A Rape in Cyberspace

While I'm on memory lane, and while I'm worrying about people reading my old stuff, here's something better written and more interesting that meant a lot to a lot of people for a few years: A Rape in Cyberspace: How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society, by Julian Dibbell. This Village Voice piece kind of started it all off, in a lot of ways. (Julian has gone on to do and write about many interesting things since, including making a living--or trying to--off selling stuff in multiuser games. Also, he's not just a good writer into cool stuff, he's really hot. :-)