#online space
Online Spaces, Part 2: Territorial Disputes
We talked in Part One about how people tend to expect certain things when they’re on their own online territory. But the online community is still figuring out the etiquette around who “owns” which online spaces.
Different types of space overlap. It makes it tough to agree with other people about where your space ends and theirs begins.
People don’t always agree on who is the rightful occupant of a space and who is the guest. Or burglar. And it’s easy to judge someone’s online behavior through that lens - the belief that they are an intruder.
(Of course territorial disputes like this happen in physical spaces. A lot. The internet just adds some extra types of confusion to fight over.)
It can help to explain clearly where you perceive the boundaries of your own space. “I consider this blog to be my own personal space, so I consider it invasive when you comment on it in a certain way,” is much more informative than, “How dare you come here uninvited and act like a total jerk?”
Try to be clear about where you see the lines, and listen for other people’s boundaries. This stuff isn’t nearly as obvious as it sometimes feels.
