Vex Appeal is a weblog and collection of projects by Guy Parsons, a game designer, online community and digital strategy dude in London, England. Read more about the saucy butcher boy here.
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previously on vexappeal:
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Digital neighborhoods
Sunday, June 24, 2007
An argument that emerged at the Chinwag 'Dark Side Of Social Media' event is that online networks lack nuance - that the definition of "friend" is too clumsy. I concede the point, but outside of any particular network, there is more opportunity for subtlety.
Tim Ireland was one of the people on the panel. He was a jaded and cynical bloke who's seen the scum of the internet - sockpuppets, trolls, astroturfing, and other forms of digital duplicity. He tended to argue for a movement away from anonymity/pseudonymity and towards stronger identity-based systems. On the other hand, he also advocated privacy, and I paraphrase his example:
Let's say you espouse a particular opinion online. Someone takes a dislike to it. But what if someone could link "you online" to a physical address, your home, or your children's home? If they can threaten your kids, they can threaten your access to free speech.Pretty paranoid stuff, right? But wait - Tim works in the nasty cesspool of political blogging. In fact, he doesn't just consult. He blogs himself. And I quote:
Please be aware that this is by no means my final word on Blair. I plan to keep my vow to pursue him to the end of his political career and beyond and one day piss on his grave .Pissing on graves? Really? It's hardly surprising that Tim tends to encounter other equally vitriolic types. And there's bound to be a strong correlation between vitriol and tendency to adopt inauthentic tactics to argue a certain point of view.
I don't knock Tim's style, but it sure isn't my style, and as such, we're bound to encounter different types of people online. It's like coming from different neighbourhood.
"What do you mean you don't have bars on your windows? Anyone could just break in!"Where I live, people don't tend to break in to each other's houses that much. And so it is online - I live in a quiet backwater of amiable geeks, where everyone is pretty decent and reasonable to each other, and so it's easy to have a relaxed approach to privacy.
Just like my real neighbourhood, I acknowledge the possibility that it could be gatecrashed by someone who *wants* to break some windows. At first they'd have a pretty easy time of it, before people had the opportunity invest in some bars. It would be a shame if that happened. I don't think it will. But if someone wants to come after me online, then the same will happen - walls will come down, people will find themselves defriended, I'll talk about less, and talk less often.
The Kathy Sierra Incident is a good example of this - someone in a genteel neighbourhood of user experience design, suddenly up against some nasty fucking thug from the mean streets of trollsville. The system breaks down when two very different approaches meet. I bet if aforementioned troll had attacked someone on Something Awful, it would've just turned into an epic Photoshop battle.
Tim briefly mentioned the political blogosphere turning ugly of late, with a much greater tendency towards partisan flamewars than thoughtful dialogue. (Although I'm not sure his own blog is necessarily a good example of the latter...) That's degentrification. But I suspect that Tim quite likes the bravado and rigorous confrontation of his existing neighbourhood, and simply wishes that people wouldn't post comments under 12 different names to make themselves seem more popular. In the same sense, I'd prefer South London without the knife crime, but wouldn't ever choose to move back to the commuter-belt nowheresville I hail from.
The analog breaks down in one sense. See, if you simply must have the hustle-and-bustle of the metropolis, while minimising your exposure to the associated drawbacks, your options are limited - unless you're able to afford somewhere very expensive, that is. Online, there's no such barrier, and you just have to find Your Kind Of People. Fortunately, clever people are inventing all sorts of 'networks' to help you do just that.
Trying to come up with globally applicable principles of digital identity and conduct is like comparing Glastonbury the Festival with Glastonbury the Village, or even Slough with Somalia. People are going to act differently and have different expectations in different communities - and there lies the real subtlety of socialising online.
Labels: chinwag, identity, neighborhoods, social networks
- Tim said...
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With respect, Guy, I've only suffered personal attacks when highlighting the work of those who attack others.
The rather extreme example of victimisation I gave at the beginning of the evening involved a victim whose only crime was to stand for election. - 11:09 AM