Introduction

Every group of people that come together and form a community share certain values and interests. These commonalities taken as a whole express the culture of the group. Obviously every online community also has its own culture. The main way newcomers to an Email discussion list get to know that community's culture is to hold back and lurk for a while, watching the flow of messages coming from contributing list members. This is fine for a while, but for communities to grow and thrive, more people need to participate. The activities and links on this page are designed to give you confidence that you can personally assess a community's culture and thus feel more likely to participate.

Activities

Sample Welcoming Messages

One of the first things a new member to an online community encounters is a Welcome Message. These tend to be somewhat similar, but vary in details and tone. Skim through several examples to get a sense of the attitude behind each message. Focus on those aspects that immediately set the tone for the particular discussion lists.

IUFO List

NETIZENS

VOCED-COORD

Sifting Through List Archives

Because you already know how to Access List Archives, approach them now as a sociologist to uncover details from actual threaded messages that tell us something about the culture evidenced in an online community.

1. Browse through the EdNA hosted archives and select one list to focus on.

2. Browse, search or sort to uncover something that seems culturally significant. Think about humour, debates, flames, and help.

3. Particularly follow a thread to see how contributing members responded to the message.

4. Based upon this tiny snapshot, what kind of message would you feel comfortable posting to this list?

Resources

Electronic Mail Overview

Netiquette Homepage