NP online group dynamics

[Doug Millison]

...from a book (to be be published next month) I'm reading as background for
a feature story project I'm developing:

"...input from group members can receive a fairer hearing when read by
others asynchronously and without the attendant body language of the group.
This is one of the most commented-upon phenomena in the World Wide Web: when
we consider comments without knowledge of status, position, hierarchyu,
gender, race, ethnicity, age, or other criteria, we focus more on content
and substance. We are less inhibited by extraneous factors and find
ourselves being more open-minded."

That's the theory, at least.
Three cheers for anonymity.
Not sure I want to think too much about the "attendant body language" of
this crew, however.

-Doug