Research Project

[theresearchtrek]

Hi, I'm a student and I'm writing a research project on forums and I think this is an awesome one! I need to interview/ask questions to people who use forums and message boards. I would really appreciate it if anyone would be willing to answer some of my questions!! Thank you SO much.

Live long and prosper


a) How long (e.g. how many years) has the person used the site? How often does s/he access it (e.g. multiple times a day? weekly? etc.)?
b) Who does s/he interact with on that site? (Who are the individuals, groups, organizations found within that site?)
c) How does s/he use the site?
d) What are his/her main reasons for using the site?
e) Are the interactions within this site meaningful to him/her? How so?
f) Do these interactions differ from face-to-face or other forms of mediated communication? If so, in what ways? How significant are these differences?

[gturner]

a) How long (e.g. how many years) has the person used the site? How often does s/he access it (e.g. multiple times a day? weekly? etc.)?

I've been here for many years, and comment several times a day. Nobody can explain why.

b) Who does s/he interact with on that site? (Who are the individuals, groups, organizations found within that site?)

Star Trek fans, pretty much like the geeks on "Big Bang Theory" but without the hot neighbor, interesting plots, and cutting wit.

c) How does s/he use the site?

By posting long comments signifying nothing in meaningless threads about a fictional show that didn't have much of a point to begin with.

d) What are his/her main reasons for using the site?

To drain my life of what little meaning it could possibly have possessed.

e) Are the interactions within this site meaningful to him/her? How so?

Sadly, yes.

f) Do these interactions differ from face-to-face or other forms of mediated communication? If so, in what ways? How significant are these differences?

Most Trek fans won't leave their mother's basement, making face-to-face communications rare, if not impossible. Also, most don't possess faces we'd want to look at, due to the acne, horn-rimmed glasses, bad haircuts, and whatnot.

But let me help a little more.

"Conclusion: The geeks who sat in the corner of the college cafeteria decades ago - hotly debating a plot hole in episode 54 where Data's positronic brain is affected by tachyon radiation, well, they're still debating it, but now at home in pajamas, surrounded by pizza boxes."

I love surveys like this, giving me the chance to make my life a little bit more meaningless while realizing that the only thing worse would be documenting that meaninglessness for a school research project.

Let's see if anyone can top that one.

[theresearchtrek]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer! I think it's awesome what you do!

[theresearchtrek]

rude.

[gturner]

Rude, but not vicious, unlike the debates we have about trivial science-fiction plots and everything else.

Or you could just note that forums are places where people go to show that other people there are misguided and wrong, if not stupid and downright evil.

[Robert Maxwell]

Well, I think we are done here.