See: List of Concepts and Concept: Bridging Social Capital and Concept: Bonding Social Capital
One of the most important attributes that a Community should aim for, is that it must provide some benefits to its members which must be inherent in the members of the community, meeting each other and interacting with each other.
Some communities exist mainly for the purposes of exchanging information, mobilising economic activities and other transactional acts. These communities will be high in what Robert Putnam describes as Bridging Social Capital (See Concept: Bridging Social Capital).
Other communities have a more inclusive nature to them, where the consideration for the members is not limited to external and material transactions, but where the members develop a sense of Affinity (see: Concept:Affinity) towards each other, and where the relationships between the members becomes deeper and over-time the identities of the members become closely linked with the group identity of the Community. Such Communities will be rich in what Robert Putnam describes as Bonding Social Capital (See: Concept: Bonding Social Capital).