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The concept of connectivity is essential to examining the nature and meaning of websites as well as their representation of community and identity. In this context, “connectivity” is the binding affiliation between participants within particular communities, whether specific or broad in scope, as well as the degree of relational bonds between multiple websites. Objects of content embedded on websites, such as text, images, and hyperlinks, as well as their structural arrangement, collectively work together to shape group identity and to establish connections between members as well as other sites on the Internet. These connections evolve as participants find points of commonality and engage in sustained interaction, forming the foundation of the community. Members are dynamically connected by their ascription, signification, and representation of a group identity, defining the nature of the community and strengthening its infrastructure. The synergistic quality of community, identity representation, and connectivity jointly form a dynamic feedback system, equally dependent on each other in their contribution to the construction and proliferation of communities online and assertion of group identity on the Internet.





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