Hello everyone. My name is Matt Rawding and I’m a senior in ISST. I’m from Reading, MA which is just north of Boston. I’ve spent my past three summers programming at different internships, but I’ve since decided I don’t really like programming all the much. I’m hoping to get a job more along the lines of consulting. I’m a huge Red Sox fan and I try to watch them as much as possible but unfortunately we don’t get Red Sox games out here. I also enjoy playing ultimate Frisbee, but only casually. When I’m at my apartment I’m usually either doing work or playing Super Smash Bros for N64. Me and my apartment-mates are obsessed with smash and we often get into very heated battles. During the summer I like to fish, hike, and cook.
One area of the internet I’m interested in is relationships in forums. I have used the site slickdeals.net for the past few years to find good deals on lots of great things. After using it for a while I discovered a forum on the site called “The Lounge” that is basically open to discussion about anything. I lurked in the shadows for a bit before joining in conversations but I was able to observe friendly conversations as well as heated debates. I quickly learned traits about many of the regular posters. Some people used this forum as a place to vent about their personal life, some used it as a way of just chatting, and others, like myself, just used it as a way to pass time. However, the most interesting thing to me is the level of animosity achieved through the internet and how people use this barrier to talk about very personal issues. There were a lot of messages about marriage problems, work problems, and even some embarrassing personal stories that are good for a laugh.
I believe this is part of the asynchronous chat online space because forum members can post messages to be read by others at any point in the future. It seems a little counterintuitive to post something that you hope to get a reply to very quickly in an environment where responses can take a while. Although another interesting aspect of the forum was how occasionally there were times when people were replying so quickly it almost turned into a chat room.
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Hey Matt,
You make some very good observations about forums. The few that I have frequented have been attached to webcomics, but like you pointed out, the conversations expand far beyond the confines of just the comic. I think one of the big reasons for the breadth and depth of discussions is due to the regular posters who often post many times per day. Their consistent participation turn a forum into a real community, instead of merely a discussion group. Those top posters form a kind of "anchor" for the socialization. Despite the majority of users posting rarely, those top posters are a constant presence, making the user feel like they know who is reading their posts. When forums seem to be more like chat rooms as you described, I wonder if thats a different group of posters. It seems to me that while the top posters post frequently, they tend to spread their posts around. The rapid back and forth is often between users who are slightly on the periphery. Maybe that is an attempt to make their presence in the forum more significant.
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