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The church of fools--

http://ship-of-fools.com/church/index.html

--is an experiment in online worship. It claims to be, and perhaps is, the first 3d online space intended for worship. The experiment began in May 2004 and will end on September 26 of 2004. It has a look and feel similar to multiplayer games, yet there is serious conversation and worship, including scheduled services on Sundays and at certain other times. Services are conducted by ordained clergy. The site is open to all.

The project was funded by donations to pay for bandwidth, server time, and graphical and software development. It utilized Flash for rendering the 3d objects and performing animation.

Approximately 20 volunteer "wardens" roamed the space and were empowered to eject ("smite") troublemakers.

Despite the large number of wardens and the presence of technical measures to prevent SockPuppets and certain other markers for abusive behavior, the site has been overcome by trolls and will be shut down following a final service on September 26.

People came to the site to engage in prayer, which made them particularly vulnerable to hurtful things said by trolls. An endless stream of trolls discovered the site, which was slashdotted before it opened. One warden commented:

: "Church of Fools and our peaceful visitors from all over the world have needed protection from a few idiots who want to destroy the peace and use the church for their juvenile brand of "fun". We have people come into the Church who are vulnerable, who are trying to find a sense of the numinous in their lives. They deserve better than this. The saddest thing is that the trolls and ragers aren't even interesting or in any way original in their antics. The disruption simply demonstrates their spiritual and intellectual poverty and the howling moral emptiness of their lives. I pity them. Doesn't stop me smiting and banning them... in Christian love, of course."

Many trolls also found humor in praying to the vending machines in the basement and other inappropriate objects:

: "I sigh a lot, though, especially when people think they are raging in an original way. Why would anybody think nobody else has had the idea of praying to a vending machine?"

The site hopes to reopen after developing additional software to prevent trolling.

I think that to set up such a system with explicit "wardens" and a mechanism to "smite" people is asking for trouble. Churches have existed for hundreds of years, open for all, without a police force installed. How can you respect someone when this someone doesn't believe that he deserves and will earn this respect? -- It is very weird, I have similar experiences from Austria, where the evangelic church switched to an over-moderated BBS that killed the life of a developing forum. Although systems create a valuable public space, the control over this space is given away to admins of some sort. In real space no priest would ever allow an admin to control the space of his church and structure people behaviour and interactions. -- HelmutLeitner

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