some things people find difficult

. . . about the tuesday cafe

Even on an easy night, the pace of the discussion can be ... aerobic.

To me, most of the potential disadvantages of the Netoric Cafe are in the difficulties that MOOing itself can raise, especially because the Cafe regulars are articulate, prolix, fast, and irrepressible. They're "media researchers" (if they have characters on MediaMOO), they're English teachers, grad students, cohorts, and the thing they can do is write. And write quickly.

But here are some problems I notice again and again from people getting started with MOOing:

• People with a strong goal orientation can find the multi-threadedness of the discussion--and the playfulness--disconcerting or even alienating.

• People who are reflective may find the constant stream of language distracting, or they may feel they don't have time to think. That same multi-threadedness, however, that at first can make the conversation seem so scattershot and superficial can also give reflective people time to think.

• People who have difficulty suppressing visual noise may have a hard time figuring out what to focus on.

  Also, when there is a lot of lag, at members' sites or on the Net or at MediaMOO, you can sit and stare at your screen for minutes while nothing happens, and then you'll get screensful of text just flying past you. Once I was deeply involved in a discussion about why some students seem to prefer computers--even drill and kill programs--over interacting with their teachers. I sat and looked at the comment of someone who disagreed with something I had said for fifteen minutes while my screen was completely immobile, until my server logged me out for having an inactive terminal, unable to explain what I meant or what studies I had seen. The next time I logged on to MediaMOO I had 384 lines of text waiting for me, much (though not all) of the rest of the discussion that night, a discussion I was technologically shut out of. I didn't finish that conversation until more than a month later at the very end of the 4Cs meeting in Milwaukee, in the hotel bar.

• People who read slowly may have a hard time keeping up if the Cafe is particularly busy or the topic evinces lots of discussion; they may find the high literacy levels and self-confidence of the regulars intimidating.

  There has been some interesting discussion on ACW about using MOOs in classes with students who have learning disabilities like dyslexia, and for these people a Tuesday Cafe get-together would be very frustrating.

• People who are experienced MOOers can chafe under what seem to them to be excessively restrictive rules of conduct as well as general culture at MediaMOO, though many others find that the less chaotic atmosphere there does in fact help with the culture shock.

• People who are new to the computers and writing community may feel at a Tuesday Cafe like the only dateless person at a party where everybody knows everybody else or the only sober person at a party of imbibers. It is true that every week the discussion is dominated by regulars who are glad to see each other and usually have a lot to talk about. It is also true, though, that every week there are guests as well as people in the process of deciding whether they want to join the community or not.

• People who are particularly volatile can find the disembodied yet intimate discourse ... emotional, especially if the topic is controversial or personal in some way.

Everybody new to MOOing (or electronic discourse in general) experiences these difficulties at first. Some of these problems will ease up with time and experience; others can be overcome technologically--with the use of commands in the MOO or with a client. Perhaps some people will never be able to be comfortable in this kind of environment.

Finally,

• The only thing worse than being flamed is being ignored.

  Posting to a list or newsgroup and seeing your postings make absolutely no difference at all in the flow of the discussion is exactly like saying something at the Cafe that gets completely ignored or--worse--resolutely unacknowledged, as if you had farted at a RL dinner party. It feels terrible. You feel stupid or ignorant or intellectually invisible or worse. The fact that your feelings about the community are powerful is a sign that the discourse is real. Mostly people don't get flamed at the Cafe, although once in a conversation (on flaming, naturally), I found myself getting rather ... terse.

• For some people, MOOing presents political or ethical problems because of the way people with good reading and writing skills are privileged, but other people think it's time our ability to yack gave us power.

• The Grammar Police and the Comma Queens (and Kings) would have a field day at the Cafe, if it weren't for the fact that their endless editing prevents them from ever getting anything said.

Introduction to the Tuesday Cafe.
What is the Tuesday Cafe?
What are some of the benefits offered by this kind of community?
How do people get to the Cafe?
Works Cited

Last updated: 10 June 1996. Questions and comments? Please e-mail Sharon Cogdill at scogdill@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu.