Internet
The Quote-Post Dunk: How a Commentary Feature Became the Internet's Enforcement Tool
Quote-posting was meant for commentary. It became a platform's enforcement tool, outsourcing punishment to the crowd and changing who's safe to argue with.
Internet
Online Culture
The unwritten rules of a place, and what happens to newcomers who do not know them.
An online space has written rules, but also habits about who speaks, what counts as a joke, and how newcomers are treated. This collection looks at those norms, community growth, quiet participation, and posts that reach several audiences at once. Begin with unwritten rules when a space feels hard to read, the newcomer problem when a group is growing, or context collapse when the same post lands differently with different people.
Internet
The Report Button Is a Weapon, Not a Shield
The report function pretends to be a safety tool. In practice it's the fastest status move in any community — a lever for silencing rivals and settling fights that moderation was never meant to referee.
Internet
The /s Tag and the War Over Sarcasm
Sarcasm dies in text, so someone invented /s — and then people started fighting about it. How a three-character tone marker became a culture war over who gets to decide what a joke means.
Internet
Every Platform Has a Score, Even the Ones That Swear They Don't
Take away the follower count and people invent a new one: reply speed, blue check, who got screenshot first. How invisible leaderboards shape what everyone posts.
Internet
The Joke That Kills Inside Your Server Dies the Second It Travels
In-group humour is not actually humour — it's a membership test, and it only works when the audience already knows the lore. Why inside jokes don't travel, and what that says about how communities form.
Internet
Context Collapse: One Post, Five Audiences
One post now reaches your boss, your mom and strangers at once, and each reads something different. Why context collapse breaks, and what to do.
Internet
The 90-9-1 Rule: Why Almost Everyone in Your Community Is Silent
In every online place, roughly 90 percent read and never post, 9 percent occasionally speak, and 1 percent make most of it. Why lurkers are not the problem you think.
Internet
Half the Time the Website Did Not Get Worse. You Got Older.
A specific and slightly uncomfortable look at what happens when a place you loved stops working for you, and how to tell which of the two things changed.
Internet
Every Growing Community Faces the Same Problem and Almost All of Them Handle It Badly
Growth changes what a place is, and the people who were there first experience the change as decline. Both sides are right, which is why it never resolves.
Internet
The Rules That Actually Govern a Forum Are Never in the Rules
I wrote the rules for a community of two hundred thousand people. They governed almost nothing. Here is what did.