As has been written before, Sean Smith of the U.S. State Department also was a deeply committed presence inside the world of EVE Online, as well as outside it, serving on the unique Council of Stellar Management, a governing body selected by its peers and convened in the real world. Smith was killed Tuesday in an…

Grief, in an online community, can be a shockingly intimate thing. People who have known each other as a collection of digital avatars and assumed names gather together to mourn the genuinely painful loss of one of their own. The best and most generous parts of a community's nature often show when tragedy strikes it.