Pay to Play MUSHing?
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@surreality said:
@Coin Custodius and Jeurg are, alas, different assholes.
(As much as I sincerely wish we could consolidate at least one nightmare out of existence.)
Huh. Whatever! Editing.
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@saosmash said:
I dunno, I have a friend who is really nice, like sweetest, most generous guy, fun to hang with in real life but somehow on the internet he transposes into the most annoying man alive. Like, he's never a shitdick. It's like online he forgets everything there is to know about social interaction and reverts to the comparative safety of total inanity.
This sort of reminds me of Slavoj Žižek's theory of masks. Terry Pratchett sort of condensed it into Granny Weatherwax's maxim that a mask only hides the face on the outside, but how we behave when we think we're exempt of consequence is who we really are. For many, the online world provides that mask.
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Really the biggest thing I'm reacting to is the idea purported by @Shayd that somehow online behavior does really matter because it's "not real life." That is a load of bullshit. I don't really have any desire to argue the nuances of online versus real life identity, but I will stand strong on the idea that social behavior doesn't "count less" just because it's happening in a digital space.
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I have to agree with @Roz on this one.
Digital space is not consequence-free space. People often have a bad habit of treating it as such simply because the consequences of their behavior are not often delivered on them personally or directly, and are instead shoved off to be someone else's problem.
People who behave this way understandably start to be considered the problem themselves after they've caused enough problems for others, which is the eventual actual consequence for them personally.
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I find that once I meet and spend time with someone RL I have a far more generous read of their tone and behavior than I would otherwise.
If we have different perspectives on certain ethics (such as CoI) once I get to know someone I have a more nuanced view (also aided by the fact that I know better how to start the conversation about something that is bothering me) and do not feel as autodefensive as if I have no frame of reference.
It doesn't mean I don't understand when behavior is shitty. I once reported face to face RL friends to Sunny because of cheating issues amongst other things, and that in part detonated many of those RL friendships for nearly a decade, others never recovered, and most were changed.
But I disagree that online behavior should be seen as an accurate and sum total reflection of a person. I think it's a snapshot. And can be concerning. But there's a greater context most of the time and so I disagree that it should be taken as the "truest" reflection.
