[brudgers]

The title of the article is misleading because it ignores fundamental differences between online communities and online social networks in the sense of Facebook, Myspace, etc.

While Facebook may have areas in which digital communities form, it is a constructed primarily to facilitate and track communications between people with existing real world relationships - for users it is ateleological. On the other hand, Ravelry has a sense of purpose - better knitting - which creates an overall community.

People on sites like Ravelry interact extensively and willingly with people they only know and often meet online because they are members of the same digital community. This is generally not the case with Facebook et al. where interactions are largely between people who have met face to face at some point. This means that Ravelry's social graph is constructed digitally on the site - unlike Facebook, for online communities where one went to junior high school is far more difficult to determine and there's no reason for your mom to join unless she is interested in knitting.

[mmahemoff]

I thought those fundamental differences were the whole point of the article and what makes a community centered around things so useful.

The title isn't misleading to me.

[brudgers]

It is misleading because it calls Ravelry a social network despite the important differences between social networks in the ordinary sense in which the term is applied to Facebook and online communities.