the disappearance of the author in hypertext merely reveals other forms of determinism; we are not totally free to process information

but this conflates textual determism with personal determinism; does the textual indeterminism of the poststructuralist view imply greater reader autonomy? (why would the two be related?) (Clayton Dach, September 22)

hypertext is coming to control authors through the academic drive towards "finding out and subsequently prescribing notions of 'best' hypertext authoring." Is this the next stage? -- "Regulation, for the past fifty years at least in Western countries has meant corporatization" (Jonathan Turner, September 22)

"The connection between authorial lack of determinism and readerly ideological liberation" is often made, but there seems little justification for it (Melanie Conroy, September 23)

Who controls the internet? Note its original military function: "The internet was created by and for corporate structures (specifically, in the event of nuclear war)." (Sage Davis, October 04)

Hypertext complicity? "Some of the language in this thread almost invokes revolutionary democratizing urges and at the same time we freely participate in the Internet's present supposedly undemocratic form." (Robert Lemke, October 08). But to use the system to criticize it isn't hypocritical. And "democracy" is helped by "the immense size (and banality) of the Net." With third world internet access being developed "it's hard to imagine the impact the contribution of so many new ideas is going to have on 'the banality'."