January 17, 2001

RinkChat, New Zealand - As chat fans gear up for the hype surrounding this year's RinkAwards, keen observers point to what they suspect may be a dark undercurrent of ethnocentricity. With every eligible archive being a mainstream English-language production, some are asking serious questions about the selection procedure.

"Where are the foreign archives?" asked one commentator, who preferred to remain anonymous. "We know that there are some top quality conversations being produced out there, every day, in every language from Polish to Hindustani. At the moment, these are only available to chatters who are willing to travel to hard-to-find, specialist chat rooms outside RinkWorks."

"And not everybody wants to do that," the commentator added.

RinkWorks administrator Samuel Stoddard said, in his defense, that there have been numerous foreign-language chats since the room opened in 1999. Spanish and Japanese were the most common. When asked why none of these conversations had been archived, he became evasive and hurried off, saying he just remembered he left the oven on.

However, it is certain that the small group of foreign-conversation fans in RinkChat will continue their efforts to produce works of lasting significance.

"I'm a beautiful space pirate! ^_~" one regular commented. "Neko wa kowaii!!!"

The speaker then disappeared in a shower of stars.