Aside from my nervous rambling, the following is basically the full text of my presentation in class, yesterday. If you have questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms...feel free to post them! Thanks!
1. /b/ seems a realm almost entirely devoted to the playful; very little here should ever be taken seriously, even when it seems venemous in nature (i.e. "die in a fire"). Aside from merely sharing images that are pornographic, disturbing, or both, they play games with each other as well (such as Boxxy, or instances where a picture of a young woman is posted, and other posters are challenged, "If you fall in love, you lose"). The rare instances of harmful intent come when someone becomes angry (or bored) enough to hack someone's identity, a process they call being "doxed." The person who gets doxed is then subject to harassment or worse by those who come across the posted personal information. Sometimes, it's a form of vigilante justice (as with the teenager Kenny Glenn, who tortured his cat); sometimes, they get the wrong person (such as John Lawson).
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/anonymous-hac-1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIsKqhn6TVs
2. WWP, while devoted to the very serious task of protesting the Church of Scientology, has a playful side, and its roots in /b/ are evident in the way they converse; this place has playful elements as well.
3. Either site is subject to constant change; what is funny one day is old news the next. As one person in WWP told me, if I'm going to study them, I need to be on the ball - things change a lot, sometimes daily.
4. Despite being playful, even in its venom, there are those within /b/ who do occasionally reach out to others, and receive seemingly serious replies with helpful intent. We see this in cases such as the one I posted, where the young man was seeking help with his relationship, and threatening suicide. There were many who seemed to genuinely want to help him pull himself together, even though there were a few who expressed their disinterest in a seemingly venomous way; I would speculate that there was no actual ill-will intended, but rather, these posts expressed the notion, "I'm unwilling to take this or anything else seriously."
5. Despite being the "friendlier" of the two places, WWP is often subject to flaming when a difference of opinion occurs; I have seen on several occasions rather heated discussions, and yet, ultimately, I believe very little of it was taken seriously, even when one or more participant in the "argument" was kicked from the channel.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Update of My Research and Presentation summary
I've been spending a lot of time in /b/, and more and more lately at WWP (Why We Protest). I've taken a look at a couple of other places, like SomethingAwful and a few of the other forums on 4chan, but so far, it is these two that I've concentrated my efforts on, as I believe, in some way, these two facets of Anonymous form a sort of binary opposition representative of what Anonymous is, and all other sites seem, thus far, to mimic the behaviors of one or the other to varying degrees(i.e. some are playful and sometimes venomous for the sake of being so, while others are more focused on activism and the common good).
When I visited Why We Protest on Friday, March 6, 2009, after having lurked in their IRC chat a few times before, simply observing, I asked their permission to learn about Anonymous from them. The responses were both playful and earnest, and as I suspected, I am far from the first to approach them with such a request (and one regular visitor to the channel had already written a sociology paper on Anonymous, which she sent to me). I have been invited to ask as many questions as I like, and I was given some friendly (and some facetious) advice on what to do at a parade (one "helpful" suggestion was to flash the male protesters, as it would make them much more inclined to be friendly). I was also adamantly told in a private chat by one person not to tell people I'm female, as I'd have to work much harder to get them to take me seriously. I'm not certain how this would fit within the boundaries of our ethics, but this is definitely going to require some serious thought. I also posted a link to our netvibes hub so they could watch our work, should they choose to do so. A few appeared to be as interested in us as we are in them.
So, thus far, I've discovered a few key things:
1. /b/ seems a realm almost entirely devoted to the playful; very little here should ever be taken seriously, even when it seems venemous in nature (i.e. "die in a fire").
2. WWP, while devoted to the very serious task of protesting the Church of Scientology, has a playful side, and its roots in /b/ are evident in the way they converse; this place has playful elements as well.
3. Either site is subject to constant change; what is funny one day is old news the next. As one person in WWP told me, if I'm going to study them, I need to be on the ball - things change a lot, sometimes daily.
4. Despite being playful, even in its venom, there are those within /b/ who do occasionally reach out to others, and receive seemingly serious replies with helpful intent.
