lol - I see that we are still re-inventing the wheel with regard to these issues - I had the same dilemmas and negotiations studying email listservs more than 10 years ago. Its like any ethnographic research - always and continually negotiated. Depends on what you (intend) do with what you "research" (even the act of reading something online and being there is research for a researcher) and how much you should or reasonably can protect confidentialiy etc. My advice -get HSRB approval just in case. Use informed consent forms if the blogs/websites are explicitly protected - see descriptions etc - if password protected or for friends only - and you can read it - well then you are a participant/ reader part of the in-group and should probably not violate trust - get consent... keep the consent forms handy - negotiate each instance case by case by researching how "private" or "public" features intersect in each unique case... there are no absolute generalizations in terms of ethics - I would say - but there ARE things like accountability to the community and people that you are writing about and with - and this determines what ethical behaviour you pursue r Radhika Gajjala Grad coordinator office on secondlife: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bowling%20Green%20State/203/217/39 http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik