Cybering Archives

web presence/ presentation of self online
 
 

Monday July 3, 2000

Paul Perry, of Alamut, often waxes lyrical about the philosphy of webbing. Here, his thoughts on
Web Presence (and absence): "Have you ever noticed how...

...in the physical world people are either present or absent, but not both? And that you, as a physical person, have the choice between being either here or there? And if you are not here or there, and you have chosen not to stay in touch with those that are either here or there, that you are absent?

In other words, in the physical world the choice is yours about whether or not to be present or absent. You control this. You decide if you want to be absent from someone or some place or some group. If you want to be absent you simply remove yourself from their locality. You are still present but not for the people or place in question.

Have you ever noticed how maintaining a web presence makes this sort of thing impossible? With a web site the only way be absent from the people or places you wish to avoid (ex-job, ex-friends, creditors, the taxman...) is take down your site. Absence on the web is different from absence in the physical world. It is not something you can selectively control. In order to become absent you have to relinquish your presence entirely.

Conclusion: Maintaining a web presence means that absence is no longer possible."
 
 

Wednesday, May 31, 2000

Another choice for participation online is the diffused self. Rather than have a central page or project, surf around and leave markers of your approval, little hints of your presence. There's a program called 3rd Voice that allows you to leave graffiti comments in the margins of webpages you've visited, and other people with that program can read them. I thought it was a neat idea and wonder why it hasn't taken off.
You can sign peoples' guestbooks, you can contribute a dick to the dicklist, you can create dialogue with your web heroes on their discussion boards (or get closer with email one-on-one), you can get a cutting-edge moniker and be a regular kibbutzer on slashdot. You can join 'table talk' at salon and contribute as much text as the regular paid writers, sort of like getting your letter-to-the-editor published in the paper every time.You can review books on Amazon so well that people look for your wisdom. At Epinions, they've codified this desire. Be trusted! Be an 'expert'. Make money!

Or you can participate just by needing information. Post and ask about the best tape deck. Or buy stuff.. Ebay or psychic readings.

Or you can become a Force in chat. Some rooms have the most rigid hierarchy since feudalism, with certain people only allowed to be funny, scathing, or knowledgeable. Capitalize on this and become a chat guide or channel elder; go corporate and call it 'community building'. Be one of the guys in sexchats who kicks the vulgar and repetitive. It's a power trip.

All of this reminds me of those people who compulsively call talk radio shows.

The advantage of the 'diffuse self' online is mutability. You have web presence, but nobody's quite sure when or where. You can shed that skin and reincarnate. People who've committed to their own sites can take them down, but still don't have quite the latitude for a totally new persona, especially if they work in the web industry. The disadvantage is feeling fragmented, losing track of what you said to whom where, and forgetting all your passwords and login names at all the sites you've signed up for.

I was once told that big cities attract borderline personality types. The anonymity and culture of a city lends itself to people who have to cut and run.. from jobs, relationships, apartments. Online is a bit like this, but people do tend to 'return to the scene of the crime'. If I had a dollar for every time someone dramatically quit a discussion group, their weblog, or their regular chatroom 'forever', only to resurface under a different name, or even the same one, as if passionately typed pixels hold only the same degree of commitment as their brief incarnation on a screen.
 

Wednesday, May 24, 2000

How do people choose to claim a space for 'self' online? Early on, one made one's mark with comments to bulletin boards and discussion groups. The homepage was a unifying 'place', but how much to reveal or who one thinks one is talking to are vague and fuzzy. Lately, I've been noticing a backlash against the unified self-pages in the form of collaborative, focused projects. I also admire and find incomprehensible the people who are so committed as fans or hobbyists that they construct comprehensive compendia of their interests to share with the world.
Here are some paradigmatic self-projects online. Compare and contast.

Naked Stories:   FluxRedux.

Ironic testosterone.  Cocky Bastard

Goofy testosterone:  Ben Brown.

Vulnerable:  Jellyfish. (down for the summer or gone private)

Frenetic links.  Honeylog.

Focussed Sharing (on art).  Subterranean Notes

Notebook-style.  Alamut.

Erudite and obscure.  Abuddha's Memes.

Fragments of self ---Random Access Memory-- a shared memories site.

Lists. The Listology.

Fictitious Journals.  Drowned.

Obsessive Links Curating:  Kick Bright's Links

Rabid Fandom:  Brad Pitt Lover. (sorry BradPittisCute which I listed before suddenly vanished).