October 11, 2002

As Cos is to Blogs, Plasmo is to Forums

Originally I joined forums for information of some sort. Gigs (thescene.com.au), music production (global underground), tech advice (ultrashock.com), buffy (buffistas.org), all topics I wanted to discuss.

Now I've become interested in the dynamics behind these communities. People from the same generation have such different approaches to the technology. Some people struggle to accept Internet forums as places where they are accountable for their behaviour. Many develop a sense of community with each other, and partnership with the owners of the board. Politics is never far from the surface, as issues of accountability and censorship arise.

If I ever do further study, I'd like to write about forum dynamics. Has anyone read any literature on this? Are there any forums you love? What makes a good forum to you?

posted on October 11, 2002 at 10:08 AM by vanessa.
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Web-based forums have never really been my kind of scene - they always seemed like a poor substitute for a decent mailing list / usenet group, though I accept that it's not quite that bad anymore.

As for the older styles of forums, at least, I've hung around a lot of them in my time - as I've gotten older and more boring I've found that I've pulled back from participating in them - maybe once in a while I'll occasionally answer a question if I'm 99% sure I know what I'm talking about, but random conjecture and such I save for my own website...

If you do an ego-search on my name, you'll find lots of list archives from the mid-90's that have me scattered through them, saying all sorts of useless crap.

posted on October 17, 2002 9:33 AM by cos.
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