  We investigate the possibility of virtual community formation in an online
social network under a rapid increase of activity of members and newcomers. The
evolution is studied of the activity of online users at the Guardian - Comment
Is Free forum - covering topics related to the Middle East turmoil during the
period of 1st of January 2010 to the 28th of March 2011. Despite a threefold
upsurge of forum users and the formation of a giant component, the main network
characteristics, i.e. degree and weight distribution and clustering
coefficient, remained almost unchanged.
