There are a multitude of forums scattered across the internet. They were one of the first forms of easy communication online, and they are extremely versatile in what they can do. Facebook is technically a forum, as much as people aren’t aware. So are Twitter and its ilk. However, here I will be researching how language is used on forums, more specifically SpaceBattles, Reddit, and the Steam user forums.
No one on any of these forums is referred to by their real names. They are never revealed, and to fill in the gaps a username system is in place. Hence, all users will be called by their usernames, not their real, unknown, names.
Forums are not known for being completely eloquent or polite. “In the context of online forums, Hanna and de
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Technical support, gaming, creative writing and art, real world military discussion, they all came in to help categorise the ever increasing amount of threads that were being created all the time. Back then, most people’s internet connections were inefficient at best and just plain broken at worst, which meant that you had to choose your words carefully as you never knew when your message might actually go through.
Eventually things got into one big mess of one-upmanship in an incident only known as OBS: Oh Big Steve. Big Steve was a member in the early days who was quite a fan of Star Wars, as with many other members. In VS debates involving the Galactic Empire he would reliably bring out his favourite ship, the Eclipse class Super Star Destroyer, and then proceed to use it as proof that the empire would win the current fight, often with a hastily made, yet quite advanced for the time 3D render depicting the ship destroying the opponent. This behaviour continued before another user, Cool Guy, got fed up with it all and made a thread containing a single picture: a pair of Galaxy X class ships from Star Trek destroying Steve’s beloved Eclipse with single shots each. Steve quickly retaliated with a picture containing a massive fleet of Star Destroyers... which was pretty much instantly blown up in one shot by Cool Guy’s reply render. Things rapidly escalated from there, with truly inane amounts of ships being rendered and destroyed. More members got involved,
In the article, “The Concept of Discourse Community,” John Swales defines what a discourse community is, and yet, he strongly argues that a discourse community must meet six specific characteristics. A social group must have a set of common goals, methods of intercommunication between its members, feedback, the usage of genres, a determined lexis, and a rank that defines the level of expertise each member has.
The internet and the people on it can be very crucial. Social media allows people to express themselves in ways they feel can’t in the actual world. They express their feelings, their open to their own opinions, and so forth. However, the internet also consists of people who give unnecessary, mean, and hateful opinions to other people for reasons that no one truly understands. The podcast “Act One. Ask Not For Whom The Bell Trolls; It Trolls for Thee” by Lindsey West, is about a female who was constantly getting backlashed over the internet by whom she referred to as “trolls.” The internet is usually where people go to voice their opinions over what they feel is right or wrong; with Lindsey West, she had voiced her opinion and what she felt was wrong about male comedians using the rape term too often and using carelessly. A result of West voicing her opinion
Communicating in Forums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The use of rhetorical questions in Dyson’s essay effectively reveals how concerned she is regarding the different communities coming together and possibly interacting while online. In her second paragraph, The author questions rather the groups “can get along”(295) and mentions that the only thing that gets the public’s reaction is the speculation that children are fully accessing adult sites(295). Dyson seems to be very eager to expose the truth and in order to change her audience’s view of World Wide Web, she made a connection between cyberspace and real estate “Some property is privately owned and
In “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.” by Sherry Turkle a Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been studying the psychology of online connectivity for more than 30 years. For the past five years, she has been focusing on topics: What has happened to face‐ to‐face conversation in a world where so many people say they would rather text than talk, families, friendships and romance. She has also studied schools, universities and workplaces. Among this topics she has talked and provided studies on how we have become distant from “who we are.” She reports that we as a society have lost a lot of virtues as a society such as a lack of empathy for one another, solitude, and communication with one another. As the “digital world” continues to grow we as a society continue to grow with it and apart from one another. Sherry also emphasizes that we
Also, when I am browsing things online such as YouTube, I normally have the forums up. Although I am not online all the time but I still am very active on the forums.
Journalist, Clive Thompson in his book, “Smarter Than You Think”, specifically in the chapter titled, “Public Thinking”, published on September 12, 2013, addresses the topic of technology and argues that because of the internet, we are doing more writing now than ever. Therefore technology is helping us think publicly in new and improved ways. He supports this claim by asserting that there is an improvement in our writing, which is happening because of the “audience effect”, he then goes on to say that anything we write changes the way we think, and finally he talks about how the internet builds connections, which is essential to the spread of new ideas. Thompson’s purpose is to inform readers about how the internet is a tool being used to advance our society in order to encourage more people to partake in online, public thinking. He adopts a contemplative tone for his audience, the readers of The New York Times, and others interested in the topic of technology. It is my intention in this paper to analyze the author’s subclaims and use of rhetorical strategies.
John Swales defines the term discourse communities as "groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals" (Swales). A discourse community is defined by the following six characteristics: The community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, the community has mechanisms of intercommunication among their members, the community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback, the community utilizes and possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, the community also owns genres and has some acquired lexis that are specific to the community in terms of jargon, and the community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discourse expertise. In such communities, members often come as novices, and due to their high level of commitment to the community, they “leave by death or other less involuntary ways” (Swales, 27).
he uploaders name is William Wilkinson, it may be his real name but it probably isn't because no one really writes their real name as a public username.
We call the service users with that name what they prefer, all of them wants us to use their first name.
John Swales defines a discourse community as “a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field” (Swales, 215). He specifies a discourse community through academics; however, there are countless discourse communities worldwide that can be perceived. Swales also analyzes a speech community, and how a discourse community and speech community are two
In a twenty-four-hour day, internet users will have communicated online at least once whether it is writing to a classmate on a message board, posting pictures on Instagram, or responding to colleges via email. It is possible that a different username and identity are used for each of these online communications, each username constituting, in effect, a separate “personality.” These online personalities may be a part of one’s authentic self or a separate identity altogether. In The Times article, "Internet 'trolls' ignore social rules: Expert: Online disinhibition effect means many people feel invincible online," the anonymous author states, “This is your brain in cyberspace: while in warp-speed from forum to
Most people are uptight about the likes and comments they receive on social media websites, Carr formally proclaims. All of the popular websites use this method to receive more people active on them. Doing this urges people to share personal details about their life. “...people share four times as much information about themselves when they converse through computers as when they talk in person” (Carr 3). It is not necessary for people to share an extreme amount of details about their lives, but they still do.
For the past week, I've combed through the pages of Reddit and delved deep into the community of one of the internet's most popular website. It is not unusual for me to waste away hours on Reddit on any given week, but this time it was different. Having read "The Concept of Discourse Community" by John Swales, a professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan, I spent my time on the website paying close attention to the nuances of this online community. While doing this, I took some notes, which I will now use to test whether Reddit, as an online community, meets the criteria for a discourse community. Before I get into that, I will go over what exactly is Reddit or a discourse community.
In the article “How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet,” by Joel Stein, Stein asserts that Internet culture has changed, and not in a respectable way. At one point in time, the Internet was a friendly place that was focused on information being available for everyone. Now, it’s a cold, unwelcoming place to those who seek out personal help. People often harass others whenever they seek out assistance that isn 't fact-based.