Profiles, wiki articles, songs, events and other pages have shoutboxes at the bottom where members can post comments or messages. There is an imposed limit of 1000 characters (pretty long for a "shout" if you ask me), but there is almost an unspoken rule that NO ONE should write so much. In fact, usually shouts are only a few quick lines. Artist and song pages often act as catch-all spaces for intense fandom or dislike (which makes sense because, like a lot of online opinion polls, involvement on these pages is voluntary and attracts polarized ideologies). For example, on the Radiohead wiki page Peppeworld writes,"I will kill someone in order to see them live." Zheinerovich clearly does not relate and replies, "Then you're one retarded motherfucker." MathIsUniversal and whiteclef1 are also less than enthusiastic about this group, chiming in with "shit band" and "shit album" (respectively).
Lengthier shouts are not as uncommon on profile pages, however. User shoutboxes are analogous to Facebook Friend walls, so that anyone can read the shouts and it's not quite as annoying if messages are longer. On FatShade's profile, for example, lamma-assassina writes a long comment amongst a series of short shouts:
"I'm flattered, thanks! Well, I was taking a look at your library... Regina, Laura Marling, Tori Amos, Sarah Blasko, Fiona Apple... Sarah Slean is definitely missing! She's a singer-songwriter and pianist, her voice is just haunting and lyrics, pure beauty. I truly recommend this acoustic version of "Out in the park": [YouTube link] and her album "The Baroness". Oh, and she's a writer too. I haven't read her book yet, I must check it out, hm. Please let me know if you liked her! And if you have any recommendations, too, leave me a message:D I just got into Tori Amos, I'm totally loving her...how could I ignore her music for so long?"All the same, post length on profiles trends towards the curt end of the spectrum. Even Marrajjj and jamesssxD (from my last post), who are obviously good Last.fm friends, keep interchanges fairly short. The pattern alters quite a bit, though, with regard to forum participation.
My focus is on the "General Discussion" and "In The News" forums, which exhibit stark contrasts in writing convention. Forum threads still display variability in posting literacy, but the manifestations are much broader here. Literacy flip flops from thread to thread, even post to post. For instance, one long-running thread titled “chatting on forums is a good way to make friends !! ;D” harbors posts that are random, even unpredictable, and any subject is up for game. The user iamstellar offers another forum poster tips on beating alcohol and drug addiction:
"Addicts are always seeking to fill their void constantly. So they will use what they can to fill it. If it isn't drugs and alcohol, it is sex… recover on your own and on your own terms. If you don't you will only seek to ‘fill that void’ with other shit you shouldn't be doing.”In the same thread, the user annihilatethem shares dating advice and explains, “I've come to learn, ‘once a cheater, always a cheater’. Girl's have given me a HUGE reason not to trust them anymore.” Later, annihilatethem brings up totally different topic in the same thread: “So has anyone heard about the particle accelerator experiment they're working on in Switzerland… Black holes? Anti-Matter? Don't sound too good to me.” Where this thread renders subject-jumping with posts not only acceptable but also a crucial part of interesting dialogue, many of the "In The News" threads exhibit posts of long discussions, immaculate grammar, honed in debating and serious ethical/philosophical issues.
For instance, a thread about India's exploding population – now at 1.21 billion, according to the 2011 census (article) – elicits a conversation about overpopulation and population control. Chab0's comment seems almost Malthusian: "This insane population boom is what's keeping the poverty stricken areas of India from developing. The more people, the less resources... Only time can cure overpopulation!" Later, sgath92 and Verslie each post diatribes of four or more paragraphs (thread). Verslie goes as far as calling Indians "uneducated, irresponsible people continuously churning out more and more children for stupid reasons," claiming "they can't be bothered with contraception, they want state benefits, they want an excuse to not work, they want to give their life some sort of meaning because their own miserable existence isn't enough for them." Verslie asserts that "[h]aving children is not a 'right'" and agrees with sgath92 that "[l]icensing is definitely the way forward." According to him/her:
"The majority of these children born in places like India, are likely born into incredibly poor families, where their only future is to live in poverty whilst working ridiculously long hours with ridiculously low pay just so they can afford to pay for their small amount of food in order to survive. What kind of life is that? It's better not to create life in the first place."Aside from the ugly rhetoric and banter (see for yourself), this thread shows that Last.fm makes room for a spectrum of literacies. Interestingly, the context set by the forum & thread in conjunction with the tone established by users works to cue which literacy is appropriate. (Basically monkey see, monkey do.)
Interesting point about monkey see, monkey do types of literacy expectations. Peer pressure is a powerful thing, even online. However, I have to wonder if certain literacies on different sites comes as a result of people being collectively chastised (or not) over their literacies, leading to a single, acceptable type of literacy, or if it is in fact a case of people observing and then reacting in turn like you pointed out.
ReplyDeleteIt's notable that the users have, over time, developed a sort of literacy expectation that isn't necessarily written down anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too familiar with Last.fm, so I'm not sure how heavily these forums are moderated. But if, as you said, literacy can change from post to post, it seems as though literacy is derived from the expectations of users, who each have their own individual literacies.
I think it's really interesting that on a site which seems to be dedicated to the discussion of music you get so many different topics. The discussion of population control specifically surprised me. This is one of those topics that people often try to avoid by that probably needs to see some sort of honest discussion. The idea that this sort of discussion is happening on such an unlikely forum is actually sort of uplifting, to me. I tend to think of the internet as a place where people either take their anger (which it seems also happens on this site) or take their obsessions that aren't exactly constructive. The idea that people are discussing matters of serious importance is pretty cool.
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