"Every Home Is Wired": 3 -- The Progressive Rock Community on the Net

"Every Home Is Wired":
3 -- The Progressive Rock Community on the Net

Apart from such questions of dealing with disruption and difference, then, the development of less controversial discussions is also interesting to observe. The fact that threads frequently move through a variety of related subjects, and might even split into a number of individual sub-threads on different topics²³, can be regarded as significant on a discursive level: especially for taste communities, there are no definite answers to most questions, and so all but the most historically fixed aspects of their communal knowledge are constantly subject to discussion, re-evaluation, and development. Newsgroup discourse is therefore both preservative and productive of the Prog community, as it reinforces community norms and ideals, but also allows individuals to disagree and participate in changing them (especially, of course, since newsgroups know no institutions with the authority to direct or terminate threads in order to preserve or reinforce certain ideas).	Bit 46
This, then, raises questions about the moderation practices in mailing-lists. The screening out of disruptions, but also of knowledge repetition, along with the addition of certain 'official' information, may have a number of contradictory effects: on the one hand, the lack of disruption and strong disagreement, as well as the increased feeling of a direct link to official sources and the artists themselves, may strengthen feelings of community (the more limited breadth of expressed opinions also contributes to community conformity); however, the lack of repetition of established knowledge makes many of the canon-related types of discourse we have seen (especially advice for newcomers) nearly impossible. A limitation of mailing-list readers to relatively well-informed, conformist, long-term participants that could be the ultimate result of strict rule enforcement could serve to choke the community.	Bit 47

Apart from such questions of dealing with disruption and difference, then, the development of less controversial discussions is also interesting to observe. The fact that threads frequently move through a variety of related subjects, and might even split into a number of individual sub-threads on different topics²³, can be regarded as significant on a discursive level: especially for taste communities, there are no definite answers to most questions, and so all but the most historically fixed aspects of their communal knowledge are constantly subject to discussion, re-evaluation, and development. Newsgroup discourse is therefore both preservative and productive of the Prog community, as it reinforces community norms and ideals, but also allows individuals to disagree and participate in changing them (especially, of course, since newsgroups know no institutions with the authority to direct or terminate threads in order to preserve or reinforce certain ideas).

Bit 46

This, then, raises questions about the moderation practices in mailing-lists. The screening out of disruptions, but also of knowledge repetition, along with the addition of certain 'official' information, may have a number of contradictory effects: on the one hand, the lack of disruption and strong disagreement, as well as the increased feeling of a direct link to official sources and the artists themselves, may strengthen feelings of community (the more limited breadth of expressed opinions also contributes to community conformity); however, the lack of repetition of established knowledge makes many of the canon-related types of discourse we have seen (especially advice for newcomers) nearly impossible. A limitation of mailing-list readers to relatively well-informed, conformist, long-term participants that could be the ultimate result of strict rule enforcement could serve to choke the community.

Bit 47

Section 3 -- Go on to Bite:

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31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40