Figure 6.39: pa5b.jpg
Getting a community standards notice at the entry way to Cybertown.
See
Copyright and Usage Notice
Community Behavior in The
Palace
Like any community, the social life at Palace sites can be spoiled
by a few rotten roundheads (or rude avatarts or avahunks). Most
Palace sites, including the main Palace server, have community
standards posted that pop up when you enter. The Cybertown standards
are shown in the previous figure.
Recently, hostility by registered users toward guest users has
grown, with guests being denigrated, and as shown here, sprayed
with a treatment of anti-guest repellent. This repulsive behavior
can only discourage more guests from becoming active members and
contributors. How do you fight back if you are a mere roundhead?
Newbie revolt! Use the pen over the sword, and keyboard your displeasure,
ask for help from fellow citizens, newbie or registered alike!
Who knows, you might even try calling for a wizard (see the following
section on Wizards). See the section, ìPalace Community
Standards,î in the FAQ at the end of this chapter for The
Palaceís official guide to community behavior.
Wizards: so you want to rule the world?
Dr. John Suler, a psychologist studying The Palace community,
has paid special attention to the role of wizards. I present
a short excerpt from his full paper, which you can read on the
Web at http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palacestudy.html.
The ultimate badge of prestige at The Palace is to be chosen as
wizard. Wizards possess special abilities that ordinary members
don't (like being able to kill, gag, and pin misbehaving users).
They also participate in decision-making about new policies for
the community. Many members, secretly or not, wish they could
attain the social recognition, power, and self-esteem achieved
through this promotion. To get it, one must demonstrate commitment
to the community, which includes spending a considerable amount
of time there. Wizardship can become a very enticing carrot that
stimulates addictive attendance. For those few who do attain that
position, it can powerfully reinforce one's efforts, and further
bolsters one's loyalty and devotion to Palace life. Even though
the position does not include a salary, many wizards see it as
a job to which they are responsible. The wizard now has a viable
reason for being so "addicted." As one user stated the
day after receiving his surprise promotion, "I WORK here."
More from Dr. Suler in, ìDigiís
Diary, What to do About all those Naked Pictures,î later
in this chapter.
Fine-tuning Your World
Hot keys
There are a number of useful special key combinations which will speed your actions in the Palace. Some of these ëhot keysí are listed below.
| Hot Key | Action |
| Tab | Toggles focus between the Input Box and the View Screen. |
| Up Arrow | When the focus is on the Input Box, this pages back through your previously typed statements. When the focus is on the View Screen, the arrow keys allow you to move your avatar around on the screen. |
| Down Arrow | When the focus is on the Input Box, this pages forward through your previously typed statements. When the focus is on the View Screen, the arrow keys allow you to move your avatar around on the screen. |
| Esc | Clears the Input Box. |
| Control+G | Invokes the Goto Room command from the Options Menu |
| Control+G | Invokes the Find User command from the Options Menu |
| Alt+Control | If the Autoshow Names option is unchecked, this hot key combination temporarily displays the names of all people in the current room. If Autoshow Names is checked, this combination causes the names to temporarily disappear. |
| Control+Shift | Causes outlines of all doors in the current room to become visible. |
Table 6.?
Seeing other people's names
Even if you have the Show Names option turned off (see Preferences
under the Edit menu), it is still possible to see the names of
all the people in the room with you: if you're a Mac user, just
hold down Command and Option simultaneously. If you're a Windows
user, simply hold down F3.
Seeing doors
Want to see all doors in the current room? By holding down Control
(for Mac users), or Ctrl+Shift (for Windows users), you cause
the outlines of all doors in the current room to become visible.
Signing off
To sign off from the current Palace without closing the client
(i.e., if you want to continue Palace-hopping), pull down the
File menu and select Disconnect.
To disconnect and close the client software, select Quit (Mac
users) or Exit (Windows users).
Hot Palace home pages
The Palace official pages and ftp sites
The Palace Home Page is at http://www.thepalace.com.
The Palace FAQ can be found at http://www.thepalace.com/palace-faq.html
.
The Palace Community Standards Discussion Group is at http://www.thepalace.com/discussion-groups.html.
(Please post your experiences, insights, and suggestions for the
benefit of all Palace users).
The Palace Directory is at http://mansion.thepalace.com/cgi-bin/directory.pl.
