One member of the community sends another–a soldier in Iraq–care packages.\u00a0 Another meets his wife through a community member.\u00a0 A group of members gives a high school graduation gift of $500 to a younger member of the community.\u00a0 These community events did not happen in a work place, neighborhood, or church.\u00a0 The aforementioned community doesn\u2019t meet in a building.\u00a0 Instead, they meet virtually on an online message board, Billikens.com.<\/p>\n
The users of the Billikens.com Message Board, also referred to as Billikens.com, came together through a common interest in a basketball team.\u00a0 Some would argue that this common interest alone makes the users a community.\u00a0 Lee Komito of the University College of Dublin, Ireland believes, \u201cIf a group of people share a common value\u2026, they constitute a community.\u201d (Komito)<\/span> This is one of the numerous definitions of community.\u00a0 Billikens.com\u2019s community consists of more than the discussion of a common interest.\u00a0 Members for more than 9 years have learned more about one another through the discussion, and the community slowly developed and grew from an online community into a real community. <\/span> The important part of the community is what was created during this development, relationships.<\/p>\n Many people believe that real relationships cannot form or develop via modem.\u00a0 Mathias Muller in his contribution to the essay \u201cOnline Communities\u201d states that in communities \u201cYou have to keep human relationships [sic] but you cannot do this via the Internet.\u201d (Muller, et al.) Billikens.com proves Muller incorrect because relationships between humans have been created and kept alive primarily through an online forum.\u00a0 Paul van Sluombrack of the Christian Science Moniter<\/em> also disagrees with Muller.\u00a0 He believes that relationships can develop on the Internet.\u00a0 (Sluombrack)\u00a0 In some cases, the digital community\u2019s users bond and develop relationships, and it is those bonds that hold the community together as much as, if not more than the common interest.<\/p>\n Since all of the evolution and development primarily happens online, it is consistent with Ray Oldenburg\u2019s beliefs about communities.\u00a0 Oldenburg, as summarized by Howard Rheingold, believes:<\/p>\n \u201cthere are three essential places in people’s lives: the place we live, the place we work, and the place we gather for conviviality. Although the casual conversation that takes place in cafes, beauty shops, pubs, and town squares is universally considered to be trivial, idle talk, Oldenburg makes the case that such places are where communities can come into being and continue to hold together.\u201d (Rheingold)<\/span><\/p>\n The online forum on Billikens.com is a place where people gather for conviviality.\u00a0 This virtual location takes the place of a beauty shop or pub for the users of the community. \u00a0One community member, billiken_roy<\/em>, stated, \u201cit [Billikens.com] is like the old time neighborhood bar. we [the users] all gather to swap stories, boasts, rumors, etc about our favorite subject the Billikens [the Saint Louis University Men\u2019s Basketball team].\u201d (<\/span>Rogers<\/span> Survey) This belief is not just billiken_roy<\/em>\u2019s.\u00a0 Many users share his sentiment. (<\/span>Rogers<\/span> Survey)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Billikens.com is a real community because of its users.\u00a0 They were brought together through their common interest, and through it relationships developed.\u00a0 This development was how the bar-like atmosphere formed.\u00a0 \u00a0The bar-like atmosphere reaffirms Billikens.com\u2019s status as a community by the definition of Oldenburg because it satisfies his \u201cplace where we gather for conviviality<\/span>\u201d (Rheingold).\u00a0 This atmosphere can be used to justify more than just Oldenburg\u2019s definition, which is not the only definition of what constitutes a community.<\/p>\n Komito\u2019s and Oldenburg\u2019s definitions disagree; where one focuses on a community interest and the other on a third place in people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 They are not the only two conflicting opinions on the subject.\u00a0 There are numerous differing opinions on what constitutes a community.