A vulgar comment was made by a reader of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's website on Friday on an article about the strangest things you've ever eaten. The headline was practically asking for a juvenile response and, thanks to the anonymity of the internet, that's exactly what happened. In the comments section of the article, one user posted a single word response referring to a part of a woman's anatomy. Of course, the site's moderators quickly deleted the comment but it soon reappeared - obviously this juvenile was intent on having their say.

But this time, instead of just deleting the comment in question, the site's director of social media, Kurt Greenbaum, did a little sleuthing too. He found that the commenter's IP address was coming from a local school...and that's where this story starts to get interesting.

Greenbaum contacted the school and made them aware of the situation. In his defense, he probably thought he was simply tattle-telling on a naughty student who would learn a valuable lesson about internet anonymity and would have to sit through a week's detention or something of the like. Instead, he cost a school employee his job.

Yes, as it turns out, the commenter in question wasn't a juvenile after all, just someone with a juvenile mind. Greenbaum learned of the firing when the school phoned him back six hours later to report their findings. They had confronted the employee and he had resigned.

Crossing the Line? Or Justice Served?

The question being hotly debated now is did Greenbaum go too far? Or did the commenter get what they deserved?

Mathew Ingram, the blogger and communities editor for Toronto's The Globe and Mail, writes on his personal blog that his paper's site has seen hundreds or even thousands of comments, most of which are much worse than the one Greenbaum saw, but he would never - and has never - contacted someone's workplace about them. He calls Greenbaum's actions "over-the-top" and apparently, many commenters on STLtoday.com's website agree, calling out Greenbaum over this incident.

And yet Greenbaum seems to show no remorse, responding to one commenter who accused him of hating moderating so much that he decided to get someone fired by saying: "Yeah, you caught me! I made him log on to his computer at work, visit STLtoday.com's Talk of the Day, read the item, type a vulgarity and hit the 'submit' key."

Sixteen pages of comments now follow that initial interaction, and the majority of them seem to agree that Greenbaum crossed a line, save for the occasional concerned parent who didn't like the idea of this vulgarity-posting person hanging around their children instead of doing his job.

Lesson to Be Learned: Watch What You Say!

We can't blame Greenbaum for the sleuthing bit - any blogger will tell you they've been tempted to hunt down the identities of nasty commenters from time to time. But calling someone's work? That's just wrong.

Yet while Greenbaum may have been seriously misguided to do what he did, this should be another sobering reminder to anyone trolling the net that what you type may come back and haunt you one day. There's no such thing as true anonymity on the net these days, and thanks to new technologies like Facebook Connect, the days where you can hide behind a made-up web handle may be numbered. In fact, Facebook itself may even owe its success to how it forces users to post with their "real" name and identity notes blogger Kent Newsome. "With a name comes accountability, and there is a direct correlation between accountability and behavior," he writes.

That may be true, but the fact of the matter is that the STLtoday website allows anonymous comments. When you make that choice, then you have to expect that some of them will need moderation - it's just part of the job. Regardless of the site's policies about vulgarity, phoning the employer seems like an over-reaction to the incident. But that's just our opinion. What do you think?

The Definition of Culture

According to Wikipedia, "culture" is defined as:

"[...]generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another"."

Essentially, culture is the way people within a certain group behave and interact with one another.

The Twitter Culture

Technology Enthusiasts
It's no secret that those on Twitter interact and behave differently from other groups. For one, they might be online 24/7. That's a huge difference in itself from the rest of the world. They're normally heavy users of technology, especially web technology, and are on the bleeding edge of these things too. The majority of Twitter is comprised of tech related messages and innocent chatter. From web apps to software reviews, you'll find links to them all on Twitter.

Sharing Is Caring
Never let it be said that Twitter users don't care. They share their little hearts out every chance they get! Links from all over the web are shared on a minute by minute basis. On the same note, developers have taken advantage of all that information by aggregating the plethora of links that are shared across Twitter so that users can find the most popular links of the day or hour on Twitter. Not only do tweeters share links, but also reviews, beta invite codes, advice, stories, insults, and tons more. I've yet to see any credit card numbers or passwords being shared though it may be in the near future.

Vocal Advocates
Surprisingly, users of Twitter are very vocal about things. For example, take a look at the upcoming Presidential elections. I know more about the elections because of Twitter rather than because of the TV or newspapers where one would normally go to be updated on such things. Not only will they let you know what's going on, but also how they feel about it. These are pretty passionate people too. They voice their opinions while also encouraging others to do the same. They're always up for a tough albeit friendly debate. These are today and tomorrow's advocates.

I'm Bored....Twitter!
Those on Twitter are also easily bored. I know that Twitter is only enhancing my ADHD, which in turn is helping me to become bored very easily. There's so much to process on Twitter that when user streams slow down and the party ends they're left wondering what to do next. If Twitter goes down, the world might as well have just stopped. Tweeters just don't know what to do with themselves sometimes. They need constant entertainment because this is the very nature of Twitter and it's what Twitter promotes.

OK, I Dugg and Shared This Article. What's Next?

Never let it be said that Twitter doesn't have culture. There's so much more to the people on Twitter and a ton more to come as Twitter breaks into the masses of mainstream. Tweeters will continue to vocally share all the crazy technology that's available, yet still have an air of boredom around them at the same time. It's unbreakable and quite contagious. Let us know what you think defines the culture on Twitter.

File this under unsurprising, but interesting none the less.

More likely, the research gives reason to believe that online social networking may not be a fad. Beyond its usefulness for communication, personal expression and directory look-ups, the sites are also working in sync with some of the biggest cultural trends at large.

"Social cognitive theory suggests that we are always looking for different ways to behave," primary researcher Michael Stefanone told the U. of Buffalo school paper. "When people on reality TV are rewarded for behaviors such as being the center of attention and gain celebrity from it, it communicates to the audience that these behaviors are good things."

University coverage of the study concludes with the obligatory reminder that your Paris Hilton-style exploits on Facebook today could lose you a job tomorrow. I haven't found that to be true yet myself, but whatever.