Think of this as my blog. Not just a story about blogs and online forums and public commentary on the Internet, but my blog.

A blog is a form of communication that has arguably become the predominate source for the dissemination of information and communication worldwide. The word blog is short for Web log; a Web site on which a person or group of people produce an ongoing narrative about personal, political, social or cultural issues.

Typically bloggers, as the writers are called, allow space for readers to comment online, and that's what this is about, in large part. That is to say, this is about the explosion of communication online and how the real world perceives it.

It's a hot button issue for many because using the Internet to communicate has actually spawned a great deal of controversy over behavior, including several isolated court cases over what has been dubbed cyber bullying or cyber stalking; people harassing other people on Web site forums.

For our part, The Daily Advance offered a forum on http://www.DailyAdvance.com until last year where readers could go to our Web site and comment about topics of local, regional or even national concern. But we chose to take the forum down because too many people were not following the guidelines and posting personal attacks against other users and people in the public.

Since then, we started offering the public opportunities to comment online at the end of stories found on our Web site. That seems to be fairing well, but from time to time an editor might need to take down an inappropriate comment, or just clean it up.

Inappropriate commenting or behavior happens, but the one way to help curb it is to set up user guidelines. The Web has essentially become a place where we must police ourselves and user guidelines, experts say, are needed to "normalize" human behavior on the Web.

Guidelines are an essential part of online forums and commenting, says Web master and author Patrick O'Keefe. O'Keefe, a Harbinger resident, has authored the book "Managing Online Forums," in an effort to give people a better understanding of how the world of online communication works and what to do to manage your own forum site.

O'Keefe has been operating Web sites and community forums since he was 15. Now 23, he makes his living operating sites such as http://ifroggy.com and community forums that include forum discussion sites dedicated to martial arts, the New York Yankees and a handful of others.

"The best blogs are communities," says O'Keefe. "A community develops around them."

The problem is, sometimes those communities can get out of hand and the equivalent of school yard bullies surface, making life unpleasant for other people using these forums.

It's a case of virtual, online life imitating real life. Only here, people are more apt to feel free to say things they might not typically utter under normal circumstances.

"There are mostly good people out there but a portion of people out there are crazy," says O'Keefe.

He says the relative anonymity of the Web tends to spur people on, leading them to believe they can act in any manner they choose, "... and say something off the mark."

That's why in these virtual online communities, community members step up to the plate and volunteer their time as moderators.

A moderator is a person who helps the Web site's administrator, someone like O'Keefe who operates forum sites, moderate the activity and keep people in line, more or less. They are people who have adopted a particular site and enjoy posting there frequently.

"A majority of moderators are volunteers," says O'Keefe. "The time commitment is not even the level of a part time job. For most people it's not, maybe a half dozen hours a week."

"I think it (forums) gives people a way to talk about stuff that otherwise they just grouse about," says Phil Hoskins, a volunteer moderator on a very popular site, Reader Rant, part of http://www.capitolhillblue.com.

Hoskins, like a lot of moderators, began frequenting the site, commenting on topics of the day such as the presidential election, the war in Iraq and so forth. He says early on a moderator angered him and he took it out on the forum until he was called out for his behavior.

"Ever since then I've had a whole different view of how to have a conversation online," says Hoskins.

The key, he says, is civil discourse that focuses on the topic at hand. And don't attack other posters personally, rather focus on what they posted and do it in a way that is not offensive. The result, Hoskins says, is a place where he enjoys learning new things, sharing his views and making what some people refer to as e-friendships.

O'Keefe says people using the Internet to communicate through moderated forums tend to take pride in their favorite sites and protect the site. He's right.

A few years back a group of self-professed conservative college students known as Protest Warriors, were launching forum attacks on sites they believed to be politically liberal. They would post on the sites and attempt to disrupt the discourse to the point where posters would abandon the site.

A group of regular users on Reader Rant launched a counter attack, defending their favorite site from the group. Although several members of the conservative group made attempts at the site, their efforts were largely thwarted by Reader Rant members and the solid guidelines used to uphold the site's integrity.

It was a sort online version of an old West town defending itself from bandito interlopers. And many Web commentators have likened the online world to the "Wild West." Anything, it would seem, goes, but while there is some anarchy on the Web these days, there are also some experts who say it's beginning to mellow.

"It used to be the Wild West, now it's the Mild West," says Paul Jones, professor of digital media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jones is a World Wide Web pioneer. He operated one of the first Web sites on the Internet, http://ibiblio.org. And like many experts in the ever expanding field, Jones says people populating forums and commenting sites on the Web are creating rules that determine "normalized behavior" on Web site forums and chat rooms and are learning to essentially adopt behaviors that are acceptable in real life, to their virtual life.

"You have to create normalized behavior and structure if you create a forum," says Jones.

The rapid fire culture on the Web is a major force globally. Bloggers have been responsible for major breaking news items because they have instant access to the world once they post a blog. And according to statistics, well over 1 billion people worldwide populate the Internet; that's an estimated 20 percent of the world's population in need of some form of normalization on this relatively new medium of communication.

Jones sites his colleague Fred Stutzman when suggesting how to organize forums for constructive use and community building. Stutzman, says Jones, developed the "three Ps" for constructive online communities:

1) Purpose. First thing you do is create a mission statement for the site and state it clearly.

2) Policy. If you do this, this is what's going to happen to you. "Those include sanctions and rewards," Jones explains. "Sanctions are if you do this we're kicking you off or restricting your privilege. Rewards can have to do with you do these things right and you can help manage the forum. You can give a T-Shirt. There are many things you can do.

3) People. "People need to know what their roles are. Who is the moderator? Who has the authority to call people on stuff? Who enforces the sanctions?"

Jones also observes that the Internet is "speeding up already existing behaviors."

"Behaviors and proclivities that previously existed," says Jones. "It's only a sea change because it's seen bigger (thanks to the scope of the Internet)."

And forums are immensely popular because people tend to trust their peers when seeking information. People, observes Jones, are always seeking other people interested in similar topics.

"People want to be in the same room with people that talk about the same things they're interested in," he says.

O'Keefe would agree with Jones. His experience shows him that forums are best if they focus on areas of interest, attracting like-minded people. O'Keefe's book on managing forums goes into a number of issues he's faced in his eight years developing forums and if there's one thing he is certain of, giving online users focus works when developing these new and strange electronic communities.

"The majority of communities focus on something," says O'Keefe. "The majority of them tend to have focus."

But even then, people do behave badly from time to time. The Internet, blogging and forum communities seem to be simply a reflection of the physical world.