Re: anonymity in moos

• Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 11:48:41 PDT
• From:
  "Robert J. Brown" <rj@eli.wariat.org>
• CC: moo-cows@parc.xerox.com
• In-reply-to: <317291A7.6231@primuscorp.com> (message from Jeff Watkins on Mon, 15 Apr 1996 11:12:55 PDT)

>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Watkins <jwatkins@primuscorp.com> writes:

    Jeff> Another reason I would hesitate to make Email addresses
    Jeff> readable is it just doesn't mimic real life. If I run into
    Jeff> someone in RL and make an ass of myself (intentionally or
    Jeff> otherwise) I can console myself with, "At least (s)he
    Jeff> doesn't know how to get in touch with me." If you make email
    Jeff> addresses readable, this wont be true.

    Jeff> Also, in RL if I wan't some one to be able to contact me
    Jeff> other than face to face, I have to GIVE them my email
    Jeff> address or telephone number.

    Jeff> As an experiment, try walking around town with a big sign
    Jeff> that reads:

    Jeff> 	My Telephone Number is: xxx:xxx.xxxx (insert your
    Jeff> number here)

    Jeff> I know I wouldn't do that AND I'M NOT A WEIRDO. Really.

This is true in general, but not all MOOs are fun and games.  Some
operate like a club, instead of a street corner, some like a
classroom, and some like a corporate conference room.  

While what you say is true of a street corner, it is definately not
true of these other scenarios.  If you want to run gutterMOO to
emulate a street corner in Wrong-side-of-the-tracks-ville, the you can
expect to meet some pretty undesirable characters, and you would want
to maintain your anonymity.  

On the other hand, if you are teaching a class, you need to know who
the students are, and generally the students know each other.
Likewise and more so for the corporate conference or board room!  

The administrator of a MOO must know or decide what kind of an
environment that they want or need to maintain, and operate
accordingly.  The comment about young children keeping anonymous for
safety reasons is well taken.  It is also required that in other
situations, that everyone know who everyone else it, right down to
email addresses.

-- 
-----------  "...  And the men went up and viewed Ai."  [Jos 7:2]  -----------
Robert Jay Brown III  rj@eli.wariat.org  http://eli.wariat.org  1 847 705-0370
Elijah Laboratories Inc;  759 Independence Drive;  Suite 5;  Palatine IL 60074
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• Re: anonymity in moos
• From: Bob Canary <canary@cs.uwp.edu>

• Re: anonymity in moos
• From: Jeff Watkins <jwatkins@primuscorp.com>

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