🚀 go-pugleaf

This survey examines your opinions and experiences of
inappropriate behaviour and �virtual crimes�, as they relate
to MUDs.

It is completely VOLUNTARY, but we hope you will fill out
the questionnaire in detail and return it. It should take
approximately half an hour of your time to complete and
return.

You will NOT be asked to include your name, or email
address, and your responses will be completely anonymous and
confidential.

The data are being collected for a Bachelor of Arts
Criminology Honours project, which has been approved by the
Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of
Melbourne, and is being supervised by Dr. David Tait.

The completed thesis, expected around December, 1996, will
be placed on a World Wide Web site. Details of the home page
will be posted to your mud when this happens.

Instructions for completing the questionnaire:

Most of the following questions are open-ended. This means
that we would like you to complete them in as much detail as
you can. When a question specifies a choice of responses,
place an asterix to the RIGHT of your chosen response. For
example to respond that you play on a MUD once a week, you
would place an asterix as shown:

Never         Once       Monthly      Weekly*	Everyday

Instructions for returning this questionnaire:

You found the survey in a newsgroup: Use the 'reply' function
which will automatically give an appropriate subject header,
and allow you to fill out the survey within your newsprogram.

You found the survey in an ftp site: Fill out the questionnaire
in a text editor, and then attach the file to an email, and send
it to daern@ozramp.net.au with the subject header: Survey Response

By including this header, your email address will
automatically be removed from your mail, ensuring immediate
anonymity. Specific instructions for various mail packages
are available from ftp.ozramp.net.au, in the /incoming directory,
in the elm.txt, and pine.txt files.

For the purpose of ease of reading, throughout this
questionnaire, the term MUD is used to include MUSHes, MOOs
and other multi-user environments, such as IRC, that are not
strictly MUDs, but involve multiple-user interactions.






QUESTIONNAIRE

Q. 1 Have you ever played on a MUD?  How frequently?
     Never          Once      Monthly   Weekly    Everyday
     IF you answer NEVER to this question, please go to Q. 6

Q. 2 Are you a MUD player, wizard, god/administrator, other?

Q. 3 Which MUD(s) do you visit most often, and why?

Q. 4 How closely do you identify your MUD character/persona
with yourself? Why?

Q. 5 Do you, or your character, engage in behaviour upon the
MUD that is different from your everyday behaviour? (For
example, you are very shy in RL, but talkative when
MUDding?)

Q. 6 What do you consider inappropriate behaviour on MUDs?

Q. 7 Would you consider this behaviour �virtual crime�?

Q. 8 Would you consider this behaviour an instance of a real-
life crime? If so, would you consider it of the same
importance as the real-life crime it compares to? (For
instance, theft in a MUD, compared to theft in real-life)

Q.9 Who should regulate inappropriate behaviour or virtual
crime on MUDs?
(e.g. players, wizards (immortals), sysadmins, state laws,
federal laws, others, or no sanctions)

Q.10 How prevalent do you believe �virtual crime� to be?
Never Occurs      Rare        Common       Very Common 
Happens everyday

Q.11 From the following list of behaviours, place an asterix
next to those which you believe are inappropriate.
     a. Player Killing
     b. Virtual sexual harassment
     c. Virtual rape
     d. Offensive language
     e. Virtual theft
     f.  Invasion of privacy
     g. Immortals with mortal characters
     h. Other (please specify the behaviour)


Q.12 From the following list of behaviours, place an asterix
next to those which you believe are virtual crimes.
     a. Player Killing
     b. Virtual sexual harassment
     c. Virtual rape
     d. Offensive language
     e. Virtual theft
     f.  Invasion of privacy
     g. Immortals with mortal characters
     h. Other (please specify the behaviour)

Q.13 From the following list of behaviours, place an asterix
next to those which you believe should be considered real-
life crimes.
     a. Player Killing
     b. Virtual sexual harassment
     c. Virtual rape
     d. Offensive language
     e. Virtual theft
     f.  Invasion of privacy
     g. Immortals with mortal characters
     h. Other (please specify the behaviour)

Q.14 What penalties do you think are appropriate for the
following behaviours on MUDs?
(e.g. reprimand, public reprimand,  character removal (aka
toading), notifying sysop, removal of internet account,
fine, suspended sentence, jail sentence, other, or no
sanction. You may specify more than one penalty for each
behaviour listed below.)
     a. Player Killing
     b. Virtual sexual harassment
     c. Virtual rape
     d. Offensive language
     e. Virtual theft
     f.  Invasion of privacy
     g. Immortals with mortal characters
     h. Other (please specify the behaviour)

Q. 15 Can you relate any instance of inappropriate
behaviour, or �virtual crime� you have experienced on a MUD,
or that you know someone else has experienced at your MUD?
(Please do not include names, character names, or the MUD
involved in your answer. If you know, please give details of
which command, or MUD object made this possible, for example
an emote command, or a �Wand of control� etc)

Q. 16 What are your views on the Common Decency Act recently
passed in the United States?

Q. 17 Where did you find this survey? (On which newsgroup, or
mud, was it advertised?)

Q. 18 Any other comments you would like to make on any of
the topics covered in this questionnaire, that you feel were
not covered by specific questions.

THANK YOU FOR COMPLETING THE SURVEY. Instructions for
returning it are above. Specific instructions for various
mail packages are available from ftp.ozramp.net.au, in
the /incoming directory (elm.txt, and pine.txt). 

Cheers,
Shane McKenzie, aka Daern.