6- The Leviathan and the "Black Plague"

For the sixth assignment, I decided to search for the Leviathan in a Christian chat room. My reasoning simple- there would be no toleration for aberrant behavior. Before creating an account, I reviewed the chat room’s terms and uses page, or “sign on the door”. Included are the following …

1. Be respectful of others feelings
2. Do not impersonate a moderator
3. No offensive content
4. No spamming
5. No copyright violations
6. No flooding of message boards
7. Do not demand answers from others
8. All religions held at same standards
9. Homosexuality is a sin

Given this, I began my search for the Leviathan with the name, black plague.

Unfortunately, for this chat room, I was not particularly fond of the ninth rule. Although I am definitely straight, I do have a gay friend who I feel is a great person. Thus, I decided to begin a discussion on my fake sexual orientation…

At first, before I had said anything, a few people went out of their way to welcome me to the group. It seemed most members of the Christian chat community had been members for some time, as social norms, such as only sticking to the topics in the headlines, while referring to others by nicknames seemed prevalent. Additionally, everyone seemed to refrain from the use of profanity, spamming and disrespect.

As a “newbie”, I changed that. Within a matter of minutes I began my own conversation, explaining that I was born gay (lying to see reactions- especially by moderators), but that I am active reader of the Bible and attend church every Sunday. I quickly received “the arched brow” referred to in Wallace’s chapter 4 (p.66&67), as members quickly informed me of the rule that homosexuality is a sin and that I would be kicked out by the moderator. Some members were more pleasant than others, but overall, I received a lot of negative criticism on my orientation “choice”. The experience was quite aggravating.

As many members seek netiquette (compliance with the basic rules, in addition to unwritten norms), my orientation was a violation of the rules, my visit with the Christians was short. The Leviathan apparently does not bother informing rule violators, especially deemed homosexuals, before discontinuing your account. Although Wallace states that, “the moderators play a very relaxed role and rarely kill anyone’s contribution,” that did not seem to be the case here. Apparently, violation of the orientation rule is significant enough to require emergency action.

In addition to “the arched brow”, members of the Christian chat were very polarized. After getting to know each other, the members seemed to accept only ideas held by the entire group and were not interested in learning about other perspectives. As I tried to explain my orientation situation, contending that I am an avid church attendee nonetheless, the group only chose to focus on the fact that I was violating the rule, and wanted me out as quickly as possible. They got what they wanted, as the Leviathan discontinued my account. Regrettably, a “black plague”, i.e. homosexuality, only temporarily disrupted their “Christian” discussions.