\u00a0 This paper proposes a definition of community primarily offered by Billikens.com user davidnark<\/em>.\u00a0 He <\/em>stated, in describing how Billikens.com was a real community, \u201c<\/span>Like any community, we have basic rules, formal and informal allegiances and loyalties, leaders and followers, and great discussions.\u00a0 We also know each others’ personalities, opinions, and habits.\u201d (Narkiewicz)\u00a0 These things are all aspects of a real community, and they would not exist without relationships, which in this paper are considered to be the foundation of what a real community is built upon.<\/p>\n Author as Research Subject<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I, Steve Rogers, have been an extremely active participant in the Billikens.com Message Board and its predecessor for more than eight years, and I have been the owner and operator of the message board for more than two years.\u00a0 Those positions have given me the ability to ban users, delete posts, and act as an authority over the board.\u00a0 Because of these responsibilities, there are few who are more involved in this message board than me.\u00a0 My heavy involvement caused multiple problems when researching this paper.\u00a0 First, my experience in the subject matter makes me believe that I am more knowledgeable than many of the other people who write about online communities.\u00a0 Therefore, in my research, I have been resistant to believing many opinions that differ from my own, and I had much resistance and difficulty being academically objective.\u00a0 It was not easy to apply scholarly third parties to something that I knew and cared so much about.\u00a0 In my research I made an honest effort to overcome my resistance and biases, and to let my findings speak for themselves.<\/p>\n Users as Research Subject<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n There are studies that examine online communities from a \u201cfly on the wall\u201d perspective and simply report the numbers.\u00a0 One example of this is the report presented on online communities by the Pew Internet Report. (Pew) Studies like these are more quantitative and have merit, but I believe qualitative studies are equally important.\u00a0 There is more to online communities than what can be plugged into a calculator.\u00a0 To analyze the qualitative component of the Billikens.com online community, an informal survey was created.\u00a0 Through a post on the message board, users were asked to complete the survey: 141 users responded and answered up to 20 multiple choice and free response questions. \u00a0(Rogers Survey) The quotes used in this paper are verbetum except for what is in brackets, which is for the purpose of clarity.<\/p>\n There were some questions that only individual users needed to address.\u00a0 Therefore three users, davidnark<\/em>, Triangle and Too<\/em>, and billiken_roy<\/em> were asked by e-mail to respond to specific questions.\u00a0 davidnark<\/em> and Triangle and Too<\/em> were the only respondents.<\/p>\n Because online names follow their own set of capitalization and word combining conventions, Billikens.com users\u2019 usernames within this paper will be italicized for clarity.<\/p>\n Message Posts<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Other primary research came from the message board itself.\u00a0 This research mainly consists of statements by users that were posted on the board.\u00a0 Also, some fundamental aspects of traditional communities are assumed as common knowledge within the paper.<\/p>\n The first message board about the Saint Louis University (SLU) Men\u2019s Basketball team, also known as the Billikens, was created more than 9 years ago by SLU alum David Narkiewicz.\u00a0 In an e-mail from David, he stated that he learned a little about web design from his sister\u2019s boyfriend, and he created simple web pages about his hobbies including the Billikens.\u00a0 One of the people who found the site, to David\u2019s recollection, was Roy Mueller.\u00a0 Roy suggested that David add a message board to his page.\u00a0 So one night David researched how to make a message board and created one.\u00a0 (Narkiewicz)\u00a0 It was an extremely simple message board with the script actually being designed for online guestbook purposes. \u00a0After the board\u2019s creation, a loyal membership started to form without any promotion by David.