an emerging social phenomenon on the web
Forwarded upon request. For inquiries, please contact Wyatt Ehrenfels directly. Ulla ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- From: J. Wyatt Ehrenfels [mailto:jwyattehrenfels@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:17 AM Subject: an emerging social phenomenon on the Web I am a social psychologist referred to you (i.e. the Association of Internet Researchers) by a participant of an education and technology listserv who responded favorably to my efforts to raise public awareness about an emerging phenomenon -- amusing yet disturbing -- intellectually stimulating -- I am talking about gang cyberstalking and specifically about the risks of participating in unmoderated news groups. These news groups are available through the front pages of most ISPs and most prominently through Google. For example, while many psychology department web sites and blogs include the psychology "news groups" in their comprehensive list of resources, over 95 percent of the messages archived! to these "news groups" are flames. No, I'm not talking about adversarial debates about topics relevant to the news group. I'm talking about personal wars. These tastefully-named "news groups" have become home to gangs of anonymous stalkers seeking to harass individuals who contribute unconventional wisdom or complaints to the Web. These gangs are comprised not only of tech-savvy juveniles and belligerents with criminal and/or psychiatric histories but seasoned academics and practitioners (i.e. professional shills) who adopt menacing personalities under the anonymity afforded by Usenet. (And I'm not talking about "handles" but true aliases supported by anonymizing remailers, free news posting servers, and forgery). The products of these flame wars and defamation in these news groups end up vandalizing Wikipedia and the search e! ngines (especially Google), raising questions about the credibility and educational value of these resources. To offer some insight into the scope of the problem, I composed a series of related reports about an illustrative self-described "cabal" operating out of unmoderated sci.psychology.psychotherapy. The reports are offered in the spirit of civic responsibility, social science, and also to entertain its readers while striking a note of caution. I hope you enjoy them. The main report is the following: http://www.fireflysun.com/book/sci.psychology.psychotherapy.PUBLIC.php with links to related reports in the right navigation bar, including reports that illustrate how Web Resources (e.g. Google, Wikipedia, Amazon.com) are abused or vandalized for the purposes of harassment and defamation: http://www.fireflysun.com/book/Google_PUBLIC.php http://www.fireflySun.com/en.wikipedia.org.php http://www.fireflySun.com/book/stalker_profiles.php http://www.fireflySun.com/book/stalkingAmazon.com.php http://www.fireflySun.com/book/proxyname.php best regards, Wyatt Ehrenfels
"95 percent" seems an exaggeration. There are groups whose content is largely flames, but my doctoral research confirmed previous indications that, Usenet-wide, less than 10% of messages are flames, and far less in some groups. On the other hand, I also uncovered factors that may generate online "gangs" such as are described below, though the elements of that are only subtly included in my dissertation. -eg
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Bunz, Ulla Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 12:08 PM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] an emerging social phenomenon on the web
Forwarded upon request. For inquiries, please contact Wyatt Ehrenfels directly.
Ulla
-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- ---
From: J. Wyatt Ehrenfels [mailto:jwyattehrenfels@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 9:17 AM Subject: an emerging social phenomenon on the Web
I am a social psychologist referred to you (i.e. the Association of Internet Researchers) by a participant of an education and technology listserv who responded favorably to my efforts to raise public awareness about an emerging phenomenon -- amusing yet disturbing -- intellectually stimulating -- I am talking about gang cyberstalking and specifically about the risks of participating in unmoderated news groups.
These news groups are available through the front pages of most ISPs and most prominently through Google. For example, while many psychology department web sites and blogs include the psychology "news groups" in their comprehensive list of resources, over 95 percent of the messages archived! to these "news groups" are flames. No, I'm not talking about adversarial debates about topics relevant to the news group. I'm talking about personal wars.
These tastefully-named "news groups" have become home to gangs of anonymous stalkers seeking to harass individuals who contribute unconventional wisdom or complaints to the Web. These gangs are comprised not only of tech-savvy juveniles and belligerents with criminal and/or psychiatric histories but seasoned academics and practitioners (i.e. professional shills) who adopt menacing personalities under the anonymity afforded by Usenet. (And I'm not talking about "handles" but true aliases supported by anonymizing remailers, free news posting servers, and forgery).
The products of these flame wars and defamation in these news groups end up vandalizing Wikipedia and the search e! ngines (especially Google), raising questions about the credibility and educational value of these resources.
To offer some insight into the scope of the problem, I composed a series of related reports about an illustrative self-described "cabal" operating out of unmoderated sci.psychology.psychotherapy. The reports are offered in the spirit of civic responsibility, social science, and also to entertain its readers while striking a note of caution.
I hope you enjoy them. The main report is the following:
http://www.fireflysun.com/book/sci.psychology.psychotherapy.PUBLIC.php
with links to related reports in the right navigation bar, including reports that illustrate how Web Resources (e.g. Google, Wikipedia, Amazon.com) are abused or vandalized for the purposes of harassment and defamation:
http://www.fireflysun.com/book/Google_PUBLIC.php
http://www.fireflySun.com/en.wikipedia.org.php
http://www.fireflySun.com/book/stalker_profiles.php
http://www.fireflySun.com/book/stalkingAmazon.com.php
http://www.fireflySun.com/book/proxyname.php
best regards,
Wyatt Ehrenfels
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Dear AIR-ers - I'm looking for some citations on informal vs. formal networks of communication in the uptake of ICTs. I know there must be zillions out there! This latest project focuses on volunteers using donated computers but I'd be interested in what others have to say on this topic and would post back to the list with my own citations (most are very specific to volunteers so I didn't put them up in this email). Thanks heaps, Denise Denise N. Rall, Ph.D. submitted, School of Environ. Science, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 2480 AUSTRALIA Tuesdays: Room T2.12, +61 (0)2 6620 3577 or Mobile 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/rsm/staff/pages/drall/index.html Virtual member, Cybermetrics Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/index.html
I remember that Maria Bakardjieva wrote about the "warm expert" - ie the friend who is also an expert in IT - as an important element of the introduction to the Internet for most people - in one of her articles. It's a qualitative study, I don't know if you are looking for that or not. Sorry I can't remember which one it is. Bakardjieva, M., & Smith, R. (2001). The internet in everyday life: computer networking from the standpoint of the domestic user. New Media & Society, 3(1), 67-83. or Bakardjieva, M. (2003). Virtual togetherness: an everyday-life perspective. Media, Culture & Society, 25(3), 291-314. Elizabeth
participants (4)
-
Bunz, Ulla -
Denise N. Rall -
Elizabeth Van Couvering -
Ellis Godard