It's interesting to me the distinction between "community" and "society". Seems like we use the term community to imply groups that form relationships somewhat

It's interesting to me the distinction between "community" and "society". Seems like we use the term community to imply groups that form relationships somewhat involuntarily because of constraints, whereas society is built on these relationships themselves -- society is the mental abstraction of a community. I'd consider HN and other online "communities" to be somewhere in between, where people form relationships because of some abstract notion of common constraints/goals/etc. Maybe there's a better term, though, to describe social groups that have something in common without everyone necessarily having direct contact with each other. I think what's common to all social groups, though, is some level of trust. I come to HN because I trust the opinions and incentives are somewhat close to my own. So I'd consider it to be a community in that sense but it doesn't seem completely accurate since there's no direct contact between everyone.