[rms]

It's a positive type of social interaction that is different than real world interactions. For me, it's a way of feeling more connected to a culture that does not exist in Pittsburgh.

I contribute to news.yc because I find it more entertaining than TV or video games. I should really pick up Rock Band though, that could get me to quit news.yc for a couple days.

[DaniFong]

I actually just wrote about this today. I was going to use Pittsburgh as an example, but I chose LA and Jacksonville instead. http://daniellefong.com/2008/01/28/third-places/

Hacker News is an example of a third place. I hang out here, as I've hung out in many other netspaces. It's creative here, it's intelligent, and it's fairly diverse. People make things and write things and converse, and for many people, certainly me, that's a fundamental need.

[pchristensen]

Ditto. The level of discussion and topics of interest here are vastly better than what's available to me with my coworkers and people I bump into in real life. Can't speak for the YouTube community though.