#FF00AA

@web@

“A University of Chicago study shows that people overestimate their ability to convey tone in email messages.” Which is why my e-mail/IM communications are so chock-full of smiley, you can have a hard time believing they’re written by the same person as my blogs.

(Well, it could also be useful in blogs, when I’m ironic and a certain part of the audience doesn’t grasp it, but I can’t get around to it, it’s just wrong.)

 

@games@

World of Warcraft: Alone together?

The social factor at work here clearly has little to do with direct interactions and camaraderie in the context of quest groups or guilds. Instead, it looks as if other players are mostly: […] social presence (the constant flow of chat in the wide-reaching “general” channel, the movement of other avatars around you, make playing WoW somewhat analogous to reading a book in a densely populated café)

 

@games@

Speaking of WoW, I was going to mention in passing the thing about forbidden gay-friendly guilds and link to Kotaku and the gay legal organization’s “ You can’t tell gay and lesbian people that they have to be quiet so other folk won’t harass them. If you want to stop harassment you have to stop the harassers not the victims.” But then I read comments on both posts and that reminded me why MMORPGs annoy the hell out of me — people.

 

@web@

The story of Mozilla and Firefox by Ben Goodger.