As far back as sainted old rasfwrj -- a Usenet newsgroup of ostensibly very narrow focus I used to frequent twenty years ago; use your Google-fu if you want to know more -- I've seen community in the "no compartmentalization" sense arise spontaneously on tha Intertubes.
Hey, there was even this gang I know of, as contrarian a group of grouchy bastards as you've ever seen whine about the faked-up "Readers' Choice" awards on any IT periodical's on-line forum...
Hey, there was even this gang I know of, as contrarian a group of grouchy bastards as you've ever seen whine about the faked-up "Readers' Choice" awards on any IT periodical's on-line forum...