I too have been interested in how to frame the distinction or lack of distinction between on and offline spaces. One of the things that struck me in a recent set of interviews with online gamers, was that some had a kind of instrumental use of the terminology 'RL'. It seemed to be a way of resolving what would otherwise be some very troublesome contradictions in their lives. For instance, a woman who is 'happily married', has an avowed commitment to monogamy, and who spends up to 40 hours a week in the game, where she has about 6 different characters, all married to other players' characters, some with an accompanying intense emotional involvement, most with online cybersex involvements. For her, invoking RL also allows her to rationalise her in-game involvements as not RL and therefore not at all contradictory to her stance on marriage and monogamy. Granted, game worlds specifically give people a licence to create and live fantasy, unlike some other online environments spoken of in the list discussion, but the convenience of the term RL for people living with a series of contradictions about their lives did strike me as a possible reason for its use. Not suggesting it is a universal....just a small observation. cheers Sal Humphreys Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology