Online raging against the system

One basic rule dictates much of T etiquette: Keep to yourself. Don’t blast your music at fellow riders. Don’t crowd their space if you can help it. Don’t inflict your thoughts on everybody by running on at the mouth.

But for some reason, this singular approach to public transit also has prompted a passionate online community. People who wouldn’t look each other in the eye sitting two feet apart on a train eagerly seek one another out online to share and vent.

A handful of Boston-area blogs now focus on the T, and many more mine it as a subject for frequent comment. Michael Mennonno is the founder of one of the most-often visited such sites, T-rage.com, where he asks readers to ‘‘Share the despair — rage against the T with me.’’

The “rage” caught on, and Mennonno has recently broadened his urban musings on a new blog, masspurgation.com, for those with the “urge to purge.”

Mennonno started T-rage after moving from Jamaica Plain to Dorchester and switching from the Orange Line to the Red Line. He says he then ‘‘realized that it wasn’t just the Orange Line that was messed up. It was system-wide.’’

‘‘I came into work one day late because of the Red Line’s famous ‘schedule adjustments’ and was swearing up a storm,’’ he says. ‘‘A colleague kind of shook her head and says, ‘T-rage, eh?’ I was like, that’s it! I’m starting a blog!’’

Some of Mennonno’s pet peeves regarding proper T etiquette:

Pushing, shoving, and not saying excuse me: ‘‘People of all social backgrounds seem guilty of this in Boston,’’ he messaged City Weekly.

Spontaneous discharge of bodily fluids without appropriate measures to limit or contain discharge. ‘‘It never ceases to amaze me in the winter months how often I am coughed and sneezed on by people who make no attempt to cover their noses and mouths,’’ Mennonno wrote. ‘‘While we may mix and mingle by choice or necessity in our public spaces, inasmuch as possible we should keep our bodily fluids to ourselves. ( ... I refer you to Sade, who, for all his faults, at least recognized that the control of bodily emissions serves as the fundament of all social conventions.)’’

Eating fast food in a crowded car. ‘‘The rule on the T should be, nothing physically tangible goes in any orifice and nothing comes out.’’

Talking on a cellphone. ‘‘I would add ‘at an obnoxious volume,’ but can it be done any other way?’’

Space hogs. These are ‘‘people who spread out over two or three seats in rush hour ... people wearing big backpacks and whacking other people with them. ... You can wear it on the platform, but take it off before getting on the train.’’

MICHAEL MENNONNO