Essay 2 The early Internet

September 15th, 2008, 4:45 p.m.: “If McCain should actually (God forbid) win in November, I will be convinced that America's elections are a fraud. Of course, Bush has already given us plenty of reasons to believe we're no longer living in a democracy.” The topic is politics, a very intriguing and hot topic for Usenet groups. Anytime you talk politics, there’s always an interest, especially with this being a presidential election year. One could easily assume that this Usenet group is filled with active conversations and relevant topics. So the topic: John McCain, the place: alt.sports.baseball.ny-yankees, does anything seem wrong with that? The Usenet group that I have been observing is one dedicated to the New York Yankees, a major league baseball team, yet one consistent pattern that I have noticed is the constant discussion of politics. Are people not aware of where they are, or are they simply not considerate enough to obey the culture of the community and follow the topic of the group they are in? Usenet groups are communities and in all communities there is a certain culture, certain rules that should be followed.

Usenet is, according to Kollock and Smith (1996), “…one of the largest computer-mediated communication systems in existence.”(p.111). I used Google groups to locate the particular Usenet group that I observed. Kollock and Smith (1996) mention that “No central authority manages the Usenet…” (p.111), which could be part of the problem that I noticed when studying the group. In a group clearly dedicated to baseball, there is no stopping people that want to write about any other topics. Kollock and Smith (1996) state that “…name is one of its most effective means of defining a boundary: by announcing its contents, it attracts the interested and repels the disinterested...” (p.120), with that said, people who enter the community and talk about other topics are violating standards of the group. People who come to the group to talk about the Yankees displayed their frustrations with the others. In a comment made by the member Holey Moley posted on September 21st, “Without reading all of the posts I thought this was a group dedicated to Yankees baseball. Ya know?? Ny-yankees? Well, you fooled me. Maybe if I look up "politics" we can discuss baseball. Ya think?? Maybe??”. In order for Usenet groups to be enjoyed by all, there is a necessity for all group members to work together and obey the unwritten rules. There are plenty of groups dedicated solely to political talk where these rebels can have their words and opinions heard by others who share the desire to speak about the same topic.

Another observation that I took note of from the Yankees group was the issue of freedom of speech. People are allowed to say whatever they want in the group, as we know there is no one authority to moderate the conversations. However, people are subject to the harsh and cruel comments of others. People use the Usenet group to say things that in my opinion that they wouldn’t say in a face to face interaction. Similar to the idea of playing with gender, as discussed by Danet (1998), “…the typed text provides the mask.” (p.129). People have the ability to make handles that conceal their identity. Danet says that people in cyberspace use the fact that no one knows who they really are to act differently. Perhaps a woman in a room dominated by men uses a handle that can be considered masculine, though who is to say what’s feminine and what’s masculine, to be taken more seriously. In my opinion, people in the Yankee group use text as a mask, not necessarily to conceal their gender, but to be rude and blunt. No one knows there true identity, so they take the opportunity to attack others, speak inappropriately and make offensive remarks. For example, Holey Moley, a user that I paid close attention to, expressed his or her pride in having freedom in America, as she or he was reminded by the traditional singing of God Bless America, in the 7th inning of the Yankee game. He or she was attacked by another user, one who often had something negative to say about everything. Rmjon23 responded to holey moley’s comment by saying “Yea, except you are FORCED to be patriotic in Steinbrenner Land (Yankee Stadium)…F**K "God Bless America" <---I'm free to say that too, right, dickwad?”. Although I am sure they are out there, I don’t think that too many people would have the audacity to curse America, the country that we live freely in, to another’s face, and then call them a highly inappropriate name. Holey Moley was simply expressing his or her pride, and that’s what the forum is for, saying your mind, with regards to the topic. I guess one could argue that Rmjon23 was also expressing his or her opinion; however there is no need for such language.

In order for Usenet groups to be successful, people need to realize that being a member of the group is similar to being a member of a community. They should know to treat others as they would treat their neighbors. They should know to respect the wishes of others and keep the conversation relevant to the topic of the group. Many groups do not have these “rules” written out, but I think they are common courtesy and should be considered common knowledge.

Bibliography
Danet, Brenda. (1998). Text as mask: Gender, play, and performance on the Internet. In Steven G. Jones (Ed.), Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting computer-mediated communication and community (pp.129-158). Thousand Oaks, NJ:Sage.
Kollock, Peter & Smith, Marc. (1996). Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in the computer communities. In Susan C. Herring (Ed.), Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 109-128). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.