[Encore] A Modest Proposal

[Asad Sayeed]

I would like to add to Kevin's comments, if I may, by noting that I'm 
not entirely sure that I agree with the implication implicit in Daniel's 
invocation of the "MODERN user".  That is, I'm not convinced that, in 
the MOO context, the modern user as such should be catered to so 
directly.  As I think Kevin points, out, the modern user has been 
trained by the *most* common web sites and technologies to relate to the 
Internet in a certain way, and that certain way may not be all that 
conducive to the very purpose of using a MOO nor even the set of 
pedagogical techniques that the MOO concept is, I think, supposed to 
facilitate.

I've been a longtime member of a now very old non-enCore MOO community, 
and the core community has maintained its coherence due to the unique 
way in which the text-based MOO commands interact with the user, in my 
opinion.  Other community technologies such as instant messaging, well, 
I just don't see them as being capable of sustaining that kind of 
community or the passionate attachments that some people have that I 
think is important in making MOOs work.

I think the very challenge of becoming accustomed to some unfamiliar use 
metaphors is probably in itself necessary for the immersive MOO 
experience to which Kevin alluded---in addition to the characteristics 
of a text-environment.

Yours,
--Asad B. Sayeed.
Graduate research assistant
Computational Linguistics and Information Processing Laboratory
University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
and very intermittent VRoma wizard as well as long-time member of
MOO Canada (once known as Schoolnet MOO).