Tal

Well, no more thoughts have occurred over the month on the subject of offline communities, so at this point, I’ll continue with a general community page. This being aimed at offline aspects, but also including online elements that might be considered to have an impact.

The only real outstanding thought for this month is where is the line drawn on responsibility to others in an online environment. What I’m getting at here is this: If you are part of an online community, do have a responsibility to any others of that community? Will you be able to offer advice to a girl who is about to meet a man from your community for the first time? Do you know enough about the people around you to be able to offer opinions?

The reason I bring this up is, during the course of my travels online, I ended up discussing offline aspects in one channel. They actually seemed quite put out that I had brought it up, and denied any responsibility for offline aspects of anyone else. As far as I could tell, they had no concern beyond their own games. Not that this is surprising in any way; it’s an all too often encountered aspect of online Gor.

Let’s look at it from another perspective though. Just suppose John Doe has a penchant for extreme sadism, and has been shunned by all the local D/s and BDSM groups. He’s looking for girls to play with and online is an ideal opportunity for him. Only problem is that he keeps running into people online that know his reputation offline. Until, that is, he comes across one of these Gor channels. Here he finds people that not only don’t know him, they don’t even know each other; and even better, they don’t care. So he can now be whatever he wants to be, encourage whatever girl he wants to meet. Granted, he won’t be meeting her twice, but that’s no problem. A quick change of nick, a slightly different story and he’s back. Even if he does get identified, there’s plenty more channels for him to wander, each with their own opportunities for him.

Does this ultimately hurt the people involved in the lifestyle? You bet it does. By refusing to accept any responsibility for offline, these people give an easy hiding place for the predators.

To all the players: If you refuse your responsibilities, then YOU are responsible if someone gets hurt. Not ’online Gor’ in general, not the books for being there, not gaming; YOU, each and every one of you.

To those who are Gorean,
Until next month

I wish you well

Charon

If anyone has comments, additional thoughts, questions or topics for furtherdiscussion, send them to charon@styx55.freeserve.co.uk