Hi,
I've just joined the forum so a bit of a heavy post for my first time! Sorry :)
I'm currently doing my MA in Language & Communication Research at Cardiff Uni and one of my long-term loves is transpersonalism and entheogens (Grof, McKenna brothers, Krippner, Ram Dass et al). As such, I’ve turned a couple of pieces of coursework to this theme (testing the water before submiting a proposal for my thesis...)
I am currently looking at how the internet has opened up a world of experiential data to researchers in the entheogenic field - sites such as this and Erowid are gold mines of experiential data which would, not so long ago, have been almost impossible to come by.
What I am focusing on is the ethical issues surrounding online experiential data. Which is where I’m hoping a few of you might be willing to help me :)
I have a few questions and I’d be really grateful if you wouldn't mind giving some opinions. I'd like to use some of the replies to draw up ethical guidelines for future researchers in this area, so if you do reply please understand that I may quote some of the responses I get in my work - if you feel uncomfortable about that, please tell me and I won't quote from your responses. Any responses that I do use will be anonymised. If you are happy with that and have five minutes to spare, please can you either e-mail them to:
woolleymg@cardiff.ac.uk ,PM them back or kick of a discussion in here - it would be interesting to see if there are any contentious points :)
Questions: These questions relate to information you have posted anywhere on the internet, not just this forum. Please skip any questions that do not apply to you. I must emphasise that there are no right or wrong answers on this - I am not looking to validate a pre-formed opinion, I want help to form an opinion :)
1. When you post experiences about drugs on the internet, do you take any precautions to disguise your identity? If so, what do you do and why?
2. Have you ever posted an experience on one site and found that somebody else has posted it on a different site, or that it has appeared somewhere that you did not expect it? If so, how did this make you feel?
3. Have you ever used other people's experiences that you found online in your own research or writings? If so, did you contact the author before using the material? Did you know who the author was (were they contactable)? If you did/didn't can you tell me a bit about why? Did you feel any concerns about using those experiences, or non at all?
4. If somebody wanted to use an experience you had posted, would you expect them to get in contact and ask permission? Would it bother you if they didn't ask permission and you found out? Do you think researchers who want to use sensitive online material should have any obligations or ethical rules?
5. Do you feel that there's any differense between using information from a post someone has made on a forum/newsgroup compared to information on a website?
Thanks in advance! :)
Any questions about the research please just ask. It's not a really big project but it's an interesting one.
Best wishes,
Marion.
Veeery interesting work. I have a Master of Arts from the University of Auckland, specialising in conflict resolution (which has Masters level ethics papers) and will be happy to help in your reseach. My old study-budy teaches at Dublin university. What a h00t.
Here are my answers:
1. I remain behind my nickname (cassie) which would be hard to prove is me or, even if not, I do not fear the police because I scarcely break the law these days, merely committing the rather trivial offence of smoking pot.
I feel free to post about my past experiences because I was arrested and imprisoned for importing lsd into NZ in the 1970's and am hence already known to have used entheogenic material. This gives me a certain freedom of expression that others don't have.
2. No, but I have had a picture of my poppy garden used maliciously by someone who thought they didn't like me. I was pissed off but felt better when I added a post explaining that growing papaver somniferum as flowers is not illegal.
3. Plaigiarism is plaigiarism in whatever form and I do not either practice or condone it. I use strict academic style when using other people's material online.
4. Yes
Yes, if the source was unacknowledged.
That depends on the people. I prefer to hang out with folk who don't need rules. (or at least none beyond agreeing what side of the road we'll drive on). .. dang americans...
5. No, as long as it is all properly referrenced and there is no copyright applicable.
Using reports found on the internet should be used with great caution. There have been many annonomous and obviously innaccurate reports used by people to get salvia divinorum scheduled for example. Quoting such reports tends to give them more creadiance than they often should.
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1. When you post experiences about drugs on the internet, do you take any precautions to disguise your identity? If so, what do you do and why?
Lets see, there is of course screen names, proxies, and even there are those that go so far as to disguise their writting styles, grammer, dilibertly misspell words, etc. I disguise my identity to some extent, but many of us have come to know each other personally.
