School project: Online communities

[Torrasque]

So this term I decided to take a mandatory general education (GNED) class. It was labeled as a writing class in my calendar (the thing that explains what all classes are, so I figured it would be some boring english class with a grammar nazi as a teacher that hates wikipedia and barely knows what the internet is.
Boy was I wrong.
This class that I have officially dubbed "the internet class" is the easiest class I will ever take, and the most fun. In the outline that my professor was going through during the first class, there were pictures of lolcats and MLP:FiM. Next week I get to "learn" about memes! This class for all intents and purposes, is about the writing on the internet.
One of the "big projects" that is supposed to take a long time and be really difficult, is to join an online community and give a detailed description of what it is like. When my prof said this, I heard some people groan. I was stunned at what she was saying.

*in my head*
"ok... so the really difficult project that I have to do over the course of this entire term is something that I do on a regular basis, something that I do because I like to do it and not because it is mandatory... I mind as well be getting grades for playing Starcraft!"
In fact, getting graded for Starcraft would probably be harder because she could at least be critical about my playing, lol

So over the next few months, I might be posting some questions that I have for you all. I am not entirely sure what exactly she wants to know about my experience here, but it really shouldn't be that difficult to deliver.



Who, What, Where?
What is the community's main focus?
Who are the members?
Ages? Genders? Nationalities?
Is there a lot of "off-topic" activity?

Explicit rules and values
What are your community's explicit values?
Are its rules clearly articulated?
Are they enforced? By whom?
Would you say that your community is heavily moderated, lightly or unmoderated?
How are disputes handled?
What happens to people who don't obey the rules?

Reflective Questions
What are you expecting from the community?
What kinds of interactions are you hoping for?

More Analytic questions
What are its implicit values?
Are there topics or discussions that are forbidden?
Are there topics or discussions that are taboo?
What are the community's values with regard to language and written expression?
What have you learned about community members' relationships to one another? Are there friendships/teams/cliques?

Questions about identity
Does the community encourage pseudonimity, anonymity or persistent identity?
How do identities affect community interaction?

 

[werty10089]

I REALLY bit off more than I could chew in trying to answer all of them. My fingers are bleeding from Html. Had to slice the thing up, as the codes were interfering with each other. This thing is the size of a small book.

<font color=red>Who, What, Where?
What is the community's main focus? - Foruming, to discuss the advancement and innovation of technology, society and simulation.
Who are the members? - Like-minded individuals, save for a few trolls.
Ages? Genders? Nationalities? - Mostly male, but with a large female population (in internet terms). Younger, hip 'internet-age' techno-folk who hail from more democratic societies.
Is there a lot of "off-topic" activity? - Considering that there exists a sub-category explicitly named 'Off-Topic', yes.

<font color=red>Explicit rules and values
What are your community's explicit values? - Toleration, Respect, Unity, Equality. T.R.U.E. ...I totally didn't steal that motto from my school.
Are its rules clearly articulated? - Mostly. It make take time to learn that certain aspects of humour provoke punishment, or that content in threads and comments has to be discussion worthy and of adequate length.
Are they enforced? By whom? - A secret society of ancient alien moderators from outer space.
Would you say that your community is heavily moderated, lightly or unmoderated? - Heavily. Most of the enforcement is from users themselves. It is important to weed-out undesirables, for the betterment of the community.
How are disputes handled? - Fancy, pantsy, point-based arguments with heavy use of examples. The argument grows in length until one of the combatants either agrees, gives up, or is permibanned for flaming.
What happens to people who don't obey the rules? - We feed them to the Rancore.

<font color=red>Reflective Questions
What are you expecting from the community? - Quality videos, good humour, and long walks on the beach.
What kinds of interactions are you hoping for? - I literally jump every time I get quoted. Pristine, simple recognition of your efforts are all it takes to make a person happy.