5. Despite being the "friendlier" of the two places, WWP is often subject to flaming when a difference of opinion occurs; I have seen on several occasions rather heated discussions, and yet, ultimately, I believe very little of it was taken seriously, even when one or more participant in the "argument" was kicked from the channel.
When I visited Why We Protest on Friday, March 6, 2009, after having lurked in their IRC chat a few times before, simply observing, I asked their permission to learn about Anonymous from them. The responses were both playful and earnest, and as I suspected, I am far from the first to approach them with such a request (and one regular visitor to the channel had already written a sociology paper on Anonymous, which she sent to me). I have been invited to ask as many questions as I like, and I was given some friendly (and some facetious) advice on what to do at a parade (one "helpful" suggestion was to flash the male protesters, as it would make them much more inclined to be friendly). I was also adamantly told in a private chat by one person not to tell people I'm female, as I'd have to work much harder to get them to take me seriously. I'm not certain how this would fit within the boundaries of our ethics, but this is definitely going to require some serious thought. I also posted a link to our netvibes hub so they could watch our work, should they choose to do so. A few appeared to be as interested in us as we are in them.
So, thus far, I've discovered a few key things:
1. /b/ seems a realm almost entirely devoted to the playful; very little here should ever be taken seriously, even when it seems venemous in nature (i.e. "die in a fire").
2. WWP, while devoted to the very serious task of protesting the Church of Scientology, has a playful side, and its roots in /b/ are evident in the way they converse; this place has playful elements as well.
3. Either site is subject to constant change; what is funny one day is old news the next. As one person in WWP told me, if I'm going to study them, I need to be on the ball - things change a lot, sometimes daily.
4. Despite being playful, even in its venom, there are those within /b/ who do occasionally reach out to others, and receive seemingly serious replies with helpful intent.
5. Despite being the "friendlier" of the two places, WWP is often subject to flaming when a difference of opinion occurs; I have seen on several occasions rather heated discussions, and yet, ultimately, I believe very little of it was taken seriously, even when one or more participant in the "argument" was kicked from the channel.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Proposed Field Methods
For the research I detailed in the previous post, I propose the following methods for engaging my research subjects:
Though I am using the pseudonym Femina Incognita to lurk in the places in which they are found, when I approach them, I will fully disclose my name and purpose, and direct them to the Netvibes hub that details our work; I will also explain to them my own part in our documentary.
I will wear a mask at all protests I attend, as this is their practice and I wish to participate in the same manner that they do; however, should any member of Anonymous feel more comfortable if they could see my face, I will do my best to accomodate them in any manner that does not compromise my own immediate personal safety.
I will only take video and photographs after I have obtained permission from the subjects in question, and only if they remain masked. If anything happens in the course of my research that might compromise their identity, any footage or photographs will be altered as to make them unidentifiable (i.e. if someone's mask is forcibly removed, I will blur their face in the footage or photo).
Though /b/ is on a publicly viewed site, and thus their posts can be referenced in my final report without fear of legal or ethical issue, private conversations held via messenger or PM in an IRC channel are not, and as such will only be included in the data made public if a pseudonym is used and permission given, and if no identifiable data is present.
Though I am using the pseudonym Femina Incognita to lurk in the places in which they are found, when I approach them, I will fully disclose my name and purpose, and direct them to the Netvibes hub that details our work; I will also explain to them my own part in our documentary.
I will wear a mask at all protests I attend, as this is their practice and I wish to participate in the same manner that they do; however, should any member of Anonymous feel more comfortable if they could see my face, I will do my best to accomodate them in any manner that does not compromise my own immediate personal safety.
I will only take video and photographs after I have obtained permission from the subjects in question, and only if they remain masked. If anything happens in the course of my research that might compromise their identity, any footage or photographs will be altered as to make them unidentifiable (i.e. if someone's mask is forcibly removed, I will blur their face in the footage or photo).
Though /b/ is on a publicly viewed site, and thus their posts can be referenced in my final report without fear of legal or ethical issue, private conversations held via messenger or PM in an IRC channel are not, and as such will only be included in the data made public if a pseudonym is used and permission given, and if no identifiable data is present.
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