mechanism needed to insure that we never talk to people beyond our immediate friends ...

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