Ethnography.

Michael Purcell

Eng. 11 B55

Holly Pappas

The fish keeping forum experience.

I’m not really sure what people think of a forum, nevermind what they think of a fish keeping forum. This one is like any forum; it has all of the same components that make it what it is. The people on the forums are the ones who make the forum the way it is. You have a wide variety and demographic. In the next coming paragraphs I’m going to take you for a ride through the ins and outs of Monsterfishkeepers.com by explaining some of the groups of people who make what it is.

I would like to start off by introducing myself, I am crenipterus svenagalus, my username comes from a mixture of two of my favorite fish’ names. Crenicichla Sveni and Polypterus Senegalus. I mixed the two names to be unique, a lot of usernames on this site are Latin names of fish, but only one is a mixture of two. I have been an active member of Monsterfishkeepers.com since June of 2007. The website was recommended to me by a friend so I could ask questions and get answers and not bother him anymore. I guess sometime before I started using the site I bothered him frequently for his knowledge.

When I first started on the site, I was considered a n00b. A n00b is someone who typically uses awful grammar, asks dumb questions that they themselves could answer with a bit of research, and seem to get quite offended when people try to help them. The word n00b originally used in online gaming to refer to someone who was new to the game and wasn’t very good. It was later adapted to forums, blogs, instant messaging and in many other online communities. It is spelled like that as a “Secret code” so other people unfamiliar with the language couldn’t understand it. I’m not afraid to admit it, I was totally a n00b. My grammar was terrible. As far as I’m concerned, I wasn’t that bad. Some people are almost impossible to understand. You see questions like “ my fish is dieing y whats lyke wrong wit it help plz” At least my typing was legible and understandable. These people who type like this generally get offended when you ask them to clean up there grammar a bit to make it easier for everyone else to understand. It’s a whole lot easier to help someone when you can understand the question or problem. The usual response is something like this “i lyke how i tipe leaf me alone mine ur busness” They think we are out to get them or something, when in reality, we want to help. N00bs typically ask for help, and if they don’t get the answer they’re looking for in five minutes they will ask over and over and annoy everyone. For the most part all the n00b has to do is type in the question on Google, and presto! The answer they were looking for is in one of the first three links.

I’m glad to report, that I am not a n00b anymore. I have taken steps to make my posts look more educated and I now type like an adult. I would say now that I fall into a class of people who don’t really rely on anyone else unless there is no other way of getting an answer other than asking. Sometimes peoples personal experiences account for more than some of the generic information on the web. I try to do as much research by myself as possible. Why take up bandwidth if you don’t have to? There is an ample amount of information to be found; sometimes it just takes a bit of time before you come across it. Some people (n00bs) just can’t find any time in their day to look up this info. They are too busy playing Xbox or watching TV. I like being self sufficient. I also like the other people on the site that are too. Doing something for yourself and accomplishing it is so much more rewarding than being annoying and childish.

The next group of people are the Mods (Short for Moderator.). These are kind of like the Police of the website. They make sure everything is running smooth behind the scenes. They give infractions for wrong doings, clean up useless posts, and are generally the most helpful and knowledgeable. They always have great insight and inspirational posts. They truly want to help you and make you a better fish keeper so you can enjoy the hobby as much as they do. Like anyone in an authority position though, some tend to abuse their power. They are quick to jump down your throat or give infractions. Lately though, a lot of the power hungry Mods have been relieved of their duties. The other Mods have seen some of the rash judgments and had a meeting. It was decided that a few of them just weren’t cut out for the job.

Another group of people would be the post whores. These people will go in any thread and post responses such as “cool” or every ones favorite, “wow.” These people are convinced that the more posts you have the smarter you are. They say things like I have 2,000 posts, so I know what I’m talking about, if confronted about something. Most of the time that isn’t the case, the majority of post whores are also n00bs, n00bs that post a lot, instead of researching or learning. There are a number of people on the site that have high posts counts but actually contribute. Again, why take up the bandwidth with nonsense?

In any society, you have different people who account for different roles in the society. On this online forum it is no different. Some of the people contribute greatly to the community, others are as useless as a kettle made of ice or a kickstand on a submarine. Some people are self sufficient and very rarely bother people, but we all account for the community. Even if some people don’t do anything important, sometimes they’re at least good for a good laugh. These are a few of the types of people you can find on Monsterfishkeepers.com. There are more, but these are the ones that seem the most important and most common to me. I hope I made things apparent for you, like you could create an account and automatically know who was worth consulting, and who was useless.

Just a quote.

"Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a great and glorious nation. Favourite amongst his subjects was the court painter of whom he was very proud. Everybody agreed this wizzened old man pianted the greatest pictures in the whole kingdom and the king would spend hours each day gazing at them in wonder. However, one day a dirty and dishevelled stranger presented himself at the court claiming that in fact he was the greatest painter in the land. The indignant king decreed a competition would be held between the two artists, confident it would teach the vagabond an embarrassing lesson. Within a month they were both to produce a masterpiece that would out do the other. After thirty days of working feverishly day and night, both artists were ready. They placed their paintings, each hidden by a cloth, on easels in the great hall of the castle. As a large crowd gathered, the king ordered the cloth be pulled first from the court artist’s easel. Everyone gasped as before them was revealed a wonderful oil painting of a table set with a feast. At its centre was an ornate bowl full of exotic fruits glistening moistly in the dawn light. As the crowd gazed admiringly, a sparrow perched high up on the rafters of the hall swooped down and hungrily tried to snatch one of the grapes from the painted bowl only to hit the canvas and fall down dead with shock at the feet of the king. ’Aha!’ exclaimed the king. ’My artist has produced a painting so wonderful it has fooled nature herself, surely you must agree that he is the greatest painter who ever lived!’ But the vagabond said nothing and stared solemnly at his feet. ’Now, pull the blanket from your painting and let us see what you have for us,’ cried the king. But the tramp remained motionless and said nothing. Growing impatient, the king stepped forward and reached out to grab the blanket only to freeze in horror at the last moment. ’You see,’ said the tramp quietly, ’there is no blanket covering the painting. This is actually just a painting of a cloth covering a painting. And whereas your famous artist is content to fool nature, I’ve made the king of the whole country look like a clueless little twat."

-Banksy