Virtual sociality? (Score 1)

This is the first time I've ever felt really compelled to reply to something on SlashDot, to be honest I've never read such nonsense in my life. Mr Lockard is just hunting the popular to gain himself recognition and while this works in most cases, he has unfortunately gone off on too many tangents and attacked things unrelated to the virtual community and thus, made quite the fool of himself. I'd just like somebody to tell me what closed source projects have to do with virtual communities and how it's being elitist to people who probably don't know about it or care either way. Yet I'm running off on tangents just as he did, I don't plan on making that mistake aswell so I'll simply stick to virtual communities. They don't exist? The technology is too highly priced? People are elitist? Alright, to the politicial theorist, these things may happen because of the way the market and economy are. Yet for once, let's look at the facts today shall we? First of all, we have the WebTV and WebTV Plus, which are cheap enough for anyone to purchase. I'm part of an online community that often communicates via mail, there are over a hundred of us and we believe in tolerance and have an "anyone's welcome!" belief. Over the many, many months it's been in operation, there hasn't been a flame, an accusation nor has anyone been kicked out. So, in essence, in our group we have people from almost every walk of life using high end PCs to WebTVs, talking about things from religeon to favourite snacks and just having a great time. Considering the above, virtual communities don't exist? Pshaw! Look around you Mr Lockard, your problem is with people, some people aren't capable of a community online OR in life. Yet there are those that are capable of community online and lifewise. Next time, less generalization, more facts! The net in its own nature speaks volumes to me of the falsehoods propogated there.