This is certainly true, but it is exacerbated by how these systems are designed. Flat text forums, which have problems of their own, don't specifically discourage you (your post sinks to the bottom) if you have an opinion which doesn't fit the community's "correct" mindset.
It doesn't happen mechanically, but I think you get about equivalent social behavior - for example Metafilters orders posts by time rather than popularity but there's a great deal of social policing that goes on there and piles upon opinions that are at variance with community norms.
Comments
This is certainly true, but it is exacerbated by how these systems are designed. Flat text forums, which have problems of their own, don't specifically discourage you (your post sinks to the bottom) if you have an opinion which doesn't fit the community's "correct" mindset.
It doesn't happen mechanically, but I think you get about equivalent social behavior - for example Metafilters orders posts by time rather than popularity but there's a great deal of social policing that goes on there and piles upon opinions that are at variance with community norms.