"Get Off My Thread" - Discussion Threads, Ownership,and Netiquette

"Ownership of/Responsibility for Threads"
BlogCatalog discussion thread (started July 16, 2008)

"This morning I saw a comment from someone who said that he 'loved when someone started a thread and then left'. I've heard comments like that before and seen posters start threads and take care to note that they won't be back for a while. The flipside of this is the large number of people who seem to feel that they have some ownership rights in their threads, telling others how to respond and even 'get out of my thread' or 'start your own' or some such.

"I'll admit that I'm pretty old and not all that up on netiquette, but I can't quite get my mind around the idea that someone either has any rights in a thread on a public forum by virtue of having been the first one to comment on a topic or takes on any kind of management responsibilities by having done so. Am I missing something?"

I've got my own opinion - which I posted on the thread - and there are quite a few others.

I'd say that this was a good discussion about part of the evolving online culture.