Julian Dibbell

Why is identity tied to a name? Identity is such a fluid construct, and the arbitrary forcing of it into First/Surname seems on one hand anglocentric, and on another hand, trying to impose on online identity the vestiges of real-world identity that we don't need on here. I would think given the discourse around online identity (i.e. http://www.juliandibbell.com/ and http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/), including feminist discourse, socio-political, etc that we would beyond this.

Perhaps relevant — loss of control can be much more impacting depending on how much weight you give to that online persona: http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

Really, 1990s writings on the impact of the Internet I find tend to remain remarkably applicable in this way. There's a particularly notable[0] article quite relevant to the topic of digital identity and harm, and to events earlier this year: "A Rape in Cyberspace; or, How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society" (1993) http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace

A known problem since the early days of the public internet, http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

Same thing, different day: http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

Depends on how you frame it, really. Julian Dibble's "A Rape In Cyberspace" is a oft-referenced piece here, written about LambdaMOO in the mid 90s, but still applicable to online environments today. (CW for reasons apparent in the title of the piece) http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

Holy shit, I can’t believe I just read a story about LambdaMoo that didn’t mention the Mr. Bungle incident. Is that legal? http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-r%61pe-in-cyberspace/ - content warning: rape, or rape-like things, it’s complicated —— MU*s were pretty important to me. I fell into them, I left them, I came back, I met the person who’s now my significant other and creative partner on a high-concept SF furry muck he ran. Some of my circles still hang out on them; I find I just can’t go back. I only have so much creative energy and I’d rather spend it on comics than on late-night role playing.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the early nineties, there was A Rape in Cyberspace http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html

> I think I'd like to build a connectable MOO-like world in which people could set up their own areas/rooms and connect them to a limited number of neighbors. Give them item creation and scripting capabilities as well. Simple, hackable, and almost completely user-created. Woops, that'd just be text-based Second Life. This sounds a lot like LambdaMoo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LambdaMOO). An interesting write-up of one's experience in the game: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/mytinylife.html.

Cyber-rapist reminds me of A Rape in Cyberspace[1], from 1993. Which, 20 years later, seems much tamer in comparison to mobile anonymous physical stalking apps. At least back then, your stalker had to sit in front of their computer. Now we recognize that as something closer to trolling. [1] http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/

Yes, everyone interested in this topic should read that link. And associated topics -- search for 'Mr Bungle LambdaMOO' and in particular: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle_vv.html A Rape in Cyberspace How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society First published in The Village Voice, December 23, 1993