Why hide? First there are the trolls. It is generally a good idea to disguise your identity every time you go on the Internet. There are also many people that don't believe in cognitive liberty, spiritplants, etc., They do not believe people who practice such things are entitled to basic rights and liberty. Worse yet, I fear there are those that perfectly understand the relationship between plants and man, the potential for human advancement, enlightenment, whatever you want to call it, the medical possibilities of plants, and are actively trying to prevent mankinds advancement - for their own greed. The reasons seem to just go on and on.
2. Have you ever posted an experience on one site and found that somebody else has posted it on a different site, or that it has appeared somewhere that you did not expect it? If so, how did this make you feel?
No.
3. Have you ever used other people's experiences that you found online in your own research or writings? If so, did you contact the author before using the material? Did you know who the author was (were they contactable)? If you did/didn't can you tell me a bit about why? Did you feel any concerns about using those experiences, or non at all?
No.
4. If somebody wanted to use an experience you had posted, would you expect them to get in contact and ask permission?
Yes.
Would it bother you if they didn't ask permission and you found out?
Maybe
Do you think researchers who want to use sensitive online material should have any obligations or ethical rules?
Sure
5. Do you feel that there's any differense between using information from a post someone has made on a forum/newsgroup compared to information on a website?
No.
Thank you so much for your replies guys. Very much appreciated - keep them coming lol
It got me quite paranoid actually as I post in loads of forums but I never really gave any consideration to whether other people would pay that much attention to what I wrote or ever use it for something. I think, even though you're posting on a forum which you know is on the internet and available to thousands of people, there's still a sense of personalism to posting, you feel like you're engaged in a direct communion with one person (the person you're replying to) or a small group of regular posters. It's a weird thing to think about. To be honest, ethics isn't a subject that deeply turns me on, but it's a very useful one to explore as it plays a part in everything else you go on to do.
I'm in a major conundrum at the moment. My actual background is in Deaf culture and British Sign Language (BSL) - I was training as an interpreter before I left to do my MA and it's the field that I have always worked in. It's the reason I chose 'Language & Communication Research' - because it allowed me to carry on with BSL linguistics and sociolinguistics. My major interest is forensic linguistics relating to Deaf people in the legal process.
Problem is, as time's gone on and I’ve started to see the possibilities in linguistic research, my 'other' hobby has started to surface: entheogens and transpersonalism.
It's really causing me grief because the Deaf side is what I know, it's what I’ve always done, but the 'other' side is really fascinating too and it's something new that I haven't really gone in-depth with before.
So I’ve got to submit two dissertation proposals this term. Up until my last essay (and now this one) everything I submitted was Deaf/BSL-related, everything, but now I’ve thrown in a couple on entheogens just to confuse them and see what sort of response it draws lol. I'm happy to get duff marks on a couple of things just to see what happens.
The two proposals I’m putting forward are:
1. Police misconceptions of Deaf culture in communications (pre-supposition of aggression): i.e. how sign language and Deaf people can be perceived as aggressive when they're not being. Not good in an assault interrogation.
2. Whether natural dream drugs (pinoline, DMT etc) work on a similar dosage level to tryptamine entheogens - i.e. can dreaming/lucid dreaming/OBEs be experientially compared to a low/mid/high level dose of something like ayahuasca/psilocybin etc.
So, flip a coin and see what comes down lol I'm feeling a bit Jekyll & Hyde at the moment....
Marion.
Forming an opinion should be done on your own accord. On that note here are my opinions.
#1 Not really, and sometimes I'm way to open I think.
#2 Nope. I never really went searching though.
#3 No, I haven't but I'm sure I'd at least cite the source.
#4 I think everyone should have ethics. On the other hand everyone is human. I'd be happy with a quick email if someone was using my material, that is, if anyone even knew my email. Just a citation would be nice.
#5 No, isn't a forum a website?
ps you smile alot
Proposal one sounds like the best idea. Number two will get you labelled a druggie for sure. Plus, how are you going to go about number 2? Can't really do experiements or anything in this day an age. Current research is so limited, it would be hard to draw any valid conclusions, I would figure.
I remember seeing this show about police training. The showed the cops videos of situations and they had to react. In one the guy gets out of his car and walks toward the officers. They yell at him and he doesn't stop, he reaches in his pocket and about half the cops shoot. The guy in the video then pulls out a card saying his "deaf and can't speak..."
Quote from: "Cassie"hence already known to have used entheogenic material. This gives me a certain freedom of expression that others don't have.
