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Cyhist Jun 11 1997 A
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Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:09:10 -0400
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Julian Dibbell <julian@MOSTLY.COM>
Subject: CM> Re: [archiving MUDs/MOOs]
In-Reply-To: <199706090421.AAA04170@mail1.panix.com> Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
As Ted Byfield notes, the problem of archiving MUDs is not a simple one, at least from a rigorously historiographical perspective. As for the fantasy of recording every realtime interaction as it unfolds, well, have fun, but don't expect any MUD worth recording to put up with it. Could be good for limited and publicly oriented gatherings, I suppose -- conferences and such -- but in the long run, the ultimate surveillance environment is not exactly most people's idea of a good time.
Meanwhile, we leave the original question dangling: Where are some concrete examples of successful MUD archiving? I can't claim to have a very broad knowledge of the possibilities, but here's my vote for the most successful MUD archive I've come across:
Telnet to Dhalgren MOO (the URL escapes me just now; should be an easy lookup, though). Cross the bridge to the postapocalyptic island-city of Bellona, walk across the island to the far shore, look around till you find a row-boat tied at water's edge, row out into the sea, stop at a certain point out there and jump into the water, dive and swim to the bottom, and lo, you will find there the lost world of Islandia, sunk beneath the waves. Now, what's cool about this is the sunken Islandia here is in fact a complete replica of the seminal TinyMUD Islandia, reconstructed from one of the last checkpoints of the database before the MUD was shut down. And what's extra-cool is that it makes a kind of living archive of the database, instead of just leaving it gathering dust on an ftp server somewhere.
I saw this a few years ago, so I'm not sure it's still there anymore. Also, what it preserves is only the architectural aspects of the last moment of Islandia, which is just one slice of the full spectrum of text that composed the MUD in its lifetime (which in turn, as Ted notes, is just one slice of the full range of social activities that make a MUD). But since recording the complete spectrum is kind of a tall order, it seems to me this sort of richly contextualized, limited snapshot counts as a success.
Depending on the local culture, too, other limited slices might be interesting to archive. LambdaMOO, for instance, scrupulously archives some of its mailing lists, which on some MUDs might be considered peripheral, but on Lambda are central to the home-grown political process there.
Finally, on a tangential note, I'd like to point out that the phrase "MUDs and MOOs," as used by most people, is both logically and politically incorrect. MOO, remember, stands for MUD, Object Oriented. A MUD may or may not be a MOO, but a MOO is always a MUD, the same way a duck is always a bird. As a former copy editor, I get more bent out of shape by this sort of thing than I ought to, but the phrase is also irritating to a lot of MUDders, who consider it an artifact of the media's deference to "serious" MOO researchers, at the expense of the serious amateurs who have originated and extended most MUD technology, including MOOs. The phrase is taken to imply that MOOs, by virtue of unique characteristics found nowhere else in the MUDding world, are particularly suited to serious research, while all the other strains of MUD are greasy kid stuff. You may not agree that that's the implication, or if you do, you may agree with the implication, but don't be surprised if someday, somewhere, some MUDder gives you a hard time for talking about MUDs and MOOs as if some meaningful line could be drawn between the two.
Julian Dibbell
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Julian Dibbell <julian@MOSTLY.COM>
Subject: CM> Re: [archiving MUDs/MOOs]
In-Reply-To: <199706090421.AAA04170@mail1.panix.com> Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
As Ted Byfield notes, the problem of archiving MUDs is not a simple one, at least from a rigorously historiographical perspective. As for the fantasy of recording every realtime interaction as it unfolds, well, have fun, but don't expect any MUD worth recording to put up with it. Could be good for limited and publicly oriented gatherings, I suppose -- conferences and such -- but in the long run, the ultimate surveillance environment is not exactly most people's idea of a good time.
Meanwhile, we leave the original question dangling: Where are some concrete examples of successful MUD archiving? I can't claim to have a very broad knowledge of the possibilities, but here's my vote for the most successful MUD archive I've come across:
Telnet to Dhalgren MOO (the URL escapes me just now; should be an easy lookup, though). Cross the bridge to the postapocalyptic island-city of Bellona, walk across the island to the far shore, look around till you find a row-boat tied at water's edge, row out into the sea, stop at a certain point out there and jump into the water, dive and swim to the bottom, and lo, you will find there the lost world of Islandia, sunk beneath the waves. Now, what's cool about this is the sunken Islandia here is in fact a complete replica of the seminal TinyMUD Islandia, reconstructed from one of the last checkpoints of the database before the MUD was shut down. And what's extra-cool is that it makes a kind of living archive of the database, instead of just leaving it gathering dust on an ftp server somewhere.
I saw this a few years ago, so I'm not sure it's still there anymore. Also, what it preserves is only the architectural aspects of the last moment of Islandia, which is just one slice of the full spectrum of text that composed the MUD in its lifetime (which in turn, as Ted notes, is just one slice of the full range of social activities that make a MUD). But since recording the complete spectrum is kind of a tall order, it seems to me this sort of richly contextualized, limited snapshot counts as a success.
Depending on the local culture, too, other limited slices might be interesting to archive. LambdaMOO, for instance, scrupulously archives some of its mailing lists, which on some MUDs might be considered peripheral, but on Lambda are central to the home-grown political process there.
Finally, on a tangential note, I'd like to point out that the phrase "MUDs and MOOs," as used by most people, is both logically and politically incorrect. MOO, remember, stands for MUD, Object Oriented. A MUD may or may not be a MOO, but a MOO is always a MUD, the same way a duck is always a bird. As a former copy editor, I get more bent out of shape by this sort of thing than I ought to, but the phrase is also irritating to a lot of MUDders, who consider it an artifact of the media's deference to "serious" MOO researchers, at the expense of the serious amateurs who have originated and extended most MUD technology, including MOOs. The phrase is taken to imply that MOOs, by virtue of unique characteristics found nowhere else in the MUDding world, are particularly suited to serious research, while all the other strains of MUD are greasy kid stuff. You may not agree that that's the implication, or if you do, you may agree with the implication, but don't be surprised if someday, somewhere, some MUDder gives you a hard time for talking about MUDs and MOOs as if some meaningful line could be drawn between the two.
Julian Dibbell
______________________________________________________________________
