Essay on Internet Subculture

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Banjooie
 
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Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Banjooie » Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:29 am

For various reasons, I am writing an essay on the psychology of the internet subculture. It's due in two months. Thus, I want to see if I'm doing any good at it.


Here's what I have so far.


---------

'Message Boards' are electronic bulletin boards where users can leave messages to each other, and ask questions. This becomes a specific subsect of the internet subculture when 'regulars', or frequent users, develop. Once these 'regulars' develop, the forum becomes a society unto itself. This society consists of the Administration, whom run the forum and protect it from negative outside influences, the Regulars, whom are those who return to the forum on a regular basis, the Newbies, whom are the newcomers to the forum, and the Outcasts, the variety of 'deviant' forum personalities that develop.

        The Administration consists, taking a 'Universal Bulletin Board' (A specific type of pre-coded message board) to be the average message board, of one person, the 'admin' at the top of the hierarchal pyramid, and the Moderators. The admin is equitable with the president of a country, in that their purposes are to ensure the continued prosperity of the country or forum they are responsible for. Underneath the administration directly are the 'moderators', the message board equivalent of police. The Moderator's purpose is to edit, delete, or otherwise affect the contributions and posts of the users as to ensure that the peace is not disturbed. Often, each Moderator has a specific sub-forum, or to return to the previous real-world metaphor, 'district', to take care of. This, generally, has the effect of ensuring that a 'mod', for short, does not attempt to claim the same power as the administration. Of course, certain message boards have subfora which are obviously less popular than others. Occasionally, this can lead to difficulties, as one's status as a moderator is proportional to the size of the forum that moderator controls.

        In offline society, one finds a natural scale of importance. Those whom are doctors or lawyers are generally regarded higher on the societal scale than the plumber and electrician. However, whereas income is what most professions are ranked by, information is the currency of choice for the internet. However, information in and of itself on the internet is worthless. One can have all the information in the world, but it is only worthwhile in terms of internet status if the information is shared freely. And so we find the third level of message board tribe members, the Regulars. Since they have no actual power, the ranking of Regulars is decided by
whom is most entertaining or informative. Generally, members whom can type quickly and accurately rise to the top of forum hierarchies quickly. Regulars, therefore, are ranked by whom can share the best information the fastest.

        Below the regulars, one finds the newcomers, or Newbies. This group consists of those whom have either recently joined the forum, and have yet to take their place with the regulars, or whom have found themselves out of favor, and referred to, in a more negative sense, as a 'n00b'. While a newbie is regarded as welcome in most forums, a failure to adapt to the specific climate of the message board creates an immediate backlash, as the natural order is being disrupted. Therefore, the 'n00b' is delegated to the bottom of the forum scrap heap, with little or no chance of rank recovery.



--------------------------

Essentially, I'm going to go into forums, online games, and AIM chats. Comment. Be harsh.

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=banjooie>Banjooie</A]&nbsp; Image at: 10/21/03 12:35 am

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Shinigori V2
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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Shinigori V2 » Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:37 am

This essay lacks Shini.


Other than that, it's good. <p>

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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:37 am

Image

Subset of internet culture. It's not a religion.

"...the Administration, who run..." --also, consider decapitalizing "administration" and instead putting it in quotation marks

"...the Regulars, who are..." Same story here.

as well as "Newbies, who are..." yada yada.

Also, the word is spelled "hierarchical."

Consider separating the explanatory bit about UBB with doubledashes ('--') instead of commas, for clarity's sake.

For correctness's sake, an admin is not equitable to a president, as the forumgoers have no vote. Analogous, yes. Comparable, yes. But they're more equal to benevolent absolute monarchs.

"...that a 'mod,' for short..." The comma goes within the quotation marks. Same with 'district' and 'moderators' within the same paragraph.

Check with your teacher/professor/authority figure on the acceptability of the word 'subfora.' Some prefer the English-generalized 'subforums' to the purer Latin derivative.

"Those who are doctors or lawyers..." Stop using the objective case, dammit.

"However, whereas income is what most professions are ranked by, information..." You end the clause with a preposition. Bad Jooie. Consider something more like "However, whereas income is the index by which most professions are ranked..."

"Generally, members who can type quickly..."

A pronunciation note on 'n00b' may be necessary. Alternatively, consider using the non-l337 version, 'noob.'



Now that the grammar is out of the way, content. My rational mind immediately points out a lot of incompletenesses--forum rank also depends on relevance, for example. This may not be necessary for your purposes, but it does stick out in my mind as a slight logical hiccup. I would also mention that there is, in fact, a possibility for a 'newcomer' to become a 'regular.'

More later, when I am more awake. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby WhiteShadow » Tue Oct 21, 2003 6:59 am

Aside from lacking a bit of ranting against the elitism that leads to noob backlash (in other forums, of course) it's a nice, succinct piece. Interesting reading. <p>-----------------------------------------------------
First, we battle.
Then - we dance!</p>

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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:47 am

Good heavens! I did not know such a thing could exist in this day and age!

