One might argue that it is an unfortunate sign of our fragmented and anomie-wracked society that we are driven to try to find a way out of our loneliness through virtual communities. But the reverse argument can also be made, and that is the position taken up in this paper, that virtual communities are not a pale substitute for "real" ones but do in fact provide the kind of organic solidarity that was an essential part of traditional societies. The particular on-line community that will be examined to argue this claim is a listserv called Dorothy-L, which is dedicated to readers and writer…
