Subject:
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Musings on the social nature of LUGnet groups (was Re: 6085 Black Monarch's Castle compared with 6091 King Leo's Castle)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 1 Oct 2001 22:35:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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672 times
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> I've kind of noticed this trend over the last 6-12 months, and I'm not • sure
> if I'm alarmed by it or not... More and more I'll find very interesting
> posts in the lugnet.loc.* and lugnet.org.* groups that really "belong" (or • I
> should say "would fit") in other lugnet groups (like general, build,
> reviews, etc, etc).
> Has Lugnet's (or the online Lego community's?) population grown to such a
> point as to make particular groups overcrowded? At what point do people • feel
> like they're no longer in a "nice little community of friends" and think
> they're in a "big community of alike strangers"?
Putting on my professional hat for a moment ...
I did a little bit of research at work a few years ago about "communities
and the Internet", mostly based on newsgroups (not LUGnet incidentally), but
I think it's equally applicable to mailing lists and WWW forums and, of
course, LUGnet. The conclusions (as such) were more-or-less that some
newsgroups (Internet forums) are just places for interchange of information
on shared interests ("big community of alike strangers" as you nicely
characterise), while others are "nice little community of friends", while
others are frankly war zones.
You can easily spot the "community of friends" by the high levels of "chit
chat" (friendly humorous somewhat off-topic) taking place. There are some
characteristics that they seem to have in common. There needs to be a common
or shared interest, which brings them together in the first place. However,
it must not be a topic which has some divisive issue which will fracture the
group into arguments. E.g. abortion is a highly divisive issue. Even the
distinction between freshwater and saltwater aquariums can fracture a group
(true!). A "community of friends" tends to be relatively small (not 1000s of
people), or at least the set of regular posters is relatively small. This is
necessary because the people have to remember one another, know their likes
and dislikes etc. Another important factor is the absence of "irritants".
Communities tend to wither and die if their interactions are constantly
frustrated by someone (who is usually perceived to be "outside" the
community). This can be caused by spam, off-topic postings, trolling etc.
Again, the larger the group, the greater the chances of an irritant becoming
present. High levels of discussion of such topics as the group's charter,
the appropriateness of certain postings etc is generally a sign of a
community being threatened by an irritant as procedural means are being
explored to expel the irritant.
So, the .org and .loc groups at LUGnet tend to have those "community of
friends" characteristics more than the thematic groups, but clearly some
thematic groups still do have a "community of friends" character (I suspect
the size of the group is probably the most significant issue here). Lego is
not a particularly divisive issue, and regional Lego even less so. Being
regional, there is also the likelihood that the people involved may have met
in real-life, increasing the natural bonding among them.
Information interchange forums are places that people tend to drop in and
out of, according to their needs. They come primarly for information, not
for social interaction. The .market groups at LUGnet are good examples of
these.
We don't see a lot of warzones or a lot of continuing irritants on LUGnet.
This is very much linked IMHO to the fact that (again) Lego isn't naturally
divisive and because LUGnet is a private server with a track record of
banning people engaging in those kinds of behaviours. 10 out of 10 to Todd
and Suzanne!
> Several times in fact I've responded (in one way or another) and people • have
> been rather suprised that their message was read by someone outside of • their
> area/org.
I must confess to having been surprised myself at the number on non-AU
people who reply to posts in .loc.au. However, this is a reflection of the
way in which individuals interact with LUGnet. I am a newsgroup reader by
preference, and so I use the NNTP interface to LUGnet for the discussion
groups. This means I rarely see postings in other groups other than the ones
to which I am subscribed. Therefore, I assumed (incorrectly) that the non-AU
people were actually subscribed to and regularly reading the .loc.au group,
and this didn't make a lot of sense to me. However, people who primarily
interface through the WWW are more likely to be exposed to postings in other
groups, and hence participate in discussions in groups outside of their
"regular" forums. Since .loc.au is a fairly busy group, it is not uncommon
for a .loc.au message to appear in the "recently posted messages" on the WWW
site and hence attract replies from non-Australians. So, having realised how
it happens, I have ceased to be surprised by it. I expect the people who
register surprise are probably those interfacing by mail or news, which
tends to make them think in terms of "being subscribed" to a group.
Kerry
--
============
Kerry Raymond
kerry@dstc.edu.au
Proud to be LUGNET Member 599
www.lugnet.com/people/members/?m=599
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