LambdaMOO as Identitopia

Abstract

Histories of digital social media and identitopias should address references in the 1990s and more recently to LambdaMOO—a multiuser setting where characters and synchronous experiences are rendered by texts. Chronicles about LambdaMOO are often linked to the rape of a female and nonbinary character and Julian Dibbell’s “A Rape in Cyberspace” reportage from 1993. In this article, I address the implications of how Dibbell’s text is widely cited, attracted many individuals to LambdaMOO, and is associated with reshaping the site. I cite the pleasure and danger and rape literature and perform a feminist analysis of writing about LambdaMOO. I argue that we need to interrogate how LambdaMOO, including character attributes, community, and governance, are tied to online rapes. LambdaMOO functions as an identitopia, which can be defined as a system that foregrounds and combines identity explorations, liberatory and regulatory community experiences, celebrations and critiques of the site, and violence.