Death Before Facebook

not.”
    Neetsie rolled her eyes. “Can we ever forget the cybercad?”
    Skip was interested. “Cybercad?”
    “Well, you know how people have romances online? I mean they start E-mailing people and then one thing and another?”
    “I told her all about it.” Pearce was trying to sound bored, but Skip sensed he was slightly uncomfortable.
    “But not about the cybercad.”
    “What happened was, someone in the women’s conference was crying publicly about her lost love. She mentioned a few sweet nothings he’d whispered before he disappeared and someone else said, ‘Hold it. This has a familiar ring.’ So they compared notes and what do you know, they’d been through the same thing with the same guy.
    “It seems he had a little system—he’d flatter and carry on, and tell a few of his deepest secrets just to let them know how intimate it all was, and encourage them to tell secrets. They would and then he’d know all their vulnerable spots. Funny thing—when it was all over, it turned out there were six of them and every single one of them overweight. A lot of it was specific flattery about their particular body types. Who knows? Maybe he just liked big women, but they didn’t think so. They thought he’d sought them out because of their lack of self- esteem.
    “Anyway, he’d call them first thing in the morning (which he could do because they lived all over the country), and have phone sex with them.”
    “Phone sex?”
    “Uh-huh. They said it was some of the best they ever had, meaning, I guess, that he wasn’t the first guy they’d done it with. Then he’d say he’d love to see them F2F, but he just couldn’t afford a plane ticket and would they help him out? By this time, they’d be deeply obsessive, and they’d split the cost of the plane ticket. Then he’d come and treat them to great sex—they all agreed about this part, though certain other women later said he was lousy—then dump them. And along the way he’d declare his love and insist on exclusivity. But all the while he’d have a bunch of them on the string.”
    “Don’t forget,” said Lenore, “he swore them all to secrecy too.”
    “What a creep.”
    Layne nodded. “So we had an old-fashioned village stoning.”
    By now they were all eating some fries they’d ordered to amuse themselves till dinner arrived. Pearce picked one up and waved it like a wand. “Some people called it a lynch mob.”
    Kit said, “Bullshit!”
    “Of course none of them were women.”
    “But how did it work?” asked Skip.
    “They started a topic about it in the women’s conference and we decided it warranted a public warning. So we issued it. And all hell broke loose.” Kit rolled her eyes.
    Pearce nodded. “I can’t think why I forgot to tell you about it. A true exercise in virtual community. Okay, here’s how it went: A public warning is issued. Then TOWNspeople come to the women’s aid, to give support and say what heroes they are for coming forth; next thing you know someone says, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve only heard one side of the story.’
    “But the perp’s away for the weekend, so his side doesn’t get heard for a while. Meanwhile, he gets called names. ‘Perp’ for one. And ‘sociopath’ was bandied around quite a bit. About now, people are starting to pat themselves on the back. They’re saying things like ‘We’re important pioneers out here in cyberspace and the fabric of our virtual community was nearly rent. However, we handled it! And a good thing, because things like this are a threat to trailblazers and virtual towns the world over.’
    “Meanwhile another faction is saying, ‘Hold it! This is a virtual lynch mob and I want no part of it.’ ”
    “While participating loudly and acrimoniously,” said Neetsie.
    “The funny thing was,” Pearce continued, “it ended up being just like life. People who’d had their own problems on the TOWN and didn’t like the fallout took the guy’s side, most women took the women’s side, and so did most of the hard-core VC types.”
    “What’s VC?”
    “’Virtual community.’ See, this isn’t just a way of wasting time, it’s a whole philosophy. A lot of people are really large on the concept as some kind of futurist ideal.”
    Kit said, “Excuse me while I barf.”
    “Could you do that later?” said Layne. The food was arriving.
    “Look, the TOWN has done a lot of good things for me. When I first went on it I had a medical problem I needed help