[Air-l] Learning from Lachlan

[radhika gajjala]

Having been on and off and on Joan's list (great control, btw:)) and done my
own listing - where "trolls" often come from a strange mixed subjectivity of
privilege (implicitly assuming that "the Internet" is a "free" and
"democratic" space...haha - and buying into certain culturally - situated in
hierarchies of race, gender, geography, class, langauge...you name it)
specific notions of no-censureship - in a sense, pretty naive, I would say,
about the possibility for a lack of power wielding and hierarchy in
internetworked spaces... i could go on in loops of hyphens, semicolons and
paranthesis... but...)

and a lack of privilege in the specific context - if "privilege" can be
taken to mean a lack of nettiquette and knowledge, cultural capital within
the specific context (whether of internet research as a body of knowledge or
women's studies or postcolonial theory as defined within certain
epistemologies or engaging specific contexts inaccessible to varieties of
Other people - or creative writing by so-called and percieved-as "Others" -
here i refer to my own various interestingly failed attempts in listing and
ethnographing - etc). 

In my managing of various lists (a couple of which got parallyzed into
silence because of the dilemma regarding who speaks and who doesnt), I've
done my own share of gatekeeping so I am not criticizing anyone else's - but
I'm always fascinated at the issues and discussions that emerge. 

r

>
>For what it's worth, I might note that in the eleven years I've been 
>responsible for WMST-L (a large academic list for discussion of 
>women's studies teaching, research, and program administration), I've 
>seen a number of trolls follow a pattern similar to the one Michael 
>Gurstein describes.  At first, they tend to seem interested, engaged, 
>sincere.  Soon, though, their postings become increasingly off the 
>wall and disruptive.  Eventually, it becomes clear that they're 
>interested primarily in creating chaos and being the center of 
>attention.
>
>I for one am very pleased that Lachlan has been removed from AIR-L.
>
>	Joan
>
>        Joan Korenman, Director
>        Center for Women & Information Technology
>        University of Maryland, Baltimore County
>        Baltimore, MD 21250  USA
>        korenman at umbc.edu
>        http://www.umbc.edu/cwit/
>
>
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