Nice work, Banj :D


PopoSujo
 

Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby PopoSujo » Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:36 pm

I like it, nice work.

As whoever that was stated, make sure that you put something in about the upward (and downward) social mobility of the forumgoers (i.e. a Regular losing popularity and going into the deviant caste or a n00b rising to the position of Regular or even Mod). <p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Rube
 

Ahem.

Unread postby Rube » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:19 pm

And where, pray tell, is the section on trolling?


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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby pd Rydia » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:43 pm

I like it overall, but it seems a little incomplete. I'm betting you could go into a lot more detail if you so desired.

Particularly, you could go into more detail (add a paragraph or two) about what type of deviance causes newbies (or regulars) to be outcasted and/or moderated -- such as failure to conform to forum standards, trolling, gross acts of stupidity, etc. <p>
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Animala
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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Animala » Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:44 pm

And now I correct Priam's corrections!

Disclaimer: Counter-nazing is a despicable, despicable practice. I am only doing this for three reasons.
1) Priam's editting was very thorough, so I generally only have problems with things he already noted
2) Priam's corrections are occasionally suboptimal
3) There's no reason he should get to have all the base, base bastardly fun.

"...the Administration, who run..."

Good show on the subject/object issue, but "who" is incorrect in the current usage, because "the Administration" is not a person, and "run" is incorrect because "administration" is a singular noun.

Both these issues can be eliminated by replacing "the Administration" with "the Administrators," which also increases the parallelism with the following sentences. ("Administrators" follows the "Regulars," "Newbies," "Outsiders" pattern more closely)

-------

"For correctness's sake, an admin is not equitable to a president, as the forumgoers have no vote. Analogous, yes. Comparable, yes. But they're more equal to benevolent absolute monarchs."

Right answer, wrong reasoning. Your reasoning is a wonderful argument against the use of the world "equivalent" (and, in fact, a good argument for scrapping the comparison altogether), but the real problem is that "equitable" means "fair or just."

-------

"'...that a "mod," for short...' The comma goes within the quotation marks. Same with 'district' and 'moderators' within the same paragraph."

Actually, all those things are perfectly acceptable British usage. And since Banj is a kooky Canadian, that may well be what his teachers are used to. (PREPOSITION AT END OF SENTENCE. GO TO HIGH ALERT. SEAL ALL SUBFORA. DO NOT PERMIT THE PERPETRATOR TO ESCAPE.)

-------

"'However, whereas income is what most professions are ranked by, information...' You end the clause with a preposition. Bad Jooie. Consider something more like 'However, whereas income is the index by which most professions are ranked...'"

The clause is incorrect because it is awkward, not because it ends in a preposition. Priam's replacement is slightly less awkward, but still unwieldly. Furthermore, both "however" and "whereas" express contradiction, so "however" can be safely removed.

Try "Whereas most professions are ranked by income,..."

------

I think you slightly exaggerate the plight of the newbie, and Priam's suggestion about noting the advancement potential is wise. Also, n00bism is more about failure to fit in than lack of experience. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that a newbie is an Outsider who is given special consideration due to his lack of experience. Note that this does not imply better treatment...

While it might be worthwhile to include some stuff about how easy it is to change identities and the effect this has on forums, that might be beyond the scope of your paper.

Good job, for the most part.

-White Knight <p>

Image
Behold! Sig figs!</p>Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=whiteknightdelta>White]&nbsp; Image at: 10/21/03 7:47 pm

PopoSujo
 

Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby PopoSujo » Tue Oct 21, 2003 8:01 pm

And now I shall counter the counter-nazi!

Quote:
Both these issues can be eliminated by replacing...


There should be an of between Both and these. Now I feel smart ^_^ <p>


The Media is an organization in the same sense that Ohio is a team. -PriamNevhausten</p>

Uncle Pervy
 

Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Uncle Pervy » Tue Oct 21, 2003 8:05 pm

I'm fairly certain Banj has more up his sleeve; as an answer to the incompleteness complaints. <p>------------------
Greetings, large black person. Let us not forget to form a team up together and go into the country to inflict the pain of our karate feets on some ass of the giant lizard person.
</p>

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Animala
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Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Animala » Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:05 pm

I am ashamed.

-White Knight <p>

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PopoSujo
 

Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby PopoSujo » Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:07 pm

Not only have you failed yourself, you've failed me Image

Now go to your room. <p>


The Media is an organization in the same sense that Ohio is a team. -PriamNevhausten</p>

Ajil6
 

Re: Essay on Internet Subculture

Unread postby Ajil6 » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:04 pm

You forgot the part about furres. Damn marrow-stealers.


Banjooie
 
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.

Unread postby Banjooie » Thu Oct 23, 2003 5:53 pm

Ajil, they're mentioned in the intro under 'sexual deviances which are not within the scope of this paper'.


Because it would be horrible otherwise.


PopoSujo
 

Re: .

Unread postby PopoSujo » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:41 pm

How long is this thing gonna be? <p>


The Media is an organization in the same sense that Ohio is a team. -PriamNevhausten</p>


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