A hypertext also brings the reader and writer closer together by giving equal footing to the text, notes by the author and notes by the reader. Many hypertexts allow readers to add their own notes and links. Such citations often have equal or similar status as the author's original links and comments.
Landow continues by explaining that, while the reader cannot change the hypertext, the process of making comments "does narrow the phenomenological distance that separates individual documents from one another in the worlds of print and manuscript. In reducing the autonomy of the text, hypertext reduces the autonomy of the writer"(Landow, 71-72).
The reader/writer distinction also blurs as readers become more conscious of and active in their role in reading a hypertext. Bolter points out that the computer "makes visible the contest between author and reader that in previous technologies has gone on out of sight, 'behind' the page"(Bolter, 154).
A reader of a hypertext, at the end of each node, must make a choice about what information he or she wants to see next. This forces the reader to focus on the format of the text, rather than the text itself. Bolter says, "The capacity of electronic text ironically to comment on itself keeps the reader from falling too far or too long into passivity"(Bolter, 155).
The new relationship of reader and writer is more of a partnership than the passage of the words of the deity (author) to the subject (reader). To achieve this, the author must cede some control over the text, and the reader must take a more active role in making meaning.