Page Of Shame Or Sham?

LIFE COULDN'T get much worse for the cyber-boor. And his varied brethren, who infest myriad chat channels and repeatedly flame bad mouth or generally harass the gentlemen and ladies. Or their offspring. Especially if the said cyber-barbarian is an Indian, he is unfortunate enough to fall into the realm of awareness of the Internet Users Club of India (IUCI). The culprit would be 'named', e-mail address and all, and his misdeeds displayed "" conscientiously "" for all the world to take note on the recently introduced 'Page of Shame'. Beware.

What are we talking about? Recently, a national daily carried a report on the Page of Shame, introduced by the IUCI. Its members were, the report said, rightfully horrified at the uncivilised behaviour of some Indians in Talkcity, an Inter Relay Chat (IRC) server (www.talkcity.com).

 

These people are rude, they are offensive to members of the opposite sex (and I mean this both ways) and they do things that make it difficult for others to participate in a conversation, IUCI chairman Shammi Kapoor had said. And it seems that Talkcity citizens from all over the world who used to look forward to meeting people from India and learning about our rich culture, are now avoiding contact with Indians. This is really bad.

Or is it? It looks like we haven't yet clicked down the magnitude of the Internet. This is not like a little village, where a few chowkidars handle the law and order. Especially, not some self-appointed ones. Remember the Time cover story on Cyberporn with a child's shocked expression on the cover? Later, in a discussion on the Net itself, the defiant correspondent who wrote the story was forced to admit that he made a mistake with the facts. In fact, Hotwired even coined a term for pornography exaggerated by journalists "" journoporn. Correspondents, out of their depth, when dealing with something on the scale of the Net tend to make sweepingly general statements. Like the Delhi-based daily which said that the 'Internet BBS' was reeking with porn!

Let's get a few things clear. Talkcity is the default chat server for VSNL. VSNL account holders get there easily. The server boasts of a dedicated community, which is very clear that it does not want any unsavoury characters around there.

It is intended to be a warm, friendly place, and for most of the time it is unlike many other chat servers where you can discuss Christian theology to orgies. Talkcity is a place where one meets real pleasant people (I will vouch for it) and the Indians there are anything but indecent. So where are these so-called offenders?

The point is, will a Page of Shame help police Talkcity? Now, every chat channel has operators who will warn, and kick out, whoever goes against the set of rules (if there are any). One understands that Talkcity can 'kick' or 'ban' offenders. It is in this context that the IUCI page of shame starts to look irrelevant. Because anybody can put up a page on the Net. And say whatever you feel like. There is very little even governments can do about it.

But there is very little a web page can do either. Whether it is a hall of shame or fame. Only some sad people would care to bookmark this page.

So far, the page of shame hasn't been adorned by any cyber-uncouth. Probably, it won't ever be. Not that it matters.

Talkcity is a terrific place to be in. If somebody gets vulgar or abusive, the server and the community are perfectly capable of handling the situation. And there are better ways to weed them out than a page of shame possibly can. Of course, anything that makes the Net-illiterate talk morality makes good copy for newspapers.

One only wishes that the offenders, if they exist, would leave Talkcity alone. And by the way, Bharat Varsh, the IUCI's channel on Talkcity, is uninhabited except on the days of their on-line meetings. To meet a few Indians, check out the channel Bombay. And meet some real nice people.