<\/p>\n The popularity of the board increased during the next few years.\u00a0 To accommodate this growth, David decided to move it to a more professional site, Rivals.com (Rivals), which provided David with a message board that had more features than his old board.\u00a0 In addition, it offered news, statistics, and recruiting information for users.\u00a0 Many college sports discussion groups like David\u2019s were hosted on Rivals. (Rival Networks)\u00a0 They are extremely popular because 42% of Internet users are \u201csports junkies.\u201d (Pew)\u00a0 David\u2019s web site and message board were now officially called \u201cBillikenboard\u201d.\u00a0 The popularity of the board continued to grow for about three years at Rivals before Rivals.com filed for bankruptcy. (Narkiewicz)\u00a0 Immediately after this, the message board was moved to another site, Billikens.com.\u00a0 A month later official ownership and operational duties of the message board shifted from David to Steve Rogers.\u00a0 The message board currently resides on Steve Rogers\u2019 site, Billikens.com.<\/p>\n Longevity of Users\u2019 Participation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Like many communities, Billikens.com has members who have been active participants for many years.\u00a0 The majority has participated from one to five years.\u00a0 There are still some active users who first participated on David\u2019s original board. (Rogers Survey)\u00a0 New members routinely join the discussion.\u00a0 Some choose to stay longer than others, and they vary in their amount of participation.\u00a0 The longer a user participates, the more likely they are to think of Billikens.com as a real community.\u00a0 Just more than 66 percent of all of users believe that Billikens.com is a real community.\u00a0 Meanwhile 100 percent of the eleven users who have been around for more than seven years believe Billikens.com is a real community.\u00a0 This is similar to many traditional communities.\u00a0 Those that have been around a group longer tend to have a greater sense of community within that group.<\/p>\n Social Status of Users<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Like many communities, there is a hierarchy on Billikens.com.\u00a0 A user\u2019s hierarchical placement and reputation is sometimes established by how long they have participated in the community and how they participate.\u00a0 One of these users is billiken_roy<\/em> whose real name is Roy.\u00a0 In the survey, he was the person who was specifically mentioned most.\u00a0 One question asked, \u201cPlease tell a story (length doesn’t matter) about one of your meetings with a person from the board?\u201d Of the stories given, almost half of the people mentioned billiken_roy<\/em>.\u00a0 (<\/span>Rogers<\/span> Survey)\u00a0 His reputation is so established that he was mentioned on a local sports radio station. (<\/span>Rogers<\/span>, et al.)\u00a0 Although, being an established and prominent member of the community has its setbacks. <\/span>Roy<\/span> is sometimes a divisive figure.<\/span><\/p>\n As it is for most in society with established reputations, there are some who like <\/span>Roy<\/span> and others that dislike him.\u00a0 One poster, Hard Foul<\/em>, stated, \u201cHis opinion is the only correct one and will comment on everything. I think he is truly impressed with how many posts he has.\u201d (\u201cRating for billiken_roy.\u201d) \u00a0\u00a0Another poster, Triangle and Too<\/em> said, \u201cRarely begins any thread. Rarely starts any interesting topics of discussion. Totally subjective which probably interferes with and hides his true basketball knowledge.\u201d (\u201cRating for billiken_roy.\u201d)\u00a0 Those two statements were taken from the User Ratings feature of the Billikens.com Message Board, which is an area where posters can give positive and negative feedback to others. Though <\/span>Roy<\/span> has the two aforementioned negative feedbacks, he also has fourteen positive feedbacks.\u00a0 One states, \u201cHe has a great passion for his Billikens and was one of the people that really popularized the original billikenboard.\u201d (\u201cRating for billiken_roy.\u201d) <\/span>Roy<\/span>\u2019s established reputation and the amount of time he has participated on the board are not the only reasons he is divisive.