Internet Community

Okay so this week was very interesting because I have been a member of a Internet community for about four weeks now and I have been logging on the discussion board at least twice a week to see what reactions I got from my posts and to respond to other people’s post. The virtual community I am apart of is the Breakdown Discussion Board which talks about all the high school hoops going on in the state of Florida. I was very intrigued to see that there were so many different posts on the board from people all over the place. Most members aren’t even from the state of Florida, which is very ironic, but they proclaimed they have either seen the team or player that is usually under discussion in each blog. I must admit I was kind of skeptical about the assignment at first, because I know how people are in the sense that if they cannot see you, it is hard for them to accept you without first denying you. For example when I first began to chat on the board, any time I would start up a new blog or topic, or write a response to someone else’s topic, I often didn’t get a response or if I did someone would write, ” Who is the new dude?”

The process of assimilation was very slow into the community. Because no one had ever seen my screen name in a response prior to four weeks ago, no one wanted to “talk to me”. I would make my presence felt and get an occasional response when I mad a good point, but no one gave me the notoriety or acceptance that I wanted. Slowly but surely, as the other members of the community began to see that I wasn’t just some bone head making dumb responses just to try to stir up a conversation, I began to get some acceptance. Members began to respond to my post that had been on the site for about a week, and they actually had some input to what they felt about my topic. I think I really knew I was fully accepted into the community, when there was a blog talking about a girls basketball in 6A which is the highest level of basketball competition in Florida (they determine this by the number of students in your school), and the member who started the blog said that Lake Mary High School would repeat for a state championship in 2009. I was the first one to respond to his statement and I replied saying my Alma mater Edgewater High School would win the title this year hands down. Within 10 minutes of my post, there had already been 5 more posts talking about my high school in either a negative way or a positive way. In the first week, nobody would’ve responded and someone would have change the subject under my post. Now I actually get well thought out responses or at least people’s honest opinions.

Usually on this site there are rarely any agreements because someone has their own opinion about who is the better player, who has the better team, or who’s coach is going to get hired/fired this year. The disagreements usually don’t get resolved until the player/team/ coaches play against each other and then within 10 minutes of a confirmed victory, the victorious member of the community will then write about the success underneath that blog so that whoever was disagreeing with them could see it.

Advertisement