Community

I've thinking a lot lately about community. What it is, what it needs to function, how we can make it better. To me a community is place where people belong, a group of people tied by a common purpose. It exists for the good of the many, but cannot succeed without the commitment and cooperation of the few.
Do we need to live closely to be a community? Traditionaly yes. Communities were locality based, everyone knowing eveyone else, and their business. Communities helped each other out. As I type I cannot help but form a picture of Larkrise to Candleford.
So what of communities now? Do we have to live in close proximity or has technology enabled a new community? With a few clicks I can know what someone is feeling, see pictures of their lastest exploits, and comment upon all sorts of aspects of their day to day lives. What gives me the right or priviledge to do so? And how should I react if I am upset by the actions of someone in my community, or indeed how should someone behave if I have upset them? How can we share a difference in opinion or enter into a dialogue about our differences, if all we do is type black words onto a white screen and share ourselves with one click. Is this community?
As human beings we are made to differ. God gives us each qualities and gifts, and leaves weaknesses and flaws in our being. Together we make up one body, we cannot function as a whole without each and every one. To be a community we must have some shared knowledge of each others characteristics. We know who the joker is, who the story teller is, who is the thinker, who is the questioner, who is the host and who is the innovator. We appreciate each others gifts and bear each others weaknesses. We appreciate that none of us are perfect, but we choose to invest time and energy knowing each other all the same.
Can there ever be an online community like this, or does the screen make our inerations faceless, and our actions reactionary? It is too easy to type a quick response posted with wit, which is read as an insult and received with anger. In a moment of anger it is easy to lash out with words, which are read by all, and interpretted a hundred different ways. Unlike the spoken word, type cannot be easily forgotten,  making it even harder to forgive.
I wonder how many friendships have been damaged by being part of this type of community? And does this make it any kind of community at all?