Drawing on a study of 106 personal homepages, this paper presents a theoretical model of how citizens� potentials as Web publishers are being compromised by the leadership of institutional discourses. Adapting Norman Fairclough�s model of synthetic personalization, the author proposes an analogous process called synthetic institutionalization, in which personal Web publishers affect institutional poses. Institutional poses, with their commercial and bureaucratic discourses, enable personal homepage publishers to construct seemingly viable public positions and to maintain seemingly viable public relations. In a medium that hosts both citizen and institutional classes, synthetic institutionalization is theorized to debase the status of citizens� authentic Web presences and to dilute the cohesiveness of the citizenry as a Web class. Based on the conservative inclination of institutional poses, the author concludes that solo Web stances may never become significant sources of progressive social action, and suggests instead that communal Web projects would better support class cohesiveness and progressive action.