From: martin@cs.curtin.edu.au (Martin Dougiamas)
Subject: Re: Tiny logs ...
Keywords: tinylogs, twinks, flame, penn, idiocy
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 07:04:24 GMT


Perhaps I posted my previous comment at a bad time... I can see
that among all the slathering at the recent log-postings, my 
post was misinterpreted.  Hopefully I can make clear what I meant.

takkyon@dartmouth.edu (Dr. Tachyon) writes:

>I'm really grateful to this person for posting.  Partly so I can correct
>some misconceptions of his, but mostly because I'm so incoherently
>furious that I doubt if I could write a decent flame without something to
>play off.
>
>In article [cut] Martin Dougiamas, martin@cs.curtin.edu.au writes:
>>I, for one, find these recently-posted logs quite fascinating.
>
>"Fascinating" is not the word.  
>
>>Not for the tinysex or because I know any of the characters involved,
>
>I do.  Several of them.  And, to be blunt, I find this total violation of
>their privacy to be slightly worse than despicable.  Allow me to diverge

OK.. of course you're right about this.  As I wrote in reply to some 
mail I recieved along much the same lines :

------------------------  START OF MAIL EXCERPT  --------------------------
> >I, for one, find these recently-posted logs quite fascinating.
> >Not for the tinysex or because I know any of the characters involved,
> >but just to see how other people mud...   There ought to be 
> >a lot more posting of this sort of thing to rec.games.mud.tiny.
> 
> Fascinating though they might be, these logs were certainly released
> without the consent of the participants.  I *do* know the people
> involved, and even those I despise personally deserve at least that
> much privacy.

Well, yes.  Obviously, names should be changed or people should
be asked beforehand, if exposure of logs would harm them.

> Of greater impact to myself is the fact that this sort of exposure
> gives people who have never been to FurryMUCK a pretty warped image
> of what goes on there.  True, there is some very strange tinysex
> that goes on.  But FurryMUCK is (as far as I can tell) the largest
> and most popular social MU* on the net.  Unlike all but a few
> similarly populous places (LambdaMOO, Pern, TimeTraveller) it's
> large enough to support many different social circles.  Thus, it's
> somewhat unfair to present the tinysex subgroup as representative
> of the other few hundred characters online.  They're simply the most
> visible and easily sensationalized ones.

Definitely, I agree... but tinysex is a different issue entirely.

The issue here is posting logs.  I think there should be many more 
logs posted, of all types of interactions from all muds.  The 
Dragon hatchings, for example, are something I would not really
be interested in attending... but made interesting reading.
There are not a few riotously funny conversations I've been
involved in that I wouldn't mind being posted in the least,
especially with my name on them.

Perhaps the circulation of logs featuring experienced and
intelligent players would help raise the quality among that
large percentage of mud players with character names like
HIMYNAMEISJOHN.  Well, I can hope.

--------------------------- END OF MAIL EXCERPT -----------------------

ie Kill, persecute the heretic for posting private material without
   permission, but please don't advocate against posting logs altogether.

That's like wanting to ban sex because there are rapists about.

All my own opinion, of course.

How do the participants *themselves* feel about this recent invasion
of their privacy?

Martin
--
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