Really interesting how that touches on online gaming communities as a "new" version of the typical third social space, but why not non-gaming social areas? Some may be more anonymous than others and maybe that invalidates it because you're hidden behind a false identity, and yet I'm been in plenty of communities on BBSes, IRC, and other platforms where the people didn't know "me", but they knew my online identity as well as any real life people know me. Just seemed odd, because as a kid and young adult I didn't hang out at the mall like the others (which was the third space then) but would be found online with my friends there.