<font color=red>More Analytic questions
What are its implicit values? - Cynicism (in a good way), logical thinking, tolerance.
Are there topics or discussions that are forbidden? - Immodest, vile things such as sexual topics. *gasp*
Are there topics or discussions that are taboo? - V.s threads, personal army call threads, "post a picture of your penis" threads, ect.
What are the community's values with regard to language and written expression? - We value grammar, spelling and basic html.
What have you learned about community members' relationships to one another? Are there friendships/teams/cliques? - Most people tend to have topics they are more likely to comment on, but mostly, people are all fairly neutral to one another.

<font color=red>Questions about identity
Does the community encourage pseudonimity, anonymity or persistent identity? - We encourage diversity, and the liberty to choose any of those things as a method of expression.
How do identities affect community interaction? - Some people can be discriminated based on intelligence, lack of humour, or some weird fetish. But we accept these people, as these people are part of our community. Every neighbourhood has to have a few meth addicts or cross-dressing homeless men, right?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Ok, here's my answers

Spoiler

Who, What, Where?
What is the community's main focus?
Primarily Videogames (duh)

Who are the members?
Anyone who want's to discuss gaming, technology or other related subjects


Ages? Genders? Nationalities?
I'm 23, male, UK (Heavens-to-betsy, I'm the perfect stereotype)


Is there a lot of "off-topic" activity?
There's quite a developed secondary community, with many active usergroups like the Bronies, anime/movie talk fans (I suppose they are technically), and the roleplaying and religion/politics forums.

Spoiler

Explicit rules and values
What are your community's explicit values?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women. (I couldn't resist)

Are its rules clearly articulated?
Yes, the rules are set out plainly, and plenty of warning given for breaches.

Are they enforced? By whom?
There are several omniscient dedicated moderators who weild the hammer of ban better than Thor himself. (or herself, when he went through that weird cross-dressing phase [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Erymskvi%C3%B0a])

Would you say that your community is heavily moderated, lightly or unmoderated?
It's the strictest internet forum my fair eyes have seen.

How are disputes handled?
Bans, suspensions and warnings for everyone!

What happens to people who don't obey the rules?
Initially given warnings, and then banned after several offences.

Spoiler

Reflective Questions
What are you expecting from the community?
Fun and banter, while I catch up on news about videogames and technology. It's a diversion.

What kinds of interactions are you hoping for?
A bit of discussion, a lot of laughs.

Spoiler

More Analytic questions
What are its implicit values?
I don't really know, the membership is so broad that it includes people of all values and persuasion.

Are there topics or discussions that are forbidden?
I suppose anything really distasteful, blatant advertising topics, spam and trolling threads.


Are there topics or discussions that are taboo?
Threads on My Little Pony (try explaining that to your uni class!) Verses threads, Any thread that has been covered so many times it gets boring.

What are the community's values with regard to language and written expression?
Language as in swearing? It is allowed, but directed insults at other members is not. You are allowed to say what you want, as long as you don't advocate piracy!


What have you learned about community members' relationships to one another? Are there friendships/teams/cliques?
There are some members who know each other irl, there are many others who use these forums to socialise with each other (especially the roleplaying and forum games crowd, oh, and the User group guys, can't forget them.)

Spoiler

Questions about identity
Does the community encourage pseudonimity, anonymity or persistent identity?
I suppose pseudonimity, as your username can be completely divorced from the rest of your life (adding personal information isn't mandatory) but you can link your facebook and gaming accounts.

How do identities affect community interaction?
They don't really help or hinder it, it is easy to recognise a user if their avatar is eye-catching, but if they want people can be pretty much annonymous.

Hope that helps. All the best for your module!
EDIT: I split mine up too, hopefully it should be easier digested in small meaty chunks.

 

[Torrasque]

I literally jump every time I get quoted. Pristine, simple recognition of your efforts are all it takes to make a person happy.

I totally do that too. "zomg someone agreed with me! YIPEEE!!!!", but most of the time it is someone either ?_? at my post or raging at my implications. Oh well.

lol, you didn't have to answer them all xD

What are your community's explicit values?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women. (I couldn't resist)

Oh man, I want to put that into my analysis, but I don't think my prof would give me a good mark if I trolled the whole fucking thing, lol.