\u00a0 His extremity is sometimes a cause.<\/span><\/p>\n Extremity of Some Posters and its Effects<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The extremity of a few users is considered by some to be the biggest problem facing the community.\u00a0 Regarding some topics, a few posters are almost religious in their beliefs.\u00a0 One poster stated the following regarding the atmosphere of the board, \u201cIt is welcoming but some folks don’t take to well to outsiders who don’t share their views, even if there is nothing insulting about what they are saying.\u201d (<\/span>Rogers<\/span> Survey)\u00a0 This statement has some validity. <\/span><\/p>\n If a newer member posts something on the board that is not consistent with the opinion of the majority or an extremist, they can be expect to be attacked.\u00a0 While this may be a negative quality of the community, it further establishes that Billikens.com\u2019s community is real.\u00a0 On Billikens.com, users frequently disagree about certain issues ranging from political candidates to who is the best point guard; although on many issues, they hold a unanimous opinion.\u00a0 These events can be tied back to Oldenburg\u2019s and Komito\u2019s definitions of community.\u00a0 Sometimes in their third place, the community is passionately in disagreement about something that can be considered a trivial issue, which satisfies <\/span>Oldenburg<\/span>, but they maintain their common interest, which satisfies Komito. (Rheingold) (Komito)\u00a0 The extremists are often targeted as the cause of the unwelcoming atmosphere on Billikens.com because they typically are the biggest pushers of a sentiment.\u00a0 Therefore the sentiment and the extremist sometimes become interchanged in the minds of posters, since it is almost impossible to think of one without the other. <\/span><\/p>\n The issue that brings out the most extremity is the topic of <\/span>University<\/span> of <\/span>Missouri<\/span>, or Mizzou<\/span>.\u00a0 It is one of the most discussed topic on the board.\u00a0 The majority of users tend to dislike Mizzou for a multitude of reasons.\u00a0 One reason is the history between the basketball programs, and another is the treatment SLU fans receive from Mizzou fans. One poster accurately described it as an \u201c\u201cus vs. them\u201d mentality\u201d. (Rogers Survey)<\/p>\n One of the former members of the board that went against the common sentiment and falls into the \u201cthem\u201d side was Triangle and Too<\/em>. <\/span>He was a poster who appeared on the message board in 2000.\u00a0 Roy, a part of the \u201cus\u201d, was not a fan of him from the beginning.\u00a0 Triangle and Too<\/em> called Billikens.com <\/span>\u201ca \u201ccommunity\u201d of the Middle Ages, a \u201ccommunity\u201d of Darkness and Suppression, one that does not have a spirit of \u201ccommunity\u201d decency.\u201d (Fluegal)\u00a0 This opinion is almost assuredly a result of the treatment he received from Roy and others.\u00a0 According to Triangle and Too<\/em>, \u201cthe “—-\u201c hit the fan immediately after my initial first weeks of postings – led by none other than Billiken Roy. It seemed Too be at first centered on both my attending Mizzou and my criticism of Coach Romar [Former SLU Head Coach].\u201d (Fluegal)\u00a0 Roy really liked Romar, as a person and as a coach.\u00a0 He still defends him even though currently the majority opinion of the board disagrees concerning Romar\u2019s coaching ability. \u00a0The feuds between Triangle and Too<\/em> and billiken_roy<\/em> sometimes got out of hand. When it did, the quality of the discussion on the board was hurt.\u00a0 While the feuding hurt the discussion, it further established that Billikens.com is similar to real community because in real communities there is often inner damaging feuding about some trivial matters, which is once again consistent with Oldenburg\u2019s definition (Rheingold).\u00a0 Almost no communities are completely harmonious, as is the case with Billikens.com.<\/p>\n Anonymity of Users<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The reason why Triangle and Too <\/em>stopped participating on the board was because other posters found out who he really was, and he was not comfortable with his name being posted on the board.\u00a0 (Fluegal)\u00a0 He preferred being anonymous, as some posters on Billikens.com do.