This week I have been focusing on the community groups in a forum called Weight Weenies as you may have noticed!!!! I mentioned it on the discussion board and Jen said I needed to think about ethical issues around using a information from a private groups discussion “because people involved may have an expectation of privacy, that means not having their words or activities studied or published without their knowledge.”

I signed up as a member and had planned to post a question as mentioned in participation post on blog. I began to question what actually is the community and by posting do I actually become part of the community?

This is a further development from last weeks summary about being part of a community, I still do not feel part of this community and just by posting a comment I don’t think this will make me feel included.I began to question the idea that there is a particular amount of times I need to post to become a member or is it about the number of times I interact that make me become part of the community?

The site appears to have an answer – it values the number of posts – In the rules on sales a member has to have made 30 posts before they are allowed to advertise something for sale

How did they come up with this rule?
How did they come up with the number?
Did they check up on people?
What was the majority of the 30 postings about?

However to allow a more fuller understanding of the group and to feel part of the community I feel I need to become a member and an equal. However becoming a member was more difficult than I thought! I keep getting the spambot question wrong, I checked and rechecked spelling and finally the site said I was blocked out for 24 hours grrrrrr

Day two – attempting registering – spambot question
Which two words combines the term Shimagnolo?: Shimano and Campagnolo
answer is case sensitive and requires Capitals at the start arrrrggh

However, I am now a member – and can begin to participate so I can create an ethnography (acc to Hine!)

I have scrolled through conversation streams and have noted there are sections for different user groups road cycling, cycle cross, MTB;s. I belong to the road bike community and it is interesting to see this segregation of users, as it is very important to cyclist which group they belong too and some are dismissive of other groups.

I have now (tried to) ban my husband from looking at this website as people are posting weights of every component on their bike and showing photo’s of the pieces being weighed. He has already spent a fortune on bike parts and if he gets into weighing each part I can see further purchases landing on the doorstep and an ever decreasing bank balance!!!!

I am not an active member of any forum, firstly because I don’t have time, secondly I don’t want to put my name on the internet anymore than necessary (I could always assume an identity) Thirdly I don’t really feel passionate about an online community other than through this course.

The site itself provides the reason why the site exists

Why this site?
Postings saying “How much does X bike component weigh?” can be found on almost every bicycle related message board.
Often the same parts weight is stated several times further down the board.
So, why isn’t there a website that already lists component & bike weights?
Well that’s what we do. Component lists are updated almost daily.

This site has been live since 2004 and as it is updated daily it has a lot of information and groups and relationships to look at.