Internet Psychology

Early history of an online community
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Why write a history of Palace now? It's only a little over a year old. This is what a few people said to me when I mentioned my plans for this chapter. Part of me thought they might be right. After all, in the grand scheme of things, how much can happen

Wizards: The heart of an online community
by John Suler, Ph.D.
The multimedia chat software called Palace has spawned a complex online community. There are many Palace sites located on servers across the internet, each being a unique visual/auditory environment where members use small graphics called avatars

Extending the Classroom into Cyberspace: The Discussion Board
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Around the world teachers are inviting students into cyberspace to enrich their learning experience. The tools and techniques of using online resources for teaching are as diverse as the Internet itself.

Geezer Brigade: Studying an online group
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Cyberspace is the information center and social playground of the relatively young, like middle-aged folks and especially the ever booming numbers of youngsters who are growing up with the word internet as commonplace in their thoughts as TV and library.

Y2K: Apocalyptic Thinking and the Tragic Flaw
by John Suler, Ph.D.
What will happen when the clock strikes 01.01.01.01.01.00? Will elevators stop dead between floors, power plants shut down, and airplanes fall out of the sky? Will the internet and communication infrastructures crash? Will the world's economy collapse

On Being a God
by John Suler, Ph.D.
An Interview with Jim Bumgardner. Jim Bumgardner is the creator of the Palace, the graphical chat environment that is one of the most unique community-building software on the internet. I first met Jim up at Nrutas, the room at the Mansion

A Decision-Making Method for E-mail Groups
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Sometimes in the course of an e-mail list, the group needs to make a decision about some issue at hand. In a working list - where the group's explicit purpose is to carry out a task - this may happen on a regular basis.

Extending a Work Group into Cyberspace
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Why Walk on the Virtual Side? Anyone who has participated often in a work group in business, education, or a volunteer organization has experienced the hassles of scheduling meetings, as well as the sometimes frustrating complexities in how small groups

More Complex Social Problems: Managing deviant online behavior, Part 4
by John Suler, Ph.D.
The following types of users present problems that are a bit more difficult to deal with - difficult in the sense that it requires more psychological and social expertise to manage them. This doesn't mean that the psychological or social roots of their

Early history of an online community, Part 2. Coping with the Masses: Social Differentiation
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Beginning in the second trimester of Palace history, the population started to expand. 50, 60, 100 people were signing on to Main in the evening hours. Eventually, over 200 people occupied the server each night. The small, intimate community from

Dynamics of the Expanding Wizard Clan. Wizards: The heart of an online community, Part 2
by John Suler, Ph.D.
When Palace first opened in November of 1995, the wizard group consisted of a handful of people. Over the coming year, as the community grew larger, the size of wizard group had to be increased. It expanded to over 60 by the spring of 1997.

Early history of an online community, Part 3. Extra-Palatial Encounters
by John Suler, Ph.D.
The primary focus or hot spot of the Palace community is the Palace itself - a visual chat environment where people converse and play with graphics, scripts, and sounds. However, over the course of its development, the community has spilled over into

Making Wiz. . Wizards: The heart of an online community, Part 3
by John Suler, Ph.D.
Most members would like to become a wizard. The more you hang out at Palace, the more noticeable and attractive wizardship becomes. A few members say that they're not concerned about it. Some of those users may be rationalizing their disinterest.