The End is Near

The past couple months has been very enjoyable.  I really enjoyed becoming part of the community.  It was fun to feel part of a digital community.  I watched the videos posted and commented on them, I joined the forum and got to know a few other members through that, I posted questions and had them answered, I joined discussions, I even posted a blog on the site, and I have even been tempted to make my own internet videos.  I learned how digital community works and saw digital citizenship firsthand.  I think it was a great experience and I am very happy that I did this.  After much thought I will continue to be part of this site’s community and I am thankful for the community as well as the opportunity to continue to learn about digital communities.

Blogging: The Two Towers

Over the weekend I posted a short written review of the movie “Oz the Great and Powerful”.  I did a review where I made fun of the movie.  The reason I did this is that many people in this community respond better to negative reviews.  I am not sure if this is something that is different in this on-line community or if it is true about many on-line communities.  I did not receive any comments on my blog, which was very discouraging, though I did have a lot of views.

I learned a lot about writing the blog.  By getting no comments I felt that no one cared that I wrote it or that I did not do a good job.  Even though I felt like I did a fairly good job in my writing and I enjoyed writing the blog it felt as though it was all for nothing since I received no feedback from the community.  This once again leads me to a battle between just wanting to express feelings/opinions and wanting to entertain or gain others approval.  I feel that I reach this tension at every turn while exploring this community.  The fact that I felt that if no one was going to comment on my blog post then why should I blog shows that I may have been blogging for others rather then myself.  I wanted to be liked in this community, I wanted people to give me feedback, I wanted to make new friends, and I thought that blogging would help this.  In our physical communities we also try to do things to get approval from our peers and others in the community so I am not sure why a digital community would be any different.  Regardless of where the community is we tend to one to be part of it, part of something bigger, part of somewhere that we feel we belong.  I know it is strange that I came to this though just because I received no comments on my blog but I showed me how I feel about wanting to belong.

I cannot believe that this is almost over and that I have already spent several weeks in this community.  As I enter into my last week of this assignment I am going to reflect on everything I have learned so far.  I usually give myself an assignment for the week, but this week my only assignment will be deciding if I want to continue to be a part of this community still or not. 

Blogging

Last week I posted a negative comment in the forums in hope that I would receive some reaction.  Will I did receive some action; a moderator removed my comment.  It was not until this that it really hit me how important moderators are.  They keep the environment safe and free from bullies and trolls who are not contributing to the community.  They also ban spammers.  This did get me thinking though about how does a moderator differentiate between someone who is being a troll and someone who does not agree with the popular opinion.  Moderators can have a lot of power and if they wanted to could censor a lot of free speech in the forums.  I have not noticed this happening but was just an interesting thought.

This week I decided to take a look at the blogs and other videos that the followers of the site post.  I find this to be a very interesting aspect of the site.  Many people of this site want to express their opinions and to do it in an entertaining way.  Many of these members make their own video reviews on games, movies, shows, etc. and they range from serious reviews to funny reviews.  Even though most of the posts are videos there are still some that are written blogs.  I have learned that this site has a history of promoting from within, meaning that some times they choose on of their members to become a paid contributor for the site.  There is also a class of bloggers on this site who are very popular.  I find it interesting because even though they are not official site contributors and are not paid many of them have reached a level of celebrity.  This leads me once again to ask the question of do people on the Internet just want to be known?  Communities like this can give a sense of belonging and importance.  In the past someone who had most of their relationships online would be called a nerd or a loner but is this they way social groups are moving?  Are we getting closer and closer to a digital community and digital interactions becoming the normal kind of interaction?

            I have debated for a while and decided that I will post a blog post on the site.  I just want to see the kind of feedback I can get.  I will do a written blog and review a recent movie.  I will try to be humorous and see if I can get any readers and commenters. 

Into the Forums: And the Temple of Doom

My journey into the forums have been very fun and I have learned a lot about different things such as comics, tv, movies, books, etc.  I went back and looked to see what kind of comments I received to my post about what books to read.  I did not get as many responses as I wanted but I still got six responses.  All of the responses I received were very helpful and gave me some of their favorite book series and stated the positives and negatives about it.  I also had a few people just insert links to different lists of books.  Overall I am really pleased how helpful people were and willing to take the time to help me out. 

I am curious to why people are so helpful in the forums.  I do believe people can be helpful and just want to help others out of the kindness of their hearts but I am wondering if there is more to it.  Today social media seems to be about two things, one communicating and being art of a community.  Secondly it is about expressing one’s self, their life, their opinions, etc.  The online community does make some challenges in really getting to know other people.  This may be a reason behind the desire to share opinions, interests, likes, etc. with those online.  It helps give you a personality and an online presence that other people may relate to.  So I just am curious if there is also a motive behind their responses to share with others their options and likes and dislikes of books they have read. 

