Comment sections are governed by a host-guest logic of reciprocal obligation

Evidence

Think, really, how outrageous it is for the likes of “Roger” to appear in the comments box and assure me that I am “coming off like a prick”. On my own site. I don’t say that k-punk is my site in a possessive sense. I just mean it is space that has taken me a great deal of time, stress and anguish to build. It really is like inviting someone into your own house and having them abuse you. If anything makes me a “prick”, it is accepting a situation like that. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2362

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the hospitality-analogy thread running through the house/ownership discussion; frames blog comment norms as domestic invasion rather than free speech arena.
• XREF: connects to: Requiring responders to publish their own posts fostered better discourse than open comments — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2054; Comment-box dynamics reward one-upmanship and drown out collective discussion; Dialogic interactions create open, critical, constructive spaces for negotiating differing ideas toward consensus — ‘Dialogic scaffolding’: Enhancing learning and understanding in collaborative contexts (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Comment-box dynamics reward one-upmanship and drown out collective discussion #complicates (0.78)
• Timely diaristic posts function as bids for social response rather than crafted prose #exemplifies (0.76) — Theresa M. Senft, Camgirls, 170
• The negation relation with the Other is reciprocal unlike that with things #expands (0.74)