Some of the good aspects of online communication: an alternative to hierarchy, the opportunity to speak freely, the invitation to informality, the rapid dissemination of information and opinion.

Some of the unfortunate aspects: few standards or controls, the opportunity to speak too freely, anonymity and distance as an opening for boorishness, and the rapid dissemination of information and opinion not worth the electrons they consume.

The noted Web 2.0 expert, Vachel Lindsay, saw the importance of the immediate environment:

Factory windows are always broken.
Other windows are let alone.
No one throws through the chapel-window
The bitter, snarling, derisive stone...

There's nothing so magical about social networks that poor behavior won't happen. I have to say, based on other kinds of communities I've belonged to, that I never assumed that social media would never have to put in any limitations or rules.

Karyn makes a good point: some sort of shared sense of purpose (even if not everyone shares exactly the same sense) is in some ways what makes a community, whether it's the local Friends Meeting, the Axolotl project team at work, or the participants in the Work Literacy ning site.

(Some of those not diving in immediately ma be intimidated by "the more enthusiastic," as well.)

As with cable channels and other media, passion gets attention. That can be sincere enthusiasm, but it can also be deliberate provocation. Believe me, I get hyperbole for hyperbole's sake.

As Robert Frost pointed out once, you can't play tennis with the net missing if you don't know the rules of tennis.