August 3, 2009

After I got my prayer level (see previous post) I ran tons of laps and listed to some podcasts some friends had sent over that I had put in my "do it later" file.

There was an interesting interview with Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist, interview was from NPR so you can go look there for it). Ok...interesting might be overstating it. It was the usual linear techie type of conversation.

But he did say something interesting about the problems that Craigslist has had and I thought it kind of spoke to RS issues too. He said that there was a tension between anonymity and accountability. Furthermore, that most people want to do the "right" thing but that there are some people out there who don't and they are the danger.

Think of this....if you're little RS character linked to your facebook page. Or to a profile of the "real" you, would you still behave the way you do? Or if there was a weekly "reckoning" where someone held you accountable for what you said and did, would that change things?

In Runescape we are all, in fact, anonymous. (Prety much true online everywhere if you wanted it to be). As such, most people act in a civil or pleasant or at least non asshat manner. But then there are others who use that anonymity to basically be digital sociopaths. Kind of interesting (in an annoying away).

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