Field Notes #1: Smogon University - Competitive Pokemon Battles

After looking over the site for a few days, I find that the main purpose for Smogon University is to serve as a much more competitive option for pokemon players when it comes to battling.  Instead of just battling, users focus on testing new strategies for pokemon builds and also talk about current pokemon events.  There are subgroups for each pokemon game, mentorship forums, and people who like to get into the technical aspects of the games and site.  The clear mission for this group is to offer a more adult space for battling and talking pokemon.  This community was rumored to start way back at the time that the first games came out when a simulator was developed by Blizzard, and people came to the site over time.

The gathering places on the site are numerous.  These include close to 100 different forums, the battle simulator, the battle chat room, and there are links to Youtube, Twitch Tv, and various social media handles.  The site is mapped with numerous links on the left hand side of the page, leading anywhere on the site.  There isn't any site customization for the user, but it really isn't required.  The site feels good without user customization.  The features that the user gets is the ability to post to the forums and use the battle simulator.

The only barrier to entry is creating an account, and unfortunately, the membership benefits are not clearly communicated before sign up.  The information collected consists of:  your email, a desired password, the timezone you are in (to connect with players locally), your birth date, your location, occupation, your favorite pokemon, and a defining characteristic about yourself.  The site does a very good job at letting a guest view all parts of the site without a membership.  Members create their own profile, and the site indicates the history and level of participation on the site through a user tag that shows a profile pic (usually a pokemon) and the number of posts and likes and how long the user was on the site, all of which is tracked automatically.

The Leadership on this site is very different than most.  They are not trained by anyone in the community.  They sign up to become a Mentor and start a thread in the forums.  They have no real control over anything besides the thread they start.  There is no manual or technical support that I can find on the site.

The closest thing to a code of conduct is in the Philosophy section of the About page.  It doesn't really offer the user a way to act but it explains the motives behind the organization and its decisions.  That being said, there is no way for the user to edit this philosophy.

There are cyclic events that are posted on the homepage and a newsletter called the Smog.  There are also contests that allow users to design pokemon.  These results are communicated to the community.  There are many other types of events.

As I said before, when a user makes a membership they are given access to the forums and the battle simulator.  As a non member, you can really only read pages in terms of participation.  All members, new, regular, and leaders (the Mentors) all have the ability to read content, customize pages and forums, and host forums as well.  You can also comment in forums.  The owners and moderators of the site have all of these abilities plus the ability to set policy.  A member's status is determined by the time on the site.  This is labeled on their user card near their profile picture.  There is no real way to move up in the site unless you become an extremely successful mentor.

 When members create a subgroup by becoming a mentor in a mentorship program.  This is not necessarily encouraged among members so it is not desirable exactly.  The mentor subgroups are promoted well in the community and they only require a basic membership (the only one available) to create one.  There is no infrastructure for the user to make their own events.  That being said, there are no real world interactions promoted by the site.  There is a forum for players to share their pokemon friend codes in order to battle over the internet.

Hollywood Stock Exchange Results: I Made a lot of Money on the Lego Movie Sequel!

Let me begin by saying that I have no idea how stocks work.  I do however, understand what movies and shows are and going to be awesome.  This is clearly reflected in my enormous gain of over 30% in less than two days from LEGO2.  I feel like I should have bought more stock in it.

I believe that HSX is an online community and a valid candidate for a 3rd Space.  I could easily see this site as a 3rd place.  It has all the needed components.  It has participation through posting in the forums, and buying stock.  There are privileges to signing up.  The capital of the site is the stocks that you can trade.  Elders would be considered forum moderators and admins for the site.  I didn't really have any interaction with other users on the site but that is due to me not seeking out any other users.  To be honest, I thought I would dislike this site, but I actually found my experience with this site enjoyable.  I may continue to use it.

Is AnimeFreak.tv a Comunity?

After looking over AnimeFreak.tv, I have come to the conclusion that it is in fact not a Community.  I find that most of the things that make a community are absent from the this site.  The three that stuck out the most for me would have to be Governance, Privilege, and Participation is the biggest one of the three.  To start off, the site seems to be controlled by either one person or a small group of people that find the anime materials to post daily.  There is no user control or input on what these people pick to post, so there is no Governance.  There is also no Privilege to using this site because there is no benefit to using the site other than catching up on some TV, which is not a social act inherently.  There is no upside to using this site over another anime streaming site, thus there is no Privilege.  Perhaps the biggest reason that this site doesn't qualify as a community is the lack of the ability to Participate.  There is no comment structure, no user registration, no interactions between users what so ever.  If a community needs any of the major characteristics of a community, it needs Participation.

Couch Surfing Assignment

1.  I first expected this site to be about people sitting on couches surfing through TV channels.  It never even occurred to me that it would be about finding a place to spend the night.  I also expected the site to look outdated and old and look like someone threw it together in an hour.

2.  My first impression of the site came after I realized the site's true purpose as apposed to the site I thought it would be.  I think that the site looks very professional and inviting.  It romanticizes the idea of travelling without set plans and or a place to stay for a night.

3.  As I stated before, my original thought was that this website was for people that would sit on the couch and surf through TV channels.  On this site, the users could post entries about their experiences and interesting shows or commercials that they saw.

4.  I think either someone who travels spontaneously without planning or someone who cares for the welfare of people like Backpackers or travelers would run this website.

5.  I probably would not become a member because I usually plan my travels thoroughly ahead of time.  I also don't feel comfortable sleeping near people I don't really know because there are quite a few odd people out in the world that could abuse this system.

6.  I don't really have any concerns about this community itself, but more with the people offering the housing.  How are they approved?  Are they screened for safety?