CU THEN AND NOW
CU-SeeMe: The Next Generation
by JokerX39
First off I would like to thank the lovely and talented Lady Xeen for
providing this forum. My hope is that I will reach certain people
who view CU in a certain way. You know who you are.
I have been on CU for over 5 years. Quite often, when some of the
"pioneers" get together, we wax poetic about CU days gone by. Well,
if you weren't there, you certainly can't appreciate the spirit
of community and "friendship" which existed on nearly every reflector
back in "the day". Certainly some reflectors were better than others,
and I am sure that opinions vary on which were the best. Its kind of
like asking someone who makes the best pizza; everyone knows "the place",
accept in each case, it is a different "place".
I think that no discussion about the old days of CU would be complete
without first mentioning that bandwidth was a real problem. 28.8 modems
were pretty much the only game in town, with the exception of those
who ran servers, or through their work or school had access to T1's and
the like. Let's put it this way; if someone was in the mood to display
their "personal assets", they'd better plan to do it REALLY slow if they
wanted everyone to see them. It was very common to read chat like,
"refresh, oh please god, refresh!" (especially if the lovely Lady Xeen
was in performance mode :))
Unfortunately, while bandwidth, color cams, mjpeg codecs and CU software
have improved, nearly every other aspect of CU'ing has undergone a tragic
devolution. Although this fact might tend to make one lose some faith
in human nature, if you take a careful look at it, you discover that it
has many similarities to what happens to the population of a small town as
it grows into a large city.
One analogy that comes to mind is the pot smoking subculture of the early
1970's. There was a time when there was a shared mindset among those that
smoked weed, a certain kind of unspoken comradarie, where you pretty much
knew that if someone was smoking weed, they were basically "cool" people,
i.e., sharing a "live and let live" attitude, for the most part nonviolent,
and pretty much shared your place in the political spectrum. In other words,
the "freaks". Then the jocks, gearheads and greasers started smoking
too, and all of a sudden that bond evaporated. To me, that day was marked
by a party I attended where, instead of lighting a joint and passing it
like we always did, everyone smoked their own joint, and no passing was
taking place. Now I know I am dating myself with this stuff, and if you
are under 40 you may not even know WHAT the fuck I am talking about, but
this paragraph is not meant for you anyway. I'll get to YOU folks shortly
hehe.
What is seriously lacking in CU today is any investment of time or inquiry
by "newbies" to gain an understanding of the CU Culture. When you go to a
new job, new school, new country, new whatever, if you are going to successfully
assimilate into a new culture, you take the time to learn the folkways and mores
of that culture. This is not happening on CU in a big way, and it really sucks.
The public refs have been overrun with a multitude of self-involved dickheads,
who think that it is perfectly fine to say things to women they have just met
that they would never consider saying in an offline social situation. I don't
know if it is the (perceived) anonymity of online interaction, or these people
are misinformed about what CU is all about. I mean...HELLO!!...think about it:
Just because a woman has sex does not mean that she is automatically going to
have sex with YOU...especially if that is the topic you bring up in the first
five minutes of knowing her. You may as well stand on a street corner saying,
"hey baby, wanna fuck" to every woman that walks by.
As a result of this rude and mannerless behavior, the public refs for the most
part have become a frustrating experience for people like me. I see these
jerks chase women off every single time I am in one. It never fails. I get
douche chills for these people. I also make a mental note of their nickname,
and if they happen to visit the ref I refmon on, they are on a very short leash.
Unfortunately, many folks have found refuge in private refs. I say unfortunately
because as a result of the defensive nature that has arisen in response to the
incidents of rude and mannerless behavior, these groups can be too tightly
controlled and just a tad on the cliqueish side, if not a bit paranoid.
Not to mention that there is little infusion of "new blood". I have seen
several excellent private refs die for this very reason.
In case you are not aware of this fact, the whole "refmon" concept is a relatively
new one. There used to be no need for such refcops, and when I see some of
them in action, I see that many are unqualified to fairly administer the
power in which they have been vested. Simply stated, they make matters worse
in many cases by setting a tone of intolerance, requiring all to march in
lockstep to a standard of behavior and interaction that has been decided solely
by them; in many cases in an ad hoc approach. So this is the response the CU
world has made to the rude behavior of an all too large percentage of users.
Now before you get your panties in a bunch, let me say that I am commenting
only on the bad stuff. Yes there are great public refs that are refmoned
fairly, and yes there are people that are new to CU who have manners, and yes
there are people with phallic nicknames that are nice funny folks. But my
whole purpose in writing this is to affect some change by trying to reach
out to the mannerless masses, giving them the benefit of the doubt for the
moment.
I would like to address these folks directly. You know who you are. It never
occurs to you that the person on the screen is actually a human being, but just
a moving picture for you to wank to. You think that if a woman is on an adult
ref, that makes them a whore or a hooker and you can say whatever the fuck
you want because, after all, they are just a piece of meat for you to drain
your balls to. Well congratulations, schmucko, because YOU are the reason why
there is a male to female ratio on CU that is even higher than on all of cyber-
space in general. In the interest of giving you the benefit of the doubt, hoping
that as you read this you are having some kind of epiphany, let me summarize some
of the stupidest shit you can do on CU. God, there are so many. I am going to list
them, not necessarily in the order of importance, but simply as they come to mind.
