Blog Hoax Reveals Important Lessons

A blog hoax has left fans struggling with a complex set of emotions, from anger, betrayal and confusion, to respect for the writing and a con well done. ‘Plain Layne” (aka Odin Soli) came out of the closet to admit the character was an experiment that he calls “interactive fiction”, resembling the Kaycee Swenson case of 2001 in which a 40-year-old homemaker created a bogus site that chronicled the final year of a dying teenager.

However, Soli’s deception was much more sophisticated because it exploited the social aspects of Web logs, which allow readers to interact with authors by posting comments directly onto their diary entries.

So what does it all mean? Look at blogging as a form of entertainment and nothing more. Emotional attachment to an internet persona or someone you haven’t met is pathological and can even be dangerous. Until you look that person in the eye, you can never really be certain of whom you are conversing with. And that goes for chat rooms as well. Caution is the word.