LambdaMOO

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This article is about LambdaMOO (the online community). For information regarding MOO servers and MOOs in general, please see MOO.

LambdaMOO is an online community of the variety called a MOO. It is the oldest MOO today and one of the most active, with just under 3000 regular members. Typically, around 100-200 members are connected at any given time.

LambdaMOO was founded in 1990 by Pavel Curtis. Hosted in the state of Washington, it is operated and administered entirely on a volunteer basis. Guests are allowed, and membership is free to anyone with a paid or institutional email address. LambdaMOO is accessible via telnet or MUD/MOO client, at host lambda.moo.mud.org and port 8888.

LambdaMOO gained some notoriety when Julian Dibbell wrote a book called My Tiny Life describing his experiences there.[1]

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[edit] Technical Notes

Since its debut, LambdaMOO has run on Lambdamoo server software, which implements the MOO programming language. The software was originally created by Pavel Curtis for LambdaMOO, and was subsequently made available to the public. Several starter databases, known as cores, are available for Lambdamoo; LambdaMOO itself uses the LambdaCore database. The "Lambda" name is from Curtis's own username on earlier MUD systems [1].

[edit] Geography

LambdaMOO central geography was based on Pavel Curtis's California home. New players and guests traditionally connected in "The Coat Closet", but a second area, "The Linen Closet" (specially programmed as a silent area) was later added as an alternative connection point. The coat closet opens onto the center of the house in The Living Room, a common hangout and place for conversation; its fixtures include a fireplace (where things can be roasted), The Living Room Couch (which periodically causes players' objects to 'fall through' to underneath the couch), and a pet Cockatoo who repeats overheard phrases (which is often found with its beak gagged). From time to time the Cockatoo is replaced with a more seasonal creature: a Turkey near Thanksgiving, a Raven near Halloween, et cetera.

To the north of the Living Room is the Entrance Hall, the Front Yard, and a limited residential area along LambdaStreet. There is an extensive subterranean complex located down the manhole, including a sewage system.

Players walking to the far west along LambdaStreet may be given the option to 'jump off the end of the world', which disables access to their account for a time. To the south of the Living Room is a pool deck, a hot tub, and some of the extensive grounds of the mansion, featuring gardens, hot air balloon landing pads, open fields, fishing holes, and the like.

To the northwest of the living room are the laundry room, garage, dining room, smoking room, drawing room, housekeeper's quarters, and kitchen; a popular command allows players in the living room to push others into the kitchen and ask them to "fetch me a cup of tea"; since players can prevent themselves from being moved in such a fashion, this command is more often used on new users, who may have difficulty finding their way back to the Living Room. (For historical reasons, while there is direct access to the kitchen from the living room by heading northwest, users must head north, east, and then south from the Kitchen to return.)

To the east of the entry hall, hallways provide access to some individual rooms, the Linen Closet, and to the eastern wing of the house. In the eastern wing can be found the Library of online books, the Museum of generic objects (which account-holders may create instances of), and an extensive area for the LambdaMOO RPG.

A small portion of the map, covering the ground floor of the house and the yard, has been reproduced on the web. For would-be explorers, Yib's Guide to MOOing includes a chapter on interesting places on the MOO which are well worth visiting.

[edit] Politics

While most MOOs are run by administrative fiat, in summer of 1993 LambdaMOO implemented a petition/ballot mechanism, allowing the community to propose and vote on new policies and other administrative actions. A petition may be created by anyone eligible to participate in politics (those who have maintained accounts at the MOO for at least 30 days), can be signed by other players, and may then be submitted for administrative 'vetting'. Once vetted, the petition has a limited time to collect enough signatures to become valid and be made into a ballot. Ballots are subsequently voted on; those with a 66% approval rating are passed and will be implemented. This system suffered quite a lot of evolution and eventually passed into a state where wizards took back the power they'd passed into the hands of the people, but still maintain the ballot system as a way for the community to express its opinions.

[edit] Controversy

There was an incident on the MOO in which a user named Mr. Bungle falsely attributed sexual remarks to other avatars.

[edit] Demographics

While the population of LambdaMOO once numbered close to 10,000 with over 300 actively connected at any time, these days it is rare to see more than a few dozen actively participating connected players at one time.

As of November 13, 2005, LambdaMOO had 10 official wizards (administrators), and approximately 2,900 general users. Of these, approximately 1410 players reported themselves as male, and 916 as female; the remaining players either failed to report their gender, or deliberately chose another. (LambdaMOO supports custom designations of gender, and comes with the following presets: neuter, male, female, either, Spivak, splat, plural, egotistical, royal, and 2nd-person).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dibbell, Julian (1999). My Tiny Life. London: Fourth Estate Limited. ISBN 1-84115-058-4. 

[edit] External links