That's really interesting, I would have thought it would have given you that additional 'being monitored' feeling that would restrict your freedom - but it's had the opposite effect.
Do you mind me asking about that time in your life? (Absolutely nothing to do with my research now, just personal curiosity!) - I'm guessing the experience with the law must have been very different for you as you were going through it compared to now, looking back? I'm guessing it was quite a scary thing to go through, or were you pretty prepared for it? Has it had any long-term affect on your life or your relationship with entheogens? Did getting arrested make you re-think anything or confirm certain social convictions you already had? I think what I’m trying to ask is: what affect did that have on your life?
Quoteexplaining that growing papaver somniferum as flowers is not illegal.
That must have been quite a bummer for said poster lol
Quote(or at least none beyond agreeing what side of the road we'll drive on). .. dang americans...
lol
Best wishes,
Marion.
"1. I remain behind my nickname (cassie) which would be hard to prove is me or, even if not, I do not fear the police because I scarcely break the law these days, merely committing the rather trivial offence of smoking pot."
I think I have a photo around here somewhere that could identify cassie - at least from the back. :D
Quote#5 No, isn't a forum a website?
Good question. The distinction I would draw is that a poster on a forum has registered, so opted in to what could be considered a 'private members club' I suppose. Therefore the poster could expect those posts to stay within the confines of that forum/newsgroup.
Information posted on an open internet website could be considered as being fully in the 'public domain'. Many websites don't give authorship information (not a great thing to reference in the first place) or don't have contact information for the author either because the site has been contributed to by lots of people or because it's out or nobody thought to do so.
I think what I’m driving at is: if something is in the public domain, is it free for all? Is a forum different?
Best wishes,
Marion.
After your explanation/clarification, I'd have to agree with you there. So, I officially change my opinion on #5 to yes, it is different. I draw the line though at any blog post/article/forum post that is authored. Does that make sense?
Quote from: "TooStonedToType"Proposal one sounds like the best idea. Number two will get you labelled a druggie for sure. Plus, how are you going to go about number 2?
Well, I already submitted a preliminary proposal on the 2nd one. Waiting to see what they come back with. On the whole, academia is very creative and accepting of projects that are 'on the edge'. Academia in it's highest form is about human ideas and the quest for knowledge. In that respect, few areas are out of bounds entirely. As I’m a linguistics researcher I have to approach the subject from a linguistic angle, so I would do it through experiential qualitative data (collecting people's experiences and analysing them).
I'd be happy to show you the prelim. proposal but I can't add it as an attachment to this, I’ll see if I can upload it. Opinions always welcome. The problem is that, in order to pursue it as a thesis, they'd have to be able to find a supervisor with experience of that field. I already know one who did her MA in Deaf Studies at Durham and is now in the Forensic Linguistics department, which is a perfect match for proposal 1. I don't know anyone yet who could deal with the second one but you never know. I doubt it's completely unexplored territory for them.
However, if it is a no-goer, i've already teamed up with a friend of similar head-space and we'll probably do it anyway just for kicks :P
Best wishes,
Marion.
Howdy.
1. When you post experiences about drugs on the internet, do you take any precautions to disguise your identity? If so, what do you do and why?
I'm always someone else online for protection. There have been at least one or two cases when I didn't want a particular online person to know my true identity for my own protection. Think "nutball who believes everyone on the forum is one person out to get him."
Also, it's never a good idea to incriminate yourself. I almost never post SWIM stuff since my age puts all of my "past activities" far beyond the statute of limitations.
2. Have you ever posted an experience on one site and found that somebody else has posted it on a different site, or that it has appeared somewhere that you did not expect it?
No.
3. Have you ever used other people's experiences that you found online in your own research or writings?
No.
4. If somebody wanted to use an experience you had posted, would you expect them to get in contact and ask permission?
No. If I post, I have no expectation of privacy nor copyright of my material. I don't post many experiences, so this is probably a moot point with me anyway.
5. Do you feel that there's any differense between using information from a post someone has made on a forum/newsgroup compared to information on a website?
Maybe, depending on whether one has to be a member of the forum to read posts. If not, then a spider will have it archived anyway. It's out there and there's no putting it back in the box.
-TM
Who's dad was it that said, "I'd like to see what's under THAT cowboy hat!" ?
John Wayne's?