"It gives people an open forum where they can talk and present their ideas freely," says Mary Lou Crouch, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who studies Internet culture. "In a town council session, if you try to stand up and say what you think, you might get yelled down. Here, they can't do that."

Crouch gives the Yenta high marks for disclosing up front that the column contains gossip, but agrees that people have to be wary about what they read in cyberspace.

"You do have to understand that anybody can put anything they want up there," she said. "It doesn't make it true, real or right. If you know what gossip is, you know you can't always rely on it."

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