Sexing the Internet: Reflections on the role of identification in online communities

This article addresses how demographic profiling in online forums affects the creation of socially vibrant communities. Many site designers, believing that user profiles aid in community development by providing the users with a social context, encourage or require their use. Instead of offering a broader context for users to grasp the social cues normally available in the physical world, profiles dramatically affect the social behaviors, norms and cultures of online environments, most notably...