According to James Paul Gee, affinity spaces are locations where groups of people are drawn together because of a shared, strong interest or engagement in a common activity.
[2][page needed] Instead, he has defined these worlds as "spaces" – a term that allows for the "robust characterization of the ebbs and flows and differing levels of involvement and participation exhibited by members" [2][page needed] According to Gee (2004), "An affinity space is a place or set of places where people affiliate with others based primarily on shared activities, interests, and goals, not shared race, class culture, ethnicity, or gender" (p. 67).
The goal of these sites is typically to make fun of particular problems, such as poorly written fan fiction,[8] or digital image editing mistakes.
[9] As community members criticize other people's work, they reach new levels of sophistication in their evaluations, creating extended vocabularies of terms and categorizing mistakes.
Since either authors or their friends and fans are likely to come to the defense of works being criticized, rhetoric and logic are two areas where much active learning takes place.