With the introduction of blogs and link backs came the possibility of being measured and ranked.
That crucial difference introduced into the mix is what makes it "addictive" as well as what motivates the behaviors we see. It also upped the ante in terms of swarming, mobs, and cliques.
With the feminist blogosophere, for instance, it's been revealed that there were coordinated swarms and take down attempts. There was assumed to be a "public" face where internet debates took place. When someone said something and it was met with criticism, the resulting storm (hive swarm) where everyone descendended on said blogger to criticize, flame, do battle was assumed to be an uncoordinated spontaneous event.
Turns out it wasn't always. There was a small email list where things were being discussed "privately". Once you got to be of a certain stature, you'd be invited. No one ever told you never to mention the list, it just became obvious that you shouldn't. This is where the "elite" of the feminists would discuss the latest blog posts they had seen, warn each other of attacks on behalf of upstarts and marginalized bloggers or discuss how to handle attacks on the "big" bloggers. Internal disputes were had, of course. It's also where, unconsciously, the more "diversity-oriented" bloggers would reach out to women of color bloggers, inviting them to be part of the circle. This was done with good intentions: no one said, "let's invite the women of color so we can co-opt them." But what's interesting is how it ended up happening anyway - and we know it did since it's since come out in terms of soul searching blog posts from those women of color who were torn, once they realized they had been co-opted or, were co-opting themselves, as they described it at any rate.
Etc. etc. This ability to manipulate the public face of commentary with a layer of "private" underneath, with the possibility of layers upon layers of it, is pretty interesting. Nothing new to human life of course, but certainly fertile ground for sociological research!
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