1) In your opinion, what is an online community?
a group of people that share a common interest on a subject found in the internet and interact with each other.

2) Where do you think the first online community was formed?
I would need to be more familiar with the early days of the internet to state an opinion.

3) do you believe online communities display social patterns similar or differing from real life communities? Why?
Similar. Ill use the graalians community for my opinions.

a. we associate posters in categories like we do in real life.(jocks, nerds, popular, losers, no-life's, druggies, and so on)

b. we form closer friendships with certain posters( we also have inner circles among our community)

c. betrayal, deception, gossip, back stabbings, lies, jelousy, envy, and other frowned upon actions.

4) do you believe online communities are safe?
As long as everyone acts accordingly, but like irl it doesnt always happens that way.

5) what characteristics make up a good online community? What keeps you hooked?
Interesting, funny, controversial, discussions. Constant additions to the community or constant changes/updates to the "shared subject" that united the community in the first place(or a combination of both). Constant discussions keep me hooked.

6) what do you think are characteristics that make a good community and a bad one?
first part applies to #5. i think a bad community is one that has little to discuss. Example the pc graal forum community, there are never updates to the "shared subject" and no new members to the forum, so it killed that community. Note: when I say bad I dont mean the people individually(if that makes sense)

7) do these communities form fast or slow? Can anyone create a working community?
since we are talking about the internet I feel a community could be formed pretty quickly. For the second part the cliche answer would be yes if they "try" hard enough, but I dont think everyone can create a working community(well one that last more than a week)