Another thing I noticed was that many people in the forums seemed to be more liberal then conservative.  In certain political threads many people did not speak well of republicans and spoke highly of Obama.  I wonder why most of the people on this site are liberal.  Is it based on the average age (guessing it is between 16-30) or the topics of the site. 

This week I posted a comment to get a little more negative responses.  I posted in a threaded discussion about one of the reviewers on the site and how annoying their voice is.  I posted a comment saying, “His voice is like nails on a chalkboard.  I do not even understand why he is popular on this site.  They should just get rid of him.”  We will see next week how the responses go.

Into the Forums

Last week I posted a comment hoping to get some negative reaction.  I had a few people either agree with me or disagree with me but many people just posted that I was a “troll” or was “trolling”.  This is true since trolling is when you purposely post something negative just to get a response.  Once again it seems that there are not moderators, unless this offense was not biggest enough to receive the attention from a moderator, and that the members of the site moderate the comment threads themselves.

This week I decided to jump further into the website and begin posting in the forums.  The forums are very interesting.  There are threads that discuss in more detail the videos that are posted on the site, music, movies, tv shows, everyday life, sports, and everything else.  As I explored the forums I found a community that is very friendly with each other.  There seems to be a group that always is posting.  This group looks like they have become friends.  There does seem to be a few people that are not liked by this core group.  It is also interesting to see that some of these people have had issues and history with each other before.  I find it very interesting that even though this site is virtual and many people only know each other by a screen name and a avatar picture, yet they can have drama, friendships, and inside jokes, just like any other physical community.    

I posted in the forum to see if I could get some friendly advice.  I asked a question asking about ideas on a book series to read.  I gave them a list of book series I have read, narrowed down the genre to fantasy or sci-fi, and gave some details on what I like.  I am hoping to receive some helpful advice and ideas.  I will report next week with what I get. 

Video Comments Part II: The Empire Strikes Back

Last week I posted a friendly comment on a video.  The video was about a World of Warcraft movie being made.  My comment simply stated that a World of Warcraft movie would be bad (which was also the opinion of the video) and then I asked what people thought would make a good movie.  I am disappointed in the results I received.  The comments were not what I hoped for.  I was hoping for a good discussion on what they could do to actually make a good World of Warcraft movie.  I got two comments on my comment which were constructive but the other eight comments stated things like, “They can make it better by not making it” or “No matter what they do they will $@&# it up”. 

As I reflect on the reason for this lack of constructive comments I begin to think about how often you here about how negative and mean spirited the people on the Internet can be.  I have always heard a reason for this can be anonymous that coincides with the Internet.  Yes, you have a screen name and an avatar but usually you do not have in person relationships with the people on the Internet.  I believe this is why people feel that they can curse, be negative, or at time mean spirited on what they post online.  They get to become a different person because no one knows who they really are.  If I compare how people post here to what I see on Facebook I see a big difference.  People on Facebook watch what they post more often.  They are friends, family members, or co-workers with the people they are friends with on Facebook.  On this site if you do not want to you never have to state who you ever are. 

This week I decided to join my fellow commenters and be a little more negative in my post.  One a review of the movie “The Avengers” I decided to post a comment say that I disagreed with the video poster and that I think “The Avengers” is a bad movie.  My comment I posted read, “Is this guy an idiot!?  The Avengers was horrible.  The cast was bad, the villain was lame, and Thor is a stupid super hero.”  I am hoping the get some good reaction comments on this post.  I will let you know next week what happens.

Video Comments

This week I really began to dive into the most basic part of the community.  This is the community that comments on the videos that are posted.  These comments are done very similar to those on YouTube.  There are strings of comments below each video.  Not only can you comment on the video but you can also comment on other member’s comments.  I also want to share that to comment on videos you have sign up and create a membership for the account.

Most of the comments on the videos either complement the maker of the video or giving them critical advice.  There are also many comments dedicated to furthering the discussion on the topic in the video.  For example one video I watched was about the new Aliens video game.  The reviewer did not give the game a good review.  The comments below discussed other strong and weak points to the game.  There are a few comments that will be rude or mean about something in the video, the reviewer, or another commenter. These people are attacked for being a “troll” and are ignored by the other members.  There is also a high trend of people to want to be the first one to comment on the video.  The first comment after most videos simply says “first”.  It seems that many members strive to be the first one to comment on the video.  I assume that they want this for two reasons.  One is to show their commitment to the site, the second is because the comments are put in order of posts so the first person will always be the first post, thus their name will be seen by everyone and may help is popularity in the community.  I also noted that there is a lot of cursing and sometimes crude language in the comments.  This may mean there are not monitored or that the site does not care.

I decided to make a simple comment after one of the videos hoping that I will get some replies to it.  The video was about video game movies and focused on the World of Warcraft movie that is in the works.  I commented “I think a World of Warcraft movie won’t be very good.  What would make the movie good?”  I am hoping that I will be able to get a few comments on this.  I will check back next week and I may even post a more controversial comment or may even try being a “troll” to see what kind of response I get.