The quoted paragraphs can be found at the bottom of this web page:
[url]http://www.sciencenews.org/20020504/bob9.asp[/url]

"Some researchers hope to use the Internet to explore the largely hidden world of such groups. For instance, psychologist Jack Glaser of the University of California, Berkeley and his colleagues posed as curious, naive visitors to ask 38 participants in several white supremacist chat rooms about their ideas on biracial marriage and other racial issues.

Glaser considers this technique ethical because participants were contacted in a public forum, weren't coerced, addressed common topics of conversation in their chat rooms, and were not personally identified by the researchers. Surreptitious interviewing might also yield new insights into such denizens of the Internet as child pornographers and [b]illegal weapons traders[/b], Glaser says."

We aren't doing anything illegal here but... those gun nuts and their black rifles sure are scary! [:O]

If there is a web site devoted to "illegal weapons trading", I haven't found it yet. [>:/]

What raf said.

IMHO, they have been here for a while. The factor that keeps them from making any real noise would be attributed to their collective and individual lack of identities and/or personalities.

Therefore, it's pretty hard for them to find any recognition or audience when they post something like "Should felons who do their time get their gun rights back" in their first 10 posts.

Seasoned internet forum users can spot trolls 100 miles away. Most serious forum users spend a while learning a community and building their recognition by responding to other member's topics. Eventually they will strike out on their own.

A troll will start firing right away without any relationship or community identity.

I sincerely doubt that any faculty member from UC or Berkeley has the ability to focus their attention long enough to become a credible mole in a community of people whom they self-purportedly despise.

Junk Science.

A reputable Professor and College would direct their energies elsewhere.

This seems like "activist science" or some such nonsense.

Glaser must have taken the same ethics class as Michael Belleseiles. Does he plan to cut and paste his chat experiences as a reference?

Try: [url]www.illegalweaponstrading.com[/url]

Hey man, fix your link...  It's broken!  [;)]

the_reject

I want to know about illeagal wepons too. Have you heard that illegal weapons can shoot through 3 people with bulletproof vests!!??[;)]

[beer]

What weapon fires bulletproof vests? [BD]

Damn that link doesn't work, try


www.thisgunstolen

it's the lesser know sister of

www.isthisgunstolen

Psychologist + Berkeley = [%|]

Where the hell is he and can he answer my thread on the dream?

I remember Ed Bradley doing a network magazine show some years back, on how easy it was to buy machine guns.  He claimed that little wannabe gang bangers in the projects were buying machine guns for "$50 on the street."  

So, he found this little kid, crouching in the stairwell of his building, guarding his turf I suppose.  The kid would flash, but not really show some sort of black rifle.  What it really was, when he showed it, was one of those cheap BB guns that look like a cartoon M16, with the buttstock broken off, and only the pistol grip left.  So, that was the "$50 machine gun".  

Well, so much for the illegal gun trade... if you could really buy machine guns for $50, hell,  I will take two.  No, here's $500, I want one each for Christmas presents for my entire extended family!

No way I'll trade MY illegal weapons...

(joke)

Psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists have completely run out of useful studies to do.  It's all been done to death!  You should see some of the student projects and some of the things people do as PhD theses!  It's unbelievable.  Social science is 80% waste, 10% results oriented science, 9.999% common sense (teens who binge drink are more sexually active -- see The Onion last week).  So that leaves .001% actual, real, informative and groundbreaking work that is later debunked in some later study anyways.

To them, we are illegal weapons traders.  How smart can a psychologist be if that's how he perceives the message board phenomenon?  

I've posted on this web site & on others about these Ivory Tower Weasels with an axe to grind who sneak around various Boards asking all sorts of "touchy" questions of gun owners.

Oh Yeah, they're out there and they attempt to use us as research for their biased interests.

Who cares let them listen. The country, the whole world for that mater is already heading to hell in a hand basket. Let them publish what ever they want, It will only help to speed up the process. And then we can start all over. Well after the radiation cools off.