\u00a0 Some of the users who said in the survey that Billikens.com wasn\u2019t a community stated that anonymity of users was a reason why. \u00a0(Rogers Survey) \u00a0The users of the board can hide behind a username without sharing much information about them. \u00a0Problems concerning usernames any annoymity were of grave concern in the years that the community was on Rivals and the first year of Billikens.com. \u00a0Although as time progressed, people became more trusting and shared more about themselves.\u00a0 The development of trust through sharing shows how Billikens.com was not initially a real community, but how it grew into one.<\/p>\n History of Message Board Problems with Anonymity<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The message board originally did not require registration, which means users did not have to only use one username.\u00a0 The only way users could identify themselves on David\u2019s original board was by typing their desired username into a form that did not require a password, so anyone could post under any name, even someone else\u2019s.\u00a0 It was all based on trust that no one would use anyone else\u2019s username.\u00a0 This system carried over when David moved the board to Rivals.<\/p>\n Eventually, people started to use names that were not theirs.\u00a0 This presented a problem.\u00a0 Since “The uniqueness of names, their consistent use, and respect for–and expectation of–their integrity, is crucial to the development of online communities.” (Reid)\u00a0 Therefore debate began about whether the message board should switch to a registered format.\u00a0 As a compromise to alleviate the problem, David created two boards.\u00a0 One required registration, and one did not.\u00a0 The non-registration board was titled, \u201cTalkin\u2019 B-Ball Trash Board\u201d, or Trash Board.\u00a0 Then to give anyone the ability to contribute to the registration board, David created the username \u201cbillikenguest\u201d and made the password public.\u00a0 Therefore, anyone could post with anonymity on either board without the possibility of people using each other\u2019s names.\u00a0 There were a significant number of users who resisted registering and posted solely on the Trash Board.\u00a0 This somewhat splintered the discussion between the two boards and was the way things were done until the board moved to Billikens.com.<\/p>\n After the move, everything, at first, remained the same except the billikenguest option was removed.\u00a0 Gradually the Trash Board\u2019s content increasingly became unacceptable.\u00a0 Users were posting profane messages, slanderous statements, and unfounded claims.\u00a0 This problem is not unique to Billikens.com, it occurs on many online message boards. (Bressers)\u00a0 Because of this, some registered posters switched to another site, CUSA-Talk.com, to continue their Billiken discussion.\u00a0 \u00a0Eventually so many people moved to CUSA-Talk.com that the discussion on Billikens.com\u2019s registered board started to degrade. (CUSA-Talk) \u00a0Therefore, Steve Rogers, as the board\u2019s administrator, made the decision to get rid of the Trash Board.\u00a0 Not all of the users were happy with the decision, but the registered board returned to its normal quality.\u00a0 One poster still reminds the board of the registered versus the non-registered era by using the username tseugnekillib<\/em>, billikenguest spelled backwards.<\/p>\n Development Away from Anonymity and Towards Community<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n One of the few posters who has been around for more than eight years stated in his survey, \u201cI have seen a change in the board in that there are more posts which are revealing more personal information and requests to contact others. People are self-disclosing more which I see as the maturing of the board. Trust levels are increasing and defenses are lessening.\u201d (Rogers Survey)\u00a0 This statement is describes how Billikens.com became<\/em> a community and was not one from the beginning.<\/p>\n The users of the board are more open and trusting than they used to be.\u00a0 People used to be resistant of registering, yet alone sharing personal information with board members. \u00a0Recently there was one post started by former_d1 <\/em>where there were 141 responses to \u201cwho is everyone?