Palace downloads (software and multimedia assets) can be obtained
from http://www.thepalace.com/downloads.html.
Palace documents (manuals) are posted at http://www.thepalace.com/documentation.html.
Palace discussion groups are listed at http://www.thepalace.com/discussion-groups.html.
Palace-related Web pages official link page is at http://www.thepalace.com/web-pages.html.
Palace advertising policy is at http://www.thepalace.com/advertising.html.
Instructions on connecting through online services can be found at:
How to register for The Palace is described at http://www.thepalace.com/register.html.
Palace anonymous ftp sites are as follows:
In North America: ftp://ftp.thepalace.com;
In Europe: ftp://buene.uni-muenster.de/pub/mirror/thePalace/.
Some Palace citizen pages
Adam's Palace Pro Shop (Is It Eating Your Life Too?) is at http://callisto.syr.edu/~alrubin/palace/palace.html.
Chris Miner's Palace tutorial for Windows users is at http://www.itsnet.com/home/lminer/palace/.
Rover's Doghouse is at http://www.ultranet.com/~rover/.
Eric D's IptScrae Resource Center can be found at http://www.chatlink.com/~peanut/iptscrae.html.
Nathan Wagonerís Palace hot list
Nathan Wagoner is an avid Palace pro and designer of art for Palace
sites. His company is DuckSoup Information Services, and can be
found at http://www.ducksoup.net.
Thanks for this list, Nathan!
The Palace Everything Page is at http://rogue.northwest.com/~gb1018/welcome.html.
An article in Urban Desires can be found at http://desires.com/2.0b3/Toys/Palace/palace.html.
Dr. Xenu's Guide to Props and Botsólot's of help for building
Palaces is at http://desires.com/2.0b3/Toys/Palace/palace.html.
A list of helpful links is at http://rogue.northwest.com/~gb1018/related.html.
Very helpful beginners tutorials can be found at http://www.itsnet.com/home/lminer/palace/.
A large study by psychologist John Suler focusing on The Palace
is at http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palacestudy.html.
The main page, with many other related resources by Suler is at
http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html.
The Palace Ring of WWW sites is at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/5049/palacering.html.
Digiís Diary: What to do About all those Naked Pix?
Well, you canít hide it. Sooner or later in The Palace
you will see either Avatarts (scantily clad female avatars) or
Avahunks (male avs of the same persuasion). I met one ten-year-old
in WorldsAway who said his parents would not let him use The Palace
any more because of ìall those naked pixî (WorldsAwayís
avatars are built from carefully chosen parts). In The Palace,
you can make your own avs; put anything on a scanner and you have
an av. What is there to do about it?
Where is all this going? Do we need community policing? Do we
need parental controls? Do we need a ìnaked pix patrol?î
Since it is a global medium, we have to consider that in some
cultures all of these pix would not be seen as particularly offensive.
Dutch users, or other Europeans, might just laugh it off or ignore
it. Benetton and other advertisers in print and on TV produce
images far more suggestive than anything I have seen in avatar
land. While naked pix might be offensive to some in the English-speaking
world, they would be egregiously so to a devout Muslim.
So what can we do? Maybe Freud was rightóthat sex is the
basic drive in human (and virtual) societies. If naked pix do
disturb you, you can always choose another virtual world. But
perhaps another approach might be to change the way you look at
it. Psychologist John Suler wrote a marvelous paper on the psychology
of The Palace (at http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palacestudy.html),
which takes up these issues. He writes, ìThe Palace often
feels and looks like an ongoing cocktail partyóand like
any good party, there is a hefty dose of natural, playful flirting.î
So perhaps you could look at it as flirting, and not take it too
seriously.
Dr. Suler goes on to report that, ìWhen I ask people why
they keep coming back to The Palace, the most common response
is, ìI like the people here.î
When it comes down to it (or as the English say, at the end of
the day), if you liked more people than you disliked in your visits
to The Palace, it is probably worth returning. As our story of
the interview and mr. rotten earlier in this chapter pointed out,
sometimes people put on a facade and act out a role which is not
really who they are. Giving people the benefit of the doubt is
also a good rule of thumb. Donít be afraid to talk to the
avatarts and avahunks, and even ask them why they are dressed
that way!