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.