Online Culture Survay

Jan 29 15:59 UTC 1998

I'm a programming student at the community college.
I have an anthropology assignment that I'd like to 
tie in with computers somehow. I'm interested in 
electronic communities. Could you help me out and
answer some questions? 

  How and why did you get involved with GREX?

  How would you define online culture?

  Have any of your values or beliefs changed as a
  result of being a member of GREX?

  What are some online customs or rules you would
  pass on to a new member?

  Is there an online artform, and what is it?

Thanks a lot!

response 2 of 41:

Jan 29 17:20 UTC 1998

I'm linking this to our cyberpunk conference, the conference of online culture.
Have you read "Virtual Communites" by Howard Renigold?  It's about the
WELL in California that run picospan the same conferencing system we run
here, which was coded by our very own Marcus Watts login mdw.  I will
answers your survey when I have a little more time.

response 4 of 41:

Jan 29 20:05 UTC 1998

re: #2
Thanks for the link and the book tip raven, I'll try to pick it up.
Im hoping to get a chance to talk to Marcus.
I got a book called "A Rhetoric of Electronic Communities" It looks
helpful. So far it discusses the ability of people to communicate
online during emergancies, etc. and the type of writing style thats
evolving.

response 6 of 41:

Jan 29 21:17 UTC 1998

>Got involved with Grex

  I was a participant and Staff member on M-Net, the system Grex span off
  from.  I was primarily involved there for many years after the founding of
  Grex, but eventually found I was more comfortable here and so shifted here.

>How would you define online culture?

  Just like offline culture except online.  I don't see why it needs defining.
  I just do it.

>Have any of your values or beliefs changed?

  Yes.  Lots.  I've been in virtual communities for almost 15 years now,
  talking with lots of people about every subject under the sun.  I don't
  think I have a value or belief that hasn't been colored by this.  What
  kind of lump would be able to talk to people for 15 years and not change?

>What are some online customs or rules you would pass on to a new member?

  Read what others say carefully before replying to it.  Try not to assume
  they are stupid or evil - if what they say is ambiguous, assume that what
  they mean is what a smart sensible person would mean.  

  There are darn few rules of polite discourse that are different on-line
  than off-line.  Don't use ALL CAPS.  I guess that's one.  Can't think of
  any others.

response 8 of 41:

Jan 30 00:57 UTC 1998

ASCII ART!

response 10 of 41:

Jan 30 01:43 UTC 1998

Got involved with grex in 93.  Online culture is essentially a spinoff of
regular culture, only nobody sees each other.  New people should be
respectful, and if they plan on being popular, somewhat reticent until they
get a handle on attitudes and how things work.  Every online system is
different, and just because people love you on one doens't mean they'll adore
you on another.  And like Jan said, no caps.

response 12 of 41:

Jan 30 07:29 UTC 1998

Indian users can get access to telnet on their systems, but they mostly
cannot have e-mail boxes. Hence, they come here for e-mail, and some
try some of the other options.

response 14 of 41:

Jan 31 01:52 UTC 1998

Presumably, we landed on an Indian gopher somewhere.

response 16 of 41:

Jan 31 20:42 UTC 1998

Senna comes from _Cassia senna L._, and consists of sennosides A and B, which
are glucsodes of rhein and chrysophanic acid. It is a cathartic and purgative.

I think anyone can detect the odor of the metabolic products from asparagas,
but what is interesting is that only some people produce those metabolic
products! That 43% figure may apply to the fraction of the population that
has that type of metabolism. The odorous compounds are thought to be
S-methylthioacrylate and S-methyl 3-(methylthio)thiopropionate.

response 18 of 41:

Feb 2 00:40 UTC 1998

I've heard that I'm an herb, among other things.  My login's origin comes from
a deceased professional race driver, characterized by many as the best ever.
He's brazilian, so the name is portugese.

response 20 of 41:

Feb 2 17:55 UTC 1998

I suppose you could say I first got involved with Grex on July 19, 1991, since
that's when I first logged on.  As to why I did this, well, at the time the
'old' M-Net was becoming less and less, um, like home.  Grex was easy back
then to log in on; there was no internet access yet.  Sometimes I was the only
user logged on for several hours.
Online Culture - A mirror of offline culture with less government.
Yes indeedy, my beliefs and values have changed as a result of Grex.
I've met several Grexers who have influenced me in both effective and
non-effective ways.  They've shapped how I view everything from friendship
to how to drive around Ann Arbor at 2am.  :)
Online Customs or Rules I would pass on -
1- In party, etc. remember your hellos and goodbyes.
2- Think, ponder, wait, then think, ponder and wait some more before you make
a response to comments.
3- Don't respond for responding's sake.  Try to rerspond when you can
effectively add to the discussion.
4- Lurk.   :)

An online artform?  hmm.. perhaps learning how to be yourself, and not an
exageration?

response 22 of 41:

Feb 4 01:46 UTC 1998

Re #15 and #16, odor of urine, Rane's information appears to be 18 years out
of date, but a lot of other people are also out of date:

(Question about what causes the odor in urine after eating asparagus.)
   
   a. The odour which appears in urine after eating asparagus has been
   the focus of sensory, genetic and analytical chemical research. A
   number of different sulphurous compounds have been implicated, though
   one of the most thorough investigations indicates that the effect may
   be caused by a cocktail which includes methanethiol, dimethyl
   sulphide, dimethyl disulphide, bis(methylthio)methane, dimethyl
   sulphoxide and dimethyl sulphone (Xenobiotica, vol 17, no 11, Waring
   et al).
   
