I often compare the idealism of online communities with the idealism of the Christiania commune in Copenhagen, DK.
Initially open and free, with an anything-goes attitude, as soon as peole who didn’t share their ideals moved in an exploited the openness and freeness, hierarchies and social structures emerged, dividing the group into people who believe in the original ethos and those who are freeloading.
Journalist and (almost) lawyer Julian Dibbell describes how the idealistic community LambdaMOO became a “society” after one of its members acted outside the unspoken (but community-accepted) rules of behaviour. That article, originally titled A Rape In Cyberspace and published in the Village Voice in 1993, is well-worth a read.
