Carol - maybe the first section of your paper ought to be on the way in which our cyber-family responded to your request. The beauty of the net is that when you communicate with another person, you are forced to do so strictly on the basis of their writen words. We (fortunately, I think) lack all the other sensory clues that we normally use, consciously or not, to form opinions about other people and evaluate what they have to say, often before they even say it. Here, we are forced to respond to the content of the thought. That forces each of us to become more critical (evaluatory, not condemnatory) of both sides of a communication.

To be sure, there are devious people in cyber-land who use what I see as cyber-strengths to deceive. One of the special beauties of the 'cat is that there are so many people with a sharp cyber-nose to sniff-out and expose such people. No place, and no person, is perfect, but I believe the collective "we" at Mudcat come closer to the ideals of honesty and integrity than most other places, virtual or 3D.