Ship of Fools braves the waves
p2pnet.net News:- When the Ship of Fools, with “pews made from pixels and a logged-in congregation,” and billed as the world’s first 3D internet church, cast its Net upon the Virtual Waters of the Web, it made a lot of waves.
Thousands of people surfed over for a look causing the site to become “rather elusive the past couple of days” and worse, “when some participants, who are shown on-screen as animated people in an animated building, logged in with names such as ‘Satan,’ ‘God,’ and ‘Jesus,’ and swore at people praying, site operators removed them,” says ChurchCentral.com here.
The Ship/Church of Fools opened as a three-month experiment on May 11 when the Bishop of London “preached at the opening service. ‘Cast out your nets into the deep,’ he told us.”
It’s “an attempt to create holy ground on the net, where people can worship, pray and talk about faith,” the site says, going on:
“The church is partly intended for people on the edges (and beyond) of faith, so please be aware that the language and behaviour in church is often colourful and occasionally offensive. Please bear with us – this is an experiment and we’re working on creative solutions to the problem of mischievous visitors. Church of Fools is currently not suitable for children.”
Profanity in the pews
Unfortunately, the church attracted the attention of the Great Unwashed. “It’s not every day you encounter Satan in the pulpit of a church,” says editor Simon Jenkins here. “But this wasn’t any old place of worship. My face-off with the Prince of Darkness took place in the world’s first web-based 3D church.”
It all resulted in a “noisy first two days, with people ranting from the pulpit and swearing in the aisles” frocing church administrators to introduce some changes to “quieten things down“.
The Shout function was dumped and, “We’re also planning to increase the presence of wardens (wardens have the power to ’smite’ people, which instantly logs them out of the environment) and also to recruit volunteer helpers who will talk to people visiting the church.”
However, claims to the contrary notwithstanding, this isn’t the first time Religion has gone online.
At the beginning of March, the Church of England was looking for someone to administer the first Internet parish and Alyson May Leslie recently become the first Web Pastor.
Maybe the two virtual vicars should compare notes?
May 23rd, 2004 at 11:52 pm
If I knew how to “log in”, I would, but I don’t….
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read that article. I think I did a bit of both. It was, from a human standpoint, quite funny, and, not being in the webchurch at the time, I could only just imagine the chaos. I play interactive web games, and I realize just how hard it is to police people who want to be total jerks.
Where I wanted to cry was the knowledge that there are a lot of people out there with Satan as their best friend, and all they wish to do is to make life miserable for believers, wherever they find them. The webchurch could take a few pointers from gaming websites (e.g. http://www.Holylandclan.com) who have managed very well to keep out the cursers and bad names, etc. Only those who join can actually talk to each other through Teamspeak channels. Anyway, all that said, I think the whole thing is a great idea, but some real web and PC experts need to get involved with it to keep Satan out.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
was suprised to see holyland clan mentioned for clean gaming sites! i,m honored! ive been a member of the holyland clan for 2 and a half years now, and i have to say its arguably the best clan on the web. we try VERY hard to make holyland servers a refuge for people who just want to game. not put up with all the b.s that other servers allow or dont police. our clan is structured in rank according to tenure and dedication, so the mp’s are really top notch. we really are like a family,so much so that we have annual get togethers around the country and canada for members to get to know each other on a personal basis. we welcome anyone to try our servers and feel free to ask any members online any questions you have. we would be happy to answer them. thanks for the mention!
[HOLY] cpl. punishment {SGT}