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

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

The fundamental dichotomy between participants, however infrequent, and such lurkers raises questions "as to the authenticity of community fostered by mass consumption of dialogue produced by a relative few. Silent readers may feel that they are a part of the conversation; however, this vicarious participation raises the spectre of pseudocommunity" (McLaughlin et al. 92). As Hauben points out, Netizens "devote time and effort into making the Net, this new part of our world, a better place. Lurkers are not Netizens, and vanity home pages are not the work of Netizens. While lurking or trivial home pages do not harm the Net, they do not contribute either" (n. pag.). Thus, these distinctions between esteemed contributors and mere hangers-on, Net users in the literal sense, reaping the benefits from Netizens' efforts, question the egalitarian nature of the Net as such; the non-contributors' actions constitute the asocial, negative, non-productive side of de Certeau's la perruque.²⁶	Bit 61
Considering the question of subcultural community that is more important to the present discussion, Hauben's description of the Net as a 'new part of our world' is instructive, and can be expanded into Baym's reminder that "all interaction, including CMC, is simultaneously situated in multiple external contexts. The preexisting speech communities in which participants operate provide social understandings and practices through and against which interaction in the new computer-mediated context develops" (141). Even online lurkers may (offline) be active members of the subcultural community. Undoubtedly, there are substantial numbers of lurkers reading Progressive Rock newsgroups (due to their very nature, the amount of lurkers is not quantifiable, of course), but this is no argument against the fundamental point that Internet newsgroups and other online Prog resources have been instrumental in bringing together the global community of the subculture.	Bit 62

The fundamental dichotomy between participants, however infrequent, and such lurkers raises questions "as to the authenticity of community fostered by mass consumption of dialogue produced by a relative few. Silent readers may feel that they are a part of the conversation; however, this vicarious participation raises the spectre of pseudocommunity" (McLaughlin et al. 92). As Hauben points out, Netizens "devote time and effort into making the Net, this new part of our world, a better place. Lurkers are not Netizens, and vanity home pages are not the work of Netizens. While lurking or trivial home pages do not harm the Net, they do not contribute either" (n. pag.). Thus, these distinctions between esteemed contributors and mere hangers-on, Net users in the literal sense, reaping the benefits from Netizens' efforts, question the egalitarian nature of the Net as such; the non-contributors' actions constitute the asocial, negative, non-productive side of de Certeau's la perruque.²⁶

Bit 61

Considering the question of subcultural community that is more important to the present discussion, Hauben's description of the Net as a 'new part of our world' is instructive, and can be expanded into Baym's reminder that "all interaction, including CMC, is simultaneously situated in multiple external contexts. The preexisting speech communities in which participants operate provide social understandings and practices through and against which interaction in the new computer-mediated context develops" (141). Even online lurkers may (offline) be active members of the subcultural community. Undoubtedly, there are substantial numbers of lurkers reading Progressive Rock newsgroups (due to their very nature, the amount of lurkers is not quantifiable, of course), but this is no argument against the fundamental point that Internet newsgroups and other online Prog resources have been instrumental in bringing together the global community of the subculture.

Bit 62

Section 3 -- Go on to Bite:

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