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fully benefit from their access to the internet. Accessing material that could have an obscene nature means committing a sin and so many people would still feel discouraged from doing that. But Saudis are also traditionalists and there are many practices in Saudi Arabia that do not necessarily stem from religion. An example of this is hierarchy in family structure or power distance as Hofstede (1997) calls it. Hierarchy in Saudi Arabia is mainly a result of tribal traditions. In the real life and particularly during the social events and family gatherings, elders or high status individuals often dominate discussions. Younger individuals, to show respect for the senior members of their tribe, do not normally speak out. This makes it difficult for them to voice their opinions. This practice, it was observed, was also carried over to the online world. Although, the anonymity inherent in the medium helped some people hide their age, gender, wealth and race and thus the effect of hierarchy is weakened, for most others anonymity did not help much simply because the members have been operating in these forums for years. Assuming a different persona is difficult. This is because if participants pretended to be someone different from their original identity their friends in the community may discover that when they seek to call them on the phone or meet them outside the community, as is often the case. This allowed members with high status and artistic writers to enjoy most of the attention online while many others were left unnoticed. It is possible that this practice discouraged many individuals from speaking up their minds in online forums. If they felt they will be ignored if they posted comments in comparison to the well-known they might wonder why bother talking. 5.3. POLITICAL ORIENTATION Politics, particularly world politics, to men in Saudi Arabia and indeed elsewhere in the Arab world, is a „hotâ€&#x; and controversial topic; and is a salient feature of life style. In fact, people in Saudi Arabia regard politics as their favourite and dominant topic of discussion because the region itself is politically agitated. In the offline community when people visit their friends and relatives, or take them to coffee shops, or during social functions such as the marriage of a relative, they often discuss politics. Similarly, people used online forums as places to get together for the purpose of expressing their views on matters that are important to them, sharing with others what they think or know, making sense of what is happening in their world, exchanging and challenging different ideas, and making and offering their interpretations about local and world events. But then not everything can be said online. In one study, several interviewees said online forum moderators deleted any topics that supported the terrorist ideology or Bin Laden or those topics that supported Mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistanâ€? or criticised the government or included personal slanderous attacks against public figures or supported Saad Al-Fagiah (a political dissident), or criticised the religious police. This clearly suggests that for political reasons voicing opinions online is restricted which is something the majority of interviewees in that study lamented. Despite this, online forums means a great deal for members because according to one interviewee in Saudi Arabia there are not many channels for people to express themselves which is a sentiment shared by two other interviewees who said the forum is the only avenue