   Possible precursors in the asparagus may include S-methylmethionine
   and asparagusic acid. The difficulty of determining exactly which
   compounds are responsible lies in part with the many individual
   variations in production or perception of the odour. Several studies
   have indicated that production of the odour is a genetically
   determined (dominant autosomal) trait, exhibited by 40 to 50 per cent
   of adults (Experientia, no 43, Mitchell et al).
   
   However, at least one other report has suggested that all people
   produce the odour, but the ability of a minority of people to smell it
   is the genetically determined factor (British Medical Journal, vol
   281, Lison et al). It may be that different individuals produce a
   different array of compounds and also have a differential sense of
   smell to these.
   
   D J MELA
   Institute of Food Research
   Reading, Berkshire
   _________________________________________________________________
   
   a. The odour in the urine of asparagus eaters probably comes from a
   variety of methyl sulphides, sulphoxides and sulphones. The production
   of these substances from asparagusic acid is genetically determined,
   an autosomally dominant trait reportedly found in about 40 per cent of
   the population. The ability to smell the substances is also
   genetically determined and is present in about 10 per cent of people.
   Not everyone finds the odour offensive. Juvenal Urbino, in Gabriel
   Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, "enjoyed the immediate
   pleasure of smelling a secret garden in his urine that had been
   purified by lukewarm asparagus".
   
   J K ARONSON
   Department of Clinical Pharmacology
   University of Oxford
   

(the following is from another web site)

                     Why Asparagus Makes Your Pee Stink
                                      
                              by Hannah Holmes
                                      
     "This is of no practical importance," the urologist tells me. "It
     wasn't part of my training. It's something we contemplated over
     pizza and beer." When I admit that I have actually timed the
     arrival of the distinctive odor in my pee after eating asparagus
     (about 15 minutes), the good doctor suggests, facetiously, that my
     groundbreaking research might lead to a tenure-track position at a
     fine university.
     
        It is a sadly neglected field. But I'm not the first to ask.
                                      
     In 1891 a scientist named "Nencki" had so very little to do that he
     convinced four guys to eat seven kilograms of asparagus (that's
     about three and a half pounds each). He collected the pertinent
     pee, worked some medieval magic on it, and concluded that the smell
     was due to a metabolite called methanethiol.
     
     So there you go. Nencki claimed that as your body metabolizes
     asparagus, it produces this smelly chemical, which your
     discriminating kidneys see fit to dump into the bladder.
     
   This probably doesn't qualify as red-hot science, but it's warm enough
                        to spark differing opinions.
                                      
     In 1975 a chemist from California claimed in Science that gas
     chromatography had fingered a different culprit: S-Methyl
     Thioesters, to be precise. No methanethiol.
     
     Then there's the 1980 reference in the British Medical Journal that
     simply refers to "metabolites." Another asparagus scholar favors
     "six sulfur-containing compounds."
     
     I'm voting for methanethiol, partly because the guy who did the gas
     chromatography left no forwarding address, and partly because the
     methanethiol entry in my aging Merck Index of chemicals is so
     interesting.
     
     Methanethiol is composed mostly of sulfur with a splash of
     hydrogen, plus some carbon, a brew famous for its effect in rotten
     eggs, cabbages and paper mills. Convincing, no? Merck also notes
     the asparagus connection and, most intriguing, warns that
     methanethiol may be a narcotic in high concentrations.
     
    Now if you're scowling at your screen and muttering, "My pee doesn't
      smell like asparagus," first ask yourself if you eat asparagus.
                                      
     Even if you do but lack the smell, you're still OK. In fact the
     fabulously funny book, The ReSearch Guide to Body Fluids (by Paul
     Spinrad, Juno Books, N.Y., 1994), says just 22 percent of survey
     respondents experience asparagus pee.
     
     Early investigators thought genetics had divided the world into
     stinkers and nonstinkers. That was until 1980, when three
     researchers had the presence of mind to wave pee from the
     nonstinkers under the noses of the stinkers.
     
      Lo and behold, the problem proved to be one not of producing the
               stinky pee but of being able to sniff it out.


----
Amazing what lack of concensus there is among researchers - anywhere from
10 to 50 percent of people 'experience' the odor, wonder what population
samples they used to get such different results.

response 24 of 41:

Feb 4 07:05 UTC 1998

My source was the Merck Index, 11th ed., 1989. The paper cited is
dated 1975, so its 23 years "out of date" - but the information I
cited essentially agrees with that cited in #22. In fact, it appears
to be the work cited above as "1975 a chemist from California", who
showed specifically that it was not methyl mercaptan (methyl thiol).
My judgement that the uncertainty was more in the smelling than in the smell
appears also to have support. 

There are a lot of factors that appear not to have been controlled in the
works cited in #22. How about a Grex poll? Who - that eats asparagas -
can detect the odor in their urine within a few hours? Might as well
ask, who can or cannot detect it in the odor of others that have eaten
asparagas.

I and my wife can both detect each other's asparagas aroma.