Has anyone read anything on the subject of web communities like Tribe? It seems there is some interesting application, and some relatively 'solid' rules and endless documented conversation thread to glean from.
One thing that strikes me (as a relatively new tribe user) is deliberate push of status in the highly visible number of 'friends' any user has. Unlike many communities, status it is easily measurable (almost the equivalent of concrete money-measurements of status, like salary). It also creates 'big men' and 'big women' within the community, who conveniently hub large spokes of less connected people, redistributing connections instead of wealth.
I'm sure all this has been done before, probably about the time Friendster made it big with the east coast Universities. It's just new to me.
Any thoughts on the subject? Any other writings you've seen? I'm sure there's a web company more than happy to market a site based on someone's thesis on the subject.
One thing that strikes me (as a relatively new tribe user) is deliberate push of status in the highly visible number of 'friends' any user has. Unlike many communities, status it is easily measurable (almost the equivalent of concrete money-measurements of status, like salary). It also creates 'big men' and 'big women' within the community, who conveniently hub large spokes of less connected people, redistributing connections instead of wealth.
I'm sure all this has been done before, probably about the time Friendster made it big with the east coast Universities. It's just new to me.
Any thoughts on the subject? Any other writings you've seen? I'm sure there's a web company more than happy to market a site based on someone's thesis on the subject.
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Toronto
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe? Or similar communities?
Wed, September 21, 2005 - 11:13 AMi think what's more interesting about tribe is how effective it's become in creating virtual communities and maintaining those communities, on and off-life, over vast distances.
it's really far more effective at that than any other site i've been on. friendster, myspace etc. this site is far more focused on providing connections over large distances and bringing people together in particular places at particular times. only to come apart later and reform somewhere else. i.e. burning man etc.
seems to me that this is only the beginning. how the internet reshapes the way communities are formed and develop and how that relates to the formation of transnational identities and ultimately polities and support networks is very very interesting to me. -
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe?
Sat, September 24, 2005 - 12:33 PMNo doubt I am impressed by what Tribe can do. I wouldn't botther with it if it didn't have something I was wanting.
I've now found furniture, rides across two countries, and numerous places to live off of tribe and craigslist. It is changing real space in my real world, for sure.
I guess my criticism is still on how all these communities are controlled. Tribe.net is an artificial space made for profit. Doubt it? Is there an ad in this short thread?
Why bother listing the number of friends in ever thumbnail our pictures show up in? Why build status into an artificial community?
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe?
Sat, October 15, 2005 - 8:38 AMNumber of friends is really easy to compute and display as a byproduct of the social networking software. It would make as much sense to say, why bother suppressing the information?
I doubt number of friends translates straightforwardly into status. I hear more comments condemning seeking a large number of friends. Restrictive policies like only allowing people you know well or know in person on your friends list could also be viewed as snobbish and a form of status-seeking.
How can a software-implemented virtual space not be artificial? Not sure exactly what you mean by that.
Even nonprofits have to pay the bills. If anything, startups have paid too little attention to balancing the books instead of burning through venture capital. The only online forum that feels less commercial to me (and also doesn't charge users) is craigslist, and this has been more about sensible, functional low-cost operation, which is hardly incompatible with making a profit. -
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe?
Fri, October 21, 2005 - 8:01 AMTo pool's comment:
"How can a software-implemented virtual space not be artificial?"
It can't, of course. This website is artificial (a purely human constuct), creating the framework for a more organic community growing up around it. What that means is that every part of tribe's 'nuts and bolts' workings were designed, and with a purpose.
And part of that purpose is profit. I don't have a problem with a market economy, good companies making money, and I am grateful for the space to chat.
But I am wary of any corporation in my community that has a profit motive for what they do.
So, is the use of 'friends' an incentive created by the makers of tribe to build loyalty and encourage brining other friends aboard? Or is it a way of making connections and building trust and communties? I welcome speculation...
Since I first wrote this post, I've ran into some different takes on friends. I've been given invitiations from people with only the slightest of connections, and I've also had an invitation refused by someone who I had been co-planning a real-time project with, because he wouldn't be friends in cyber-space with someone he doesn't know in (as he put it) meatspace.
Obviously, no matter why the friends number was engineered into tribe, culture has taken it over and in it's own directions. And different people within the larger site have their own take on it.
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe?
Sun, October 16, 2005 - 12:56 PMPart of it has to do with "trust" systems. "Trust" is another facet of status. In one community I was participating in in another suit, there was a persistent "troll" who was posting prejudiced and inflammatory material in the guise of actual discussion. It caused a lot of problems, until someone pointed out that he had several profiles with no friends and a history of posting things like that to turn discussions into flame wars. The fact that he had no friends was one of the clues. Also, in theory, people who have contributed more to tribe end up with more friends, and so their words are more trusted. In practice, however, people who "collect" friends end up with larger numbers, so I think people have learned to disregard popularity to some degree.
Obviously, people can have no friends for a variety of reasons— this is a profile I just started to do academic and professional networking, and most of the people I already know from tribe don't really fit into that category, with a few exceptions I haven't added yet.
Interesting topic. -
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe?
Fri, October 21, 2005 - 8:04 AMInteresting insight... I like the idea of trust.
As for the danger of trolling, maybe that's why a moderator is important for each tribe? A sense of responsibility?
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe? Or similar communities?
Mon, October 24, 2005 - 12:45 PMThere is a guy at UCSD, Jonathan Marion, doing research on ballroom dance communities, which included an extensive study of web communities. His research can be accessed at <www.geocities.com/_ynot_/Home.html>. He has had to do a reflexive study of the way in which vritual communities differ from or are the same as traditional face-to-face communities. Victoria Bernal (UCI) also did a piece on Desai.org, an online chat and news forum for Eritreans living in Diaspora. The interesting thing there is that most people really do know each other in the traditional sense. Fun stuff... -
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Re: Anthropology applied to Tribe? Or similar communities?
Thu, October 27, 2005 - 1:18 AMwww.zephoria.org/thoughts/...es_on.html
Check out this link. It is the blog of a fellow who is publishing articles about friendster.
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