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Do you care?

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Mister Six, whom all the girls

13:13 / 06.12.05

meatspace union

... and my euphamism for sex catalog obtains a new entry today, sitting alongside such classics as 'the mommy and daddy dance' and 'locking robot parts.'

13:26 / 06.12.05

I can't seem to shake the thought of Xoc posting nekkid.
why would you want to?
that'll keep you warm til christmas.

13:42 / 06.12.05

I don't think "naked" posting is possible -- just a fairly good simulacra of nakedness/honesty/what-I'm-like-face-to-face.

You have to translate to text to make yourself evident here -- if you talk to the screen and waggle your eyebrows, nobody hears or sees you (and God knows I've tried).

14:42 / 06.12.05

I can tell when you're twirling your moustache online though, grant.

14:44 / 06.12.05

That's, uh, not my mustache.

14:51 / 06.12.05

Ah, perhaps it is one from your legendary collection of stolen moustaches, proudly mounted in a morocoo leather case?

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:19 / 06.12.05

Kudos to grant for making the obvious point. When we write something on a messageboard, we're communicating without the enormous amount of communication that takes place in addition to language every time we have a conversation in person with someone, or even talk on the phone. The vast majority of us are also aware, however subconsciously, of the fact that we are writing in a public forum - we tend to have some sense of the extent of our anonymity also. Given all this, to talk about being "the same person on Barbelith as I am outside of it" is to misunderstand the nature of such a heavily mediated form of communication.

Do I care about how my posts on Barbelith are perceived, and how I'm perceived through Barbelith as a result? Depends who by, really.

15:41 / 06.12.05

Xoc: Stolen, no; leather, maybe; mounted, definitely.

Weapons: I'm at my best when I'm obvious.

18:15 / 06.12.05

to talk about being "the same person on Barbelith as I am outside of it" is to misunderstand the nature of such a heavily mediated form of communication.

No no no, I am in fact a disembodied AI so my only avenue of communication is text or one of those robot voiceboxes that Hawking has. IRL I'm physically a vast room of supercomputers running a complex simalcrum designed by Alan Turing years ago. But, y'know, in my mind I'm a *naked* A.I.

18:47 / 06.12.05

In my mind I'm a *naked* pillar of flame that shouts directions in Aramaic.

18:53 / 06.12.05

Hnh. You know I was trying to be funny, but that turned out kind of profound. Not the Aramaic part, mind.

21:51 / 06.12.05

I don't think about it. I don't have a *spit* suit. The social environment is different online and on boards than it would be face to face, but there's always a difference; I have multiple personalities and modes of behaviour depending on the environment and who I'm talking to. In general, when I'm online, the only differences between my behaviour there and at other times are down to the medium and the social context in a fairly predictable way; fewer immediate social problems from insulting someone, less pressure to form a group viewpoint. That's not a "suit", that's just context.

22:38 / 06.12.05

Mine is Martin. :-(

As an aside, the above is my favorite use of smileys ever.

I don't like "ibis." My suit, or whatever, here is amorphous, and even after being here for a year or two (I forget how long) I have no better idea of who "ibis" is, and I doubt anyone else does either, if they notice my suit at all.

Tailoring my personality to suit the environment is not something I only do online. It's what comes naturally to me, for better or for worse. There are always some situations in which I never get a handle on who I want to "be," and this appears to be another (online) one of them.

23:11 / 06.12.05

I like ibis.
Isn't she cute?

I like all the laides of Barbelith. Intelligent little pixies each and every one.
Even Emily Triplets.

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:40 / 06.12.05

I used to care. I used to care a lot.

Now, due to a lot of stuff - perhaps it's growing up, perhaps it's not - I pretty much don't give a fuck as to how people perceive me online. It used to worry me about whether people liked me or not, but I ended up figuring that if they didn't like me, they a) didn't know me or b) were fuckstains anyway.

So there you go.

01:11 / 07.12.05

It's not a conscious decision on my part, but I think that the personality I put across online, and here especially - whatever that may be - is the better part of me. How I'd ideally like to be offline, in other words.

Offline, I'm quicker to anger, I betray my principles with alarming regularlity, I'm even less eloquent and I'm either far more introverted or far more extroverted, depending on the company. Online, I hit a happy medium. Here, probably because of the way that communication isn't in real-time and therefore allows me to spend an indefinite amount of time thinking about how I'm going to say what I want to say, those things aren't as much of an issue.

Odd thing is that as that's become more apparent to me, I've gradually stopped caring about the petty stupidnesses that lead to the more personal arguments, both here and on other boards.

02:32 / 07.12.05

I know what you mean Slim - but what would you propose in its stead?

I've always preferred "handle" or "username" or even "tag." Boring but sufficient.

07:27 / 07.12.05

I've always preferred "handle"

Breaker, breaker. Ten-four, good buddy.

08:46 / 07.12.05

What's wrong with "name"?

10:28 / 07.12.05

I suppose a major difference between how we present ourselves online and how we are in real life is also dependant on how quickly we respond to posts on threads we are heavily involved in. Normally in a debate with someone IRL we don't have the luxury of taking an hour or so to think of a decent response. We have to respond straight away.

Initially, on Barbelith, I tended to write out a response to posts as soon as I had read them. These days I take a more relaxed view on things. The message board will still be there come the morning so there's no hurry.

11:13 / 07.12.05

Do I care about how my posts on Barbelith are perceived, and how I'm perceived through Barbelith as a result? Depends who by, really.

Yeah. There's only 20-30 distinct voices/personae I'm aware of as such - perhaps a few more, around 10% of whom I've met and probably around another 10% of whom I'm not that into. The majority of the posters I particularly like seem to like and acknowledge me back, so that's fine.

I used my real name after a month or so of usernames (do like the term fictionsuit, though. Nice and allusive, and special to this mb. Hey, that and 'meatspace' are in the Grandaui, ent they? OED next. And history probably.) and have only recently (last year or so?) started mucking about with it. In some way, I did like to think this was being brazenly honest, but latterly I've concluded I don't want anyone I know to google my name - I don't know why they would, but nonetheless - and come to the frankly inescapable conclusion that I am an oddball comics obsessive. Because that's what this 'suit' does, by and large; it's a vector of personality, and is afflicted by moods and such. Inebriation &c.

11:45 / 07.12.05

I used to care, but now strangely don't.

11:51 / 07.12.05

I don't think "naked" posting is possible -- just a fairly good simulacra of nakedness/honesty/what-I'm-like-face-to-face.

In every way I think important I'm much more naked here than in real-life. Most things I talk about here I simply wouldn't outside. I definitely don't identify with this persona. Otherwise I couldn't be so open about things, could I?

Is that a paradox?

12:09 / 07.12.05

I used to care, but now strangely don't.

Yeah, 'cause your fan-horde has eclipsed us in your heart.

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