Hazel J.
Composition 1
09/08/2015
Paper 2,

Message boards: A New Kind of Community
Online communities are a new, modern way of interacting with people of similar interests. Most of these communities consist of message boards. Usually, these types of communities are centered on a particular subject matter, such as religion or parenting. The most popular types of these online communities are usually the ones that have to do with current events or pop culture. I frequent several different of these kinds of websites, but two in particular I visit on a daily basis. One is mostly deals with the current events and politics, such as the war on Iraq and the race for Presidency. The other, is mostly surrounded by entertainment news, such as music and celebrities. Even though these websites differ in many ways, they have very similar attributes.

On the current events message board, I notice that the posters and members on there are much more mature and have civil conversations and debates. However, if a controversial topic is posted, such as religion or racism, some of the comments may resort to personal attacks and name calling. On the pop culture board, it’s almost similar, but much more intense. These boards usually have much younger members, so those types of topic are insignificant or unimportant in comparisons to actual news worthy postings. A topic about celebrities, such a singer or rapper being arrested will generate hundreds of responses, but if serious posts like a local murder or some other violent crime will barely have 50 responses.

Problems like these are usually fueled by members who post comments to rile up other members. They are often called ‘trolls’—members who only post every once in a while to disrupt the usual flow of a message board. I like to call it a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy because the goal they want to achieve is baiting the