Written 1-4-07

 HockeyZombie.com shuttered today.  You probably didn't know it, but it caused me to think for a moment.  It was a pretty good webcomic, well drawn, funny, somewhat crude.  The premise was summarized in the title.  The author, Mr. Chris van Gompel, wrote about what he knew: beer, hockey, zombies, etc.  Today he decided to end it all.  Not his life, I presume, but the comic.

 I find in this a microcosm of the Internet as a whole.  Content is determined by the contributor alone.  Mr. van Gompel chose to contribute art and humor, I hope to contribute thought (if it's funny, don't worry, it was probably an accident), and others contribute news, views, reviews, and so on.  Nobody like that is monitored.  If someone chooses to pull the plug, *blink*, it's gone. 

 What governs this mélange of myriad mavens in cyberspace?  Little more than themselves.  Mr. van Gompel chose to end his story with a dues-ex-machina destruction of all involved characters and a short "thank you" at the bottom.  Chad Diez ended "Today: The Comic" with a farewell panel in which he criticized himself.  These men no doubt felt a certain obligation to their subscribers/consumers, and did not wish to go out unexplained.  Why? 

 Social conscience exists, even in the ether.  Unfortunately, that still leaves interpersonal interaction operating at a lowest common denominator.  Fortunately, the internet is easily navigated by a savvy user who can select who, what, and how he or she interacts.  As with any emerging media, advantages and drawbacks present themselves, and must be mastered and avoided at whatever skill level the user has acquired.  The result is a mixture that is initially purely omnicratic and gradually settles into strata that get determined by the same factors that have affected script, printing, radio, and television in ages past.

 There is nothing new under the sun.