Incidentally, you said we “didn’t want to know” what your teacher wanted you to use for HTML – but if that happens to be Microsoft Word, did you know that Word is actually factory-set as the default HTML editor in the last couple of iterations of Microsoft Windows that I used? I don’t want to sound like a Mac/Linux fangirl or start an OS war, but that was the tipping point for me…

The “temptation to be mean” that you’ve cited means that some otherwise sedate folk will become nasty trolls. This cuts across gender lines. I’ve seen plenty of female trolls and hatemongers in my time. Though it’s interesting that Standard Nasty Troll Vernacular seems to contain a lot of mysogynistic stuff, even when they’re not specifically setting out to be sexist. If the Internet can make people manifest the worst bits of themselves because they think no one is watching, then I’m really scared that so many people have inner thought processes that contain this stuff.

I guess that I was wondering if the issue is bigger than an issue of patriarchy. Are multiple issues at play? For example, when people are given anonymity on the internet, the temptation to be mean is there. Not everyone caves into that temptation. But some people do. Is this an issue of patriarchy, or are all people prone to be mean when given anonymity? In addition to anonymity, you have the issue that arises within small organizations where people take the little power that they have and use it to create as much drama as possible.

Now that I think about it, many of the MUD issues are like Society of Creative Anachronism issues except with the SCA people are not hiding behind a computer screen, but sometimes they can still be fairly anonymous and hide behind a given persona. I didn’t notice a large gender imbalance within the SCA as I noticed within the MUDs. But the type of drama seemed similar.

I agree with Jacinta. That’s the entire point of why I wrote that — it’s something that deserves recognition, especially since it is still an issue.

I’m certainly not so naive to think that a mere 5 years later this is a thing of the past — the internets continually prove to me that it isn’t.

Stating your situation does not seem like a derail, more like a supporting data point that indicates that the kind of thing discussed in the article is a real, live, ongoing problem.

So, instead, it comes down to something approaching random chance; it depends on if the top deities are sane, or not.

If they know what’s good for the mud, they refuse to accept succh behaviour though, because as you point out, most muds are heavily male-dominated, which again means that the muds who -do- manage to have a female-friendly atmosphere, and thus more female players, get a lot more players of BOTH sexes.

More females, because of the friendlier atmosphere, and more males because many males will prefer playing in a more mixed environment. Win-Win if you ask me.

How many times have we heard that? I recently had a male neighbor corner me and threaten me while I was in my car, for instance; when I mentioned to someone else that the guy had repeatedly behaved aggressively and finally escalated to violence, the person said, “Yeah, but he’s not a bad guy or anything.” Just what does it take for violent men to be recognized as “bad guys,” anyway? What has to happen before people in their social networks drop them and stop protecting them?

To keep this all in one comment–re: your “this doesn’t just affect women” remark, above, I am concerned that you felt obliged to capitulate to a PHMT argument. Men don’t have to be the victims of harassment or abuse in order for harassment and abuse to affect ALL of us. We’re in a situation where roughly 50% of the population abuses, or has social, legal, and economic latitude to abuse, the other 50% of the population. That sounds like “all of us” to me, but I can say that without undermining the truth about women’s marginalization under patriarchy.

I think it serves well as a reminder. This stuff doesn’t just affect the women — it affects all of us.

It seemed like the ones with stricter roll playing rules did not fall prey to the drama as often.