Style bullies

The proliferation of websites on the World Wide Web has seen a corresponding proliferation of sites offering advice to potential web authors. The content of these sites ranges from general admonitions to 'write well' online to haranguing diatribes about websites that 'suck'. The general argument of them all, though, is that there is a right way to write online, that there is such a thing called 'good style'. But even further to wondering what it is that might constitute 'good style', it's led me to wonder why new technologies seem to bring with them this desire to articulate the right way to go about things.