boards.ie: an evolution

+

An Evolution

+The Study…

The Research Team

Laura Cahill

Paula MacSweeney

Ceire Murphy

Amye Quigley

Eva RyanKaren Skelly

Roisin Tangney

Kelly Tiernan

2

+

How has Boards.ie evolved from its original inception?

How has this affected its original user base?

33

+

An overview…

+

382,212 registered users

Over 700 forums

Over 100,000 visitors per day

Currently ranked 14th website in Ireland

5

+Current Competitors…

Askaboutmoney.com

6

+New Accounts by Year

0100002000030000400005000060000700008000090000

100000110000120000

New Ac-counts

7

+Literature ReviewRelevant literature

+Previous Research

History of discussion forums

Virtual communities

User motivation for posting

The internet in Ireland

9

+History of Discussion Forums

Factors contributing to success:

Meeting the needs of distinct communities

Emergence from subcultures

(Rheingold, H. 1994; Turner, F. 2005)

(Notess, G. R. 2009)

10

+

Our Interest:Did the founders and original users

consider themselves a subculture?

If so…How it organised itself? How it regulated itself?

Boards and the history of discussion forums

11

+Virtual Communities

A virtual social space where people come together to get and give information...” “

(Preece, J. 2001)

12

+Virtual Communities

Like markets and hierarchies, communities are an important source of

knowledge. OCs are open collectives of dispersed individuals with members who are not necessarily known or

identifiable and who share common interests, and these communities

attend to both their individual and their

collective welfare.”

“

(Faraj, S., et al, 2011)

13

+

Studies focus on general workings of online communities

Our Study:Boards.ie focusWhat role does community play?Do community norms exist?

Boards.ie and Virtual Communities

14

+User motivation for posting

Information exchange

On-going dialogue and discussions

(McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. 2000)

(Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. 2011)

15

+User motivation for posting

Enjoyment of helping others

(Lee, et al. 2006)

Voicing an opinion

(McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. 2000)

16

+Internet in Ireland

1998 still poor technological climate

Major increase in internet access between 1996 – 2000 (35%)

(OECD, 2002; Information Society Ireland 1996; 2000)

17

+Gap in the research?

No research within an Irish context

Evolution from small subject-specific to very large general forum

18

+Grounded Theory

Constructing meaning out of the inter-subjective experience of users

Narrative based on interpretation of history

“ A reaction against the extreme positivism that had permeated most social research” (Suddaby, R.

2006)

19

+MethodologyProject Approach

+Deconstructivist Approach to History

(Munslow, 2006) 21

Literature Review

Founders Interviews

First User Interviews

Boards Data Analysis

Archived Message Boards

Group Meetings

Report Writing

01/05/2011 31/05/2011 30/06/2011 30/07/2011 29/08/2011

Start Date Completed 22

+Data

Interviews with founders

Interviews with First Users

Quake Archives

23

+Founder Interviews

4 Boards.ie Founders

Semi-structured interviews

Approx. 90 minutes in length

24

+First User Interviews

50 first users contacted9 semi-structured

interviews6 interviews to be

conducted in the forthcoming weeks

25

+Coding

Code

Quake - Reasons for playing

DescriptionThe informant describes what led them to play the game Quake

Exemplar Quote “I was a student, a visiting student in the States at that 1996 and one of my housemates had it there so that was kind of the first” (F2)“I’ve played games since I was five, so it was just, kind of the next cool game out.” (F2)

“I’ve a friend just mentioned it was an interesting game and I suppose and pieces I’d read about it, that it had been the first online first-person shooter.” (F4) 26

+First Postings on Quake.ie WWWBoard

Archives from February 1998 to July 1998

7290 archived postings analysed and coded

27

+Content Analysis Coding Results

28

+FindingsResults

+ The Original Vision

FoundersCommunity

Expansion of a Hobby-site

Opportunities for Public debate

Current RealityInformation Sharing Resource

without Community

First UsersUpdated version of

Quake boards

30

+

The Quake connection

+Quake Forum

32

+Quake Players

“They just wanted to play Quake. Quake players are pretty hardcore and pretty determined” (F1)

“A lot of people who played Quake were IT professionals” (F2)

Gamers

IT Backgrounds

33

+

Low internet connectivity

Geographical constraints

Quake Players

“It was dreadful. I mean, I couldn’t play when it rained.” (F4)

“The responses that you get from the server is lagged by about 0.2 of a second which makes a huge, huge difference.” (F1)

34

+Quake Community

“…as consequence if you were a Quake player and you could play, you were part of this group and… everybody else were norms...” (F1)

35

+Quake Beers Offline

“We used to meet in Messer Maguire’s pub in the basement, or a section of the basement where just a bunch of Quake players came together.”

