Dr. Schrum's essay concerning ethical research raises many pertinent and difficult questions. I would like to point out that discourse on the Internet exists at many different levels, all delivered by the same medium and all arriving without benefit of "accountability" labels.
In this, it is similar to conversation. Few of us would expect to be held accountable for statements made in idle chat with friends and colleagues, and a lot of communication is in that mode. On the other hand, we can and do say things that we mean to be taken seriously, in conversation and through the computer.
In conversation, however, we can usually determine how seriously to take the speaker; we make judgments based on many factors. But since what we say on the is written speech, even our most idle comments may remain visible long after we've forgotten them.
One problem, then, with speech is knowing what level of seriousness to assign to a person's remarks. Is there an emoticon for irony?