[From Internet Informer, Vol. 1, No. 1] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are __ __ ____ _____ _ __ __ ____ | \/ |_ _| _ \ |_ _(_) \/ | ___/ ___| | |\/| | | | | | | | | | | | |\/| |/ _ \___ \ | | | | |_| | |_| | | | | | | | | __/___) | |_| |_|\__,_|____/ |_| |_|_| |_|\___|____/ by R . J . L a R o e " News you can MUSE " 1. Commentary: Virtual Harrassment R. J. LaRoe 2. News: Fresh New MuD list 3. Press Release: MediaMOO Announcement 4. Feature: England Invades France! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1 MOOs Arm Users Against Harassment The most widely reported bad news coming out of the MOO metroplex since it emerged on the virtual lanscape was the cyberspace rape(*) that occurred this past year in LambdaMOO. Four players were violated by a VooDoo doll controlled by a character named Mr. Bungle. Virtual charges were preferred against Mr. Bungle and that character was toaded (virtually executed). Following the execution, Haakon, Lambda's archwizard, established a "New Direction" for Lambda and a milestone in MUD history. He instituted, albeit by fiat, a free-form sort of democracy for Lambda in which virtually anyone may propose, in petition form, laws for the MOO society. LambdaMOO residents used the system over the next several months to forge tools for protecting and avenging themselves: creating an @boot command, which they may use to eject offending "guest" characters from their virtual spaces and establishing an arbitration system in which mutually acceptable ad hoc judges settle behavioral disputes between registered users. These judges, it should be noted, may invoke a broad range of wizardly punishments -- including toading. The New Direction continues, as does the debate over just what should be done about what. How, for example, does a virtual society distinguish between regulation of behavior and the free expression of thought? This past summer, for instance, Lambda players considered, discussed and voted on a petition/ballot which would have distinguished between virtual rape and merely offensive speech. Had the ballot been approved, "MOOrape" would have been defined as a "sexually-related act of a violent or acutely debasing or profoundly humiliating nature against a character who has not explicitly consented to the interaction" using "'emote' (locally or remotely), a spoof, or ... another verb performing the equivalent presentation." Using "say," "page," "whisper," or other functions which provide "an equivalent sense of quotation," however, would have been considered speech -- unless that speech "explicitly and provokingly reference[d] a character performing the actions associated with rape." Perpetrators of rapes would have been subject, following the first offense, to "@toading ... and @recycling of their character[s] and any secondary characters and refusal of additional character registration requests known to originate" from them. But the petition explicitly stated that it "should not be interpreted to abridge freedom of speech within LambdaMOO." Five hundred forty-one (541) Lambda residents voted in favor of the ballot, and 379 against. But since Lambda ballots must receive twice as many approving as disapproving votes, the measure failed. Sexual and general harassment, especially on the part of "guest characters," remain issues at Lambda and other mu*s, however. Lambda players should expect to see a new ballot in their mailboxes soon (if they have not seen one already) which, if passed, will establish guest registration. In response to similarly anti-social behavior on their virtual campus, registered characters at Diversity University MOO were armed this past month with two new verbs that DU's wizards hope will provide "an effective defense:" @witness and @banish. After the behavior of an abusive guest has been @witness-ed, which initiates a logging procedure, it can be @banished from the MOO and (as with @boot at Lambda) guest connections from the ex-guest's domain will be disabled for one hour thereafter. Both DU and Lambda permit ejected guests to protest their ejections and both MOOs hold their characters accountable for the usage of @boot or @banish. Lambda's @boot requires a second "confirming @boot request" from another Lambda player, within two minutes of the original @boot, before ejecting the guest. DU also initiated an @tag-ging system this past month to counter harassment on the part of registered users of the MOO. Characters who feel they're being harassed by other characters may now @tag the offender. "A tag," according to DU's help message on the subject, "consists of a little chunk of information" recorded against the tagged character. But it's a powerful little chunk. In it are the tagger's name, the time and date of the tag and the "rationale for the tag." The DU wizards are notified when a character has been tagged three times and they, at that point, in the words of the help file, "will have a word with the person and decide ... his/her fate." So be nice! end note: (*) Both the rape and the toading (virtual execution) of the sociopathic Mr. Bungle were thoroughly reported by Julian Dibbell (Lambda's Dr. Bombay) in "A Rape in Cyberspace" in the December 21, 1993 issue of *The Village Voice*, available in e-text via gopher at actlab.rtf.utexas.edu 70 under "Virtual Spaces: MUD/".