John Dvorak examines incidental online communities, as opposed to explicit social communities like Friendster. There’s some nice praise for MetaFilter in there, too. Having had the chance to spend some time with John recently, I’m more amused by his shenanigans, especially in light of useful articles like this one. He’s still a world-class troll, but he seems to fully understand that intellectual dishonesty is a powerful tool, and should only be used in service of important and valuable causes.