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The complaint goes on to make a number of generalized and disparaging comments about Asians before urging readers to tell a collector if they see someone " `sharing' a T pass."

The message board, www.quincymass.com, is not run by the city but includes a link to Quincy's official page. Nearly 150 people read the message, according to online records, and a few replied, calling the remark racist. Another 330 viewed the same writer's posting during the fall election that criticized an Asian candidate who supported bilingual education.

In the nascent days of the Internet, many thought the technology would be a boon to democracy, offering a stump for people to espouse views on politics and social issues, and debate freely even if they couldn't attend city council meetings, said Howard Rheingold, author of "The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier."

In practice, though, many use these unofficial community e-mail groups and message boards as a place to launch attacks, he said. Often, the caustic comments are posted with pseudonyms or incomplete names, as writers cloak themselves in the anonymity provided by the computer medium. These forums typically are moderated by residents, but often have a link on a municipality's official website.

These vitriolic voices contribute little to public discourse and can chill online discussion with a few nasty words, Rheingold said. Moreover, unfounded accusations that can sully reputations have the potential to become libelous.

Next month, former Tyngsborough selectman Warren Allgrove and current Selectman Kevin O'Connor have a court date for a libel suit they filed three years ago against Robert Parkin, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, over allegations he placed on his website, which purports to be "the watchdog of local government." On the site, Parkin accused O'Connor of threatening to cut off benefits to veterans who displayed his political opponent's campaign signs, and accused Allgrove of operating a garage that "repairs fire vehicles without bid and inflates [the] costs of parts and labor by 30 percent or more." Allgrove blamed those statements for his defeat and tarnished reputation.

"The First Admendment does not give someone carte blanche to commit libel," said Peter Nicosia, the attorney for the two Tyngsborough men.

"As far as I'm concerned, what I put up on the website is accurate, it's correct, and I won't take it down," Parkin said.

Stinging comments that years ago might have quickly come and gone in gossip now linger for days or months on Internet message boards, and get a much wider audience, say academics and others who study the Internet. "People talk on the Internet the way they might over the backyard fence," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center. "Many citizens do not understand how much liability they could buy themselves by simply spouting off online."

When Burt Lewis launched www.eastonmass.com a few years ago, he said, "People were just really out of control, and at one point, things got so bad I just had to shut things down."

Randy Perry, vice president of Virtual Town Hall LLC, which helps create and run official websites for 57 municipalities in Massachusetts, said many cities and towns ask if they should host official message boards, and his company advises them not to because of the pervasive lack of civility.

At the request of two municipalities, in Connecticut and New York, the company closed two message boards because of the unbridled attacks.

Although many of the entries on these online forums are dominated by recommendations for restaurants and such, sometimes even the simplest requests can yield unexpected responses.

In Arlington, Ryan Grimm wanted to know if anyone on the community e-mail group was interested in learning the skills he'd acquired as a handyman.

Travis Corcoran, who described himself in an interview as a libertarian often at odds with Arlington residents over taxes and schools, responded with interest.

Then, L. Jean Camp, an assistant professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, replied with an attack against Corcoran.

Camp, in a phone interview, conceded that she sometimes is a "hothead" and has since blocked Corcoran's messages.

"It's a big problem," said North Adams Mayor John Barrett III. "The Internet has just given people a new forum, and some of the things being said are awful and destroy characters and reputation."

In 2000, Barrett filed a libel suit against a former police detective and local landlord for their website that accused the mayor of physically abusing students while he was a teacher and driving a car paid for by city money. The case was later settled and Barrett now owns the rights to www.northadamsfree.com, which was not the city's official website.

In an effort to rein in potentially libelous attacks and keep the discourse civil, more websites are requiring users to register. Some online moderators have turned to sophisticated software to track users, filter postings from problematic residents, and block or delete undesirable postings.

Steve Orr, who moderates four Framingham community e-mail groups, said he has a list of "troublemakers" whose messages are filtered before they get released to the hundreds of members.

In September, after discussions were posted about illegal Brazilian immigrants, he scolded users for "desperately trying to shed all semblance of civility" and asked for volunteers to help monitor the site.

Last month, Orr was subpoenaed by a local developer who has repeatedly been attacked by residents who subscribe to the e-mail groups. Orr said he refused to show up in court.

"I'm not responsible for anything," Orr said. "There's no way I could be responsible."

Jenn Abelson can be reached at .