I came away from it with a different notion than you did. Randy’s post at Social Media Today appears to have less to do with “communities” than with the stated fact that someone gave his Amazon “store” a bad customer report card. And Randy wants folks to believe “his side” of the story. In a customer service situation, the customer is always right, though. So Randy continues in the post and proposes a ratings sytem for people who he assumes are pathologically negative commenters and posters, so that they are treated as social pariahs, equal to the way good whitebread “Americans” are supposed to regard “illegal” aliens and others Randy’s construct relegates to lower social forms. Read his post carefuly. If you like freedom of speech and speak your mind, you might be flying in the face of Randy Hamilton’s thought pollice.

One of the great things about online communication is the focus on a person’s message rather than their appearance, social standing, reputation etc: this makes (in theory) for a more open debate and discussion.

The channel itself must not discriminate – people will do that themselves depending on the positions people take.

Imagine a chatroom full of men discussing gender discrimination: if one of them happened to be a woman without the rest knowing (or caring) – would that improve the debate or diminish it?