(F4)

36

+

The moveFrom Quake.ie…

+

…To Boards.ie

+Boards.ie Founder 1 Vision

A place to talk in Ireland

A platform to discuss issues

39

+Boards.ie Founder 2 Vision

I probably wouldn’t have imagined that it would spread to non-tech types.” (F2)“

40

+Success

“We have 400 sign ups a day or something crazy ... yeah we often say we don’t want more people. People are our problem...” [F1]

41

+

First User Perspectives

+Quake Community

Small

Common bond

Sub-culture

Large

Many topics

General public

Past Present

43

+From Quake to Boards

“It didn’t really register --- I don’t think it was a massive jump in terms of change.” (GK)

“I’ve vague memories of being surprised. So just a bit of a surprise but not a huge one.” (MO)

“It didn’t really affect me at all.” (YM)

44

+Early Boards Days

“Initially when the site was

quite small I probably would have glanced at

most of the forums. Now it’s become such a

large entity that people probably stick to a

handful of forums.” (RF)

45

+Boards Growth & Community Decline

Growth in population I don’t think that it’s the same

sort of community where people

would have been probably a lot closer when boards started off ... it

was a smaller site and it was very much tailored around those people

doing the same sort of activity.” (RF) 

“

46

+Boards Growth & Community Decline

Decline in community feeling

“But the old Quake scene slowly declined.” (NS)

47

+Boards Growth & Community Decline

“I’m not a huge participant anymore. I suppose maybe it’s reflective of the fact that I’ve gotten older.” (GK)

Change in user lives and interests

48

+Boards.ie as a corporate entity?

“One of the problems Boards has now is that its perceived rightly or wrongly to be a corporate entity...” (RF)

49

+How do the First Users perceive Boards.ie today?

“Irish Human Google”

Knowledge sharing

Information seeking

Local information

50

+Boards as an information source“It’s really matured in the last whatever

ten years. It provides I think a really useful service. A place where people can

exchange information.” (GK)

“If I’m looking for information anything Irish really and you refine your search to

Ireland --- there will be a topic with Boards.ie.” (YM)

51

+Community in Boards.ie now?

Sub-communities within Forums

“I think there are definitely communities there because you do have them

within the forums...” (RF)

52

+Limitations

+Limitations

Lack of literature about Irish internet history

Interviewing only a small cross section

54

+Future Work

Conduct further interviews with First Users

Complete coding and analysis of archive data and interviews

55

+Conclusion

+

How has Boards.ie evolved from its original inception?

How has this affected its original user base?

57

+ The Original Vision

FoundersCommunity

Expansion of a Hobby-site

Opportunities for Public debate

Current RealityInformation Sharing Resource

without Community

First UsersUpdated version of

Quake boards

58

+Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Boards.ie for their co-operation & providing us with information.

In particular we would like to thank the founders of boards.ie and the early users who agreed to be interviewed for this project.

Finally we would like to thank our supervisor Dr. Norman Su.

59

+

Questions?

+References

61

Brown, T. (1987). Ireland: A social and cultural history; 1922-1985. London: Fontana Press.

Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. (2011). Knowledge collaboration in online communities . Organization Science.

Ferriter, D. (2004). The transformation of Ireland. London: Profile.

Lee, M., Cheung, C. K., Lim, K. H., & Choon Ling, S. (2006). Understanding customer knowledge sharing in web-based discussion boards: An exploratory study. Internet Research , 16 (3), 289-303.

McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. (2000). "It is what one does": Why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 9 (2-3), 155-173.  

Notess, G. R. (2009). Forget not the forums. Online, 33 (2), 41-43. Preece, J. (2001). Sociability and usability in online communities: determining and measuring success. Behaviour & Information Technology, 20 (5), 347-56. Rheingold, H. (1994). The Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerized World. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications.

Suddaby, R. (2006). From the Editors: What Grounded Theory is Not. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 633-642.

Turner, F. (2005). Where counterculture met the new economy: The WELL and the origins of virtual community. Technology and Culture, 46 (3), 485-512.

62