[Ads-l] "cybercad" article - help?

Thu Aug 29 17:28:10 UTC 2024

Thanks, Jesse. I found two 1999 WaPo references to the cybercad story but
nothing from 1993 in the WaPo archives.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/invitational/invit990725.htm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/talk/navigator/990318.htm?itid=sr_7_0d5a2085-6102-493e-b1b6-33f2d3350fb8

Nancy Friedman
Chief Wordworker
web: wordworking.com <http://www.wordworking.com>
substack https://fritinancy.substack.com/
Medium <https://medium.com/@wordworking>

tel 510 652-4159
cel 510 304-3953
bluesky/mastodon/instagram  Fritinancy

On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 10:13 AM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

> Oops, didn't see that you'd already posted this.
>
> On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 01:12:30PM -0400, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> > No, this is a description, not a title. Time Magazine ran an article
> about this incident a week later, on 19 July 1993, titled "Heartbreak In
> Cyberspace", but this didn't even use the term _cybercad_.
> >
> > https://time.com/archive/6723534/heartbreak-in-cyberspace/
> >
> > It seems pretty clear that the term's currency stems from its use as the
> (literal) last word of the big WaPo article of the week before, which is
> what brought the incident to national prominence.
> >
> > Jesse Sheidlower
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 10:00:16AM -0700, Nancy Friedman wrote:
> > > This is from "Net.Wars" by Wendy M. Grossman (1997, NYU Press):
> > >
> https://opensquare.nyupress.org/open-square-reader/cloud-reader/epub_content/9781479812905/ops/xhtml/24_Notes.xhtml#rfn8_16
> > >
> > > >>The second, written up at the time (the summer of 1993) in *Time*
> > >  magazine,16
> > > <
> https://opensquare.nyupress.org/open-square-reader/cloud-reader/epub_content/9781479812905/ops/xhtml/24_Notes.xhtml#rfn8_16
> >
> > > concerned
> > > a “cybercad” who ardently pursued several women on the WELL,
> apparently at
> > > the same time, into face-to-face (or, as the WELL likes to call them,
> F2F)
> > > encounters of the most intimate kind, then dumped them unceremoniously.
> > > Retiring to the private women-only conference to miserate and
> discovering
> > > they had company, the women decided to out him publicly as a warning to
> > > others. The man in question eventually said he had thought the rules
> were
> > > “different in cyberspace”17
> > > <
> https://opensquare.nyupress.org/open-square-reader/cloud-reader/epub_content/9781479812905/ops/xhtml/24_Notes.xhtml#rfn8_17
> >
> > > —a
> > > clear case of someone’s being unable to find the boundary between
> > > cyberspace and real life. He may have *met* these women in cyberspace,
> but
> > > the rest of the relationships took place in the physical world. It
> seems to
> > > me it ought to be pretty clear that the moment you pick up that
> telephone
> > > to direct-dial, you’ve changed jurisdictions. Such a case doesn’t mean
> you
> > > shouldn’t meet people online or give them your home phone number; but
> it
> > > does mean you should exercise the same caution you would with someone
> you
> > > met casually in a bar. The women on the WELL acknowledged this with
> great
> > > disappointment and a sense of betrayal: they had believed online was
> > > safe—the other side of expecting the rules to be different in
> cyberspace.<<
> > >
> > > (The footnote is not helpful!)
> > >
> > > And this is from a footnote in "City of Bits," published by MIT Press
> in
> > > 1995:
> > >
> > > >>Then, in summer 1993, the news media reported widely on "The Case of
> the
> > > Cybercad" on the WELL (a popular Bay Area online conferencing system).
> > > After he teleromanced several women at the same time (without telling
> them
> > > of the others), the women tumbled to his deceptive game and publicly
> > > denounced him in a WELL conference space.<<
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Nancy Friedman
> > > Chief Wordworker
> > > web: wordworking.com <http://www.wordworking.com>
> > > substack https://fritinancy.substack.com/
> > > Medium <https://medium.com/@wordworking>
> > >
> > > tel 510 652-4159
> > > cel 510 304-3953
> > > bluesky/mastodon/instagram  Fritinancy
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 9:49 AM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > > What are the references to this supposed article that you've found?
> > > >
> > > > There was indeed a widely reported incident in the summer of 1993
> > > > involving a man who behaved caddishly on The WELL, but it's not
> clear to me
> > > > that there was actually an article in Time _called_ "The Case of the
> > > > Cybercad"; I've just seen this as a description of the incident.
> > > >
> > > > A main article about the incident was by Jonathan Schwartz on page
> A1 of
> > > > the Washington Post of 11 July 1993; it was titled "On-Line
> Lothario's
> > > > Antics Prompt Debate on Cyber-Age Ethics", and the last line, quoting
> > > > "Lizabeth", one of the person's targets: "I don't think he's
> anything more
> > > > than I've called him, which is a cyber-cad."
> > > >
> > > > Jesse Sheidlower
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 09:33:21AM -0700, Nancy Friedman wrote:
> > > > > I'm researching the term "cybercad" (a man who takes advantage of
> women
> > > > > online) and am looking for an article published in *Time *magazine
> in the
> > > > > summer of 1993 headlined (possibly) "The Case of the Cybercad."
> I've
> > > > found
> > > > > references to it but can't find the article itself in *Time*'s
> archives
> > > > or
> > > > > the Internet Archive.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any ideas? Or any other antedating of "cybercad"?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks!
> > > > >
> > > > > Nancy Friedman
> > > > > Chief Wordworker
> > > > > web: wordworking.com <http://www.wordworking.com>
> > > > > substack https://fritinancy.substack.com/
> > > > > Medium <https://medium.com/@wordworking>
> > > > >
> > > > > tel 510 652-4159
> > > > > cel 510 304-3953
> > > > > bluesky/mastodon/instagram  Fritinancy
> > > > >
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> > >
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> >
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>
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