\u201d\u00a0 People posted where they lived, what their professions were, and all sorts of information.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Many posters said where their seats were at the Billikens game. (Emmert)\u00a0 While the members may learn a lot about each other through intentional sharing, they also learn more about one another through a consistency throughout posts.\u00a0 As NashvilleBilliken<\/em> put it in response to whether or not he believed Billikens.com was real community, \u201cI do because people know so much about each other and become accustomed to each other. I would lost with out the ultimate homer billiken_roy<\/em>, the always PC thicks<\/em>, the \u201cI don’t give a crap\u201d attitude of Billiken Rich<\/em>, and so many others.\u201d (Rogers Survey) Users also expand their communication and contact with one another beyond the message board with them going out and meeting each other.<\/p>\n Half of the people who participated in the survey have actually met someone from the message board in real life. (<\/span>Rogers<\/span> Survey)\u00a0 Posters have met each other in a number of ways.\u00a0 Some simply met at a SLU Booster Club meeting.\u00a0 (<\/span>Rogers<\/span> Survey)\u00a0 There was an instance where one poster met another while he was on vacation to <\/span>Florida<\/span>. (Mueller)\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0There is another instance in which two posters, one from <\/span>North Carolina<\/span> and another from <\/span>South Carolina<\/span>, met each other at a game in <\/span>Charlotte<\/span>. (Cooper)\u00a0 These people probably would have never met without the message board.<\/span><\/p>\n Through meetings like these not only does the anonymity decrease amongst posters, but something else happens.\u00a0 Friendships from the board evolve to a new level; this is what makes Billikens.com a real community. <\/span>Roy<\/span> wasn\u2019t the only one to relate Billikens.com to a friendly bar, 3star_recruit<\/em> called it \u201cThe internet equivalent of Cheers.\u201d This and <\/span>Roy<\/span>\u2019s statement are almost exactly how Howard Rheingold described his feelings of the online community WELL.\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>The feeling of logging into the WELL for just a minute or two, dozens of times a day, is very similar to the feeling of peeking into the cafe, the pub, the common room, to see who’s there, and whether you want to stay around for a chat.\u201d <\/span>(Rheingold) This feeling of going to <\/span>Oldenburg<\/span>\u2019s third place, and then being with friends who you know and who know you is what makes a community.\u00a0 At Cheers people shout out \u201cNorm!\u201d\u00a0 They also know everyone\u2019s quirks, and it is a community because of the relationships and the atmosphere that those relationships bring. (Cheers)\u00a0 With Billikens.com, people are not sitting on stools at the bar but desk chairs at their computer.\u00a0 Their discussions through the Internets build friendships. When people post something to the message board, they are speaking to a group of friends that they know and belong to, and it doesn\u2019t matter that some posters never meet. The important thing is their relationship with the person behind the username.\u00a0 Those relationships are the foundation of the Billikens.com community.<\/span><\/p>\n It is appropriate to end with the creator of the message board, David Narkiewicz.\u00a0 Restating what he said when describing Billikens.com as a community, \u201c<\/span>Like any community, we have basic rules, formal and informal allegiances and loyalties, leaders and followers, and great discussions.\u00a0 We also know each others’ personalities, opinions, and habits.\u201d (Narkiewicz)\u00a0 All of these things are possible because of the users\u2019 relationships.\u00a0 David may have created the first message board, and technically I have maintained the message board, but the community was created and maintained by the Billikens.com users<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n WORKS CITED<\/span><\/p>\n Bressers, Bonnie.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s Acceptable on Message Boards?.\u201d Quill<\/span> 91.3 (2003): 16-20.<\/p>\n Academic Search Premier<\/span>. EBSCOhost. Melvin Gelman Lib., Washington, DC. 5 Nov. 2003 <http:\/\/search.epnet.com>.