Hello.
My name is Milan (like the city). I was born in Cleveland, OH, but I've been living out in the boonies for a while now. I'm a junior, age 20, majoring in psychology. I've been active in forums, blogs, and chat rooms since I was in junior high. I'd like to think the amount of time I used to spend online directly correlates with how little I had to do; rural Ohio is known for little else but unbelievably oppressive boredom. And corn.
I spend a lot of my free time writing or sketching, and that's only when I'm not reading. I prefer somewhat obscure science fiction and fantasy, but I'll read pretty much anything. I have a collection (read: hoard) of various campus publications about as tall as my desk, most of which I've at least skimmed. I've been on the staff of Rainy Day during previous semesters, and I'm considering joining again this year.
Most of my online activity centers around my primary interests. I post on various "communities" where members provide writing and/or sketch samples and trade constructive criticism. The owners work to maintain them as casual, non-confrontational environments where people feel comfortable pointing out flaws and inconsistencies in each others' work that they'd never be able to speak of in person. It's fun, low-maintenance, no-conflict.
A phenomenon I think is interesting is how these communities sometimes develop hierarchies and unspoken sets of social protocol, gradually becoming more and more insular to the point of xenophobia. The more established members form pseudo-factions and are openly hostile towards anyone who disrupts the system (which includes potential new members by default)Though these are asynchronous discussion forums by default, they end up displaying a lot of the characteristics of what Wallace referred to as "metaworlds;" this is particularly odd, because forums typically lack the graphical flair that one would assume necessary to hold a certain degree of attention. I would eventually like to understand how this process occurs.
I don't think Wallace could have anticipated the blurring of the lines between her "online spaces;" in her model, where would things like Facebook and Myspace fall? In that same vein, where and when does a discussion forum become more than that for its members?
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I think you bring up a really good point, especially regarding a "blurring of the lines." Part of the reason I think this happens is probably because we still use the Internet as a social tool, and so we try to make certain spaces as socially familiar as possible (whether it's by creating hierarchies or whatnot). I don't think that's much different with forums or other focused spaces online. People typically join because there's one defining thing that makes them a group, so it's not too out of line to think that this group will try to function as similarly as possible to how they would if they were like a campus club, for example.
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