<\/p>\n Cheers<\/span><\/span>. NBC. 1982-1993.<\/span><\/p>\n Cooper, Alan. \u201cRe: Re An e-mail from Tarheel Billiken.\u201d E-mail to the author. <\/span>5 Aug. 2003<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n CUSA-Talk.<\/span><\/span> <\/span>7 Dec. 2003<\/span>. <\/span>7 Dec. 2003<\/span>. <http:\/\/www.cusa-talk.com>.<\/span><\/p>\n Emmert, Kerry. \u201cwho is everyone?\u201d Online posting. <\/span>3 Oct. 2003<\/span>. Billikens.com Message Board. <\/span><\/p>\n 5 Dec. 2003<\/span>. <http:\/\/www.billikens.com\/cgi-bin\/dcforum\/dcboard.pl?az=show_thread&om=208&forum=DCForumID3&viewmode=all>.<\/span><\/p>\n Fluegal, Joe. \u201cRe: Question\u201d E-mail to the author. 13 Nov. 2003.<\/p>\n Komito, Lee. \u201c<\/strong>The Net as a Foraging Society: Flexible Communities.\u201d Information Society.<\/span> 14.2 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n (1998): <\/span><\/span>97-106. Academic Search Premier<\/span>. EBSCOhost. Melvin Gelman Lib., Washington, DC. 2 Dec. 2003 <http:\/\/search.epnet.com>.<\/p>\n Mueller, Roy. \u201cRe: Another Confirmation.\u201d <\/span>5 Dec. 2003<\/span>. Billikens.com Message Board. 7 Dec. <\/span><\/p>\n 2003. <<\/span> http:\/\/www.billikens.com\/dcforum\/DCForumID3\/522.html><\/span><\/p>\n Muller, Mathias., et al. \u201cOnline Communities.\u201d The CyberPhilosophy Journal<\/span>. 2001. 2 Dec. <\/span><\/p>\n 2003 <<\/span> http:\/\/www.cariboo.bc.ca\/cpj\/ >.<\/span><\/p>\n Narkiewicz, David. \u201cRe: Question\u201d E-mail to the author. 6 Nov. 2003.<\/p>\n Pew Internet & American Life Project. <\/strong>Online Communities: <\/span><\/span>Networks that nurture long-<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n distance relationships and local ties. Survey. Jan.-Feb. 2001. <\/span><\/span>6 Dec. 2003<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <<\/span><\/span>http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/reports\/toc.asp?Report=47>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRating for billiken_roy.\u201d Online posting. <\/span>27 Oct. 2003<\/span>. Billikens.com Message Board. 2 Dec. <\/span><\/p>\n 2003. <http:\/\/www.billikens.com\/cgi-bin\/dcforum\/dcboard.pl?az=view_user_ratings&user=billiken_roy>.<\/span><\/p>\n Reid, Elizabeth M. \u201c<\/span>Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat.\u201d<\/p>\n Diss. University of Melborne, 1991.<\/p>\n Rheingold, Howard. \u201cReal-Time Tribes.\u201d The Virtual Community.<\/span> Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.<\/p>\n 5 Nov. 2003 <http:\/\/www.rheingold.com\/vc\/book\/1.html>.<\/p>\n Rival Networks<\/span><\/span>. May 2001. <\/span>Alliance<\/span> Sports. May 2001 <http:\/\/www.rivals.com>. <\/span><\/p>\n Rogers, Steve. \u00ad\u00ad\u00adBillikens.com: The Home of the SluSignGuy<\/span>. 2003. 5 Nov. 2003<\/p>\n <http:\/\/www.billikens.com>.<\/p>\n Rogers, Steve, et al. \u201cConfirmation.\u201d Online posting. <\/span>1 Dec. 2003<\/span>. Billikens.com Message <\/span><\/p>\n Board. <\/span>2 Dec. 2003<\/span> <http:\/\/www.billikens.com\/dcforum\/DCForumID3\/466.html>.<\/span><\/p>\n Rogers, Steve.\u00a0 Survey of Billikens.com Users.\u00a0 George <\/span>Washington<\/span> University, <\/span>Washington<\/span> <\/span>DC<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n 12-20 Nov. 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n Sluombrack, Paul Van.\u00a0 \u201cNetting a New Sense of Connection.\u201d Christian Science <\/span><\/p>\n Moniter<\/span> 91.110 (1999): 0-1. Academic Search Premier<\/span>. EBSCOhost. Melvin Gelman Lib., Washington, DC.\u00a0 5 Nov. 2003 <http:\/\/search.epnet.com>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One member of the community sends another–a soldier in Iraq–care packages.\u00a0 Another meets his wife through a community member.\u00a0 A group of members gives a high school graduation gift of $500 to a younger member of the community.\u00a0 These community events did not happen in a work place, neighborhood, or church.\u00a0 The aforementioned community doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-121","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steverogers.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Research Methodology<\/h3>\n
History of Billikens.com Community<\/h3>\n
Culture of Users<\/h3>\n
Problems Users\u2019 Have with the Community<\/h3>\n