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MHighbrow
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icon A dissertation all about Caravel Forums! (please read!) (+5)  
[edit 24th Feb: taking this post down now to remove contact details and other things - it's served its purpose. You can still talk to me over PM if need be!)

[Last edited by MHighbrow at 02-24-2012 03:28 PM : Dissertation done!]
10-03-2011 at 08:54 PM
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west.logan
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I vote we just study Banjooie.

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[Last edited by west.logan at 10-03-2011 09:00 PM]
10-03-2011 at 08:57 PM
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RoboBob3000
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Sounds like a fun project. I'd be willing to be of help.

One suggestion, perhaps. You might want to instead focus on a month's worth of posts that have already occurred. Informing people that they're being studied might poison the well. If you want current, why not try Sept. 2011? Or maybe go back and look at a high-activity month, such as a month after a new Caravel product was released.

Edit: Also, you might consider also reading the Development, Electronic Gaming, Bugs, Feature Requests, and Site forums. Those too are a great source of forum creativity and collaboration. It's especially awesome when we start a discussion about a game and somehow manage to lure the game's actual developer to our thread.

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[Last edited by RoboBob3000 at 10-03-2011 09:10 PM]
10-03-2011 at 09:05 PM
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Rheb
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I'd be happy to help. Sounds cool!

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10-03-2011 at 10:35 PM
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Chaco
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I am willing to participate, but I think RoboBob has a good point about there already being a lot of material that was posted before you introduced the idea of someone looking over the posts for dissertation material.

The topic sounds really interesting and you can count me as a person who would be interested in reading the dissertation once it's finished, if you can manage to work out a way to post it.

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10-03-2011 at 11:03 PM
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Dischorran
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Sure, feel free to read my posts. However:

1. As above, why not use archives? Note that selecting for a high-activity month could well skew results toward discussion of one particular hold in a non-representative manner.
2. Why only a month? Does that really provide enough data for a good analysis?
3. You're still going to miss private beta boards - a lot of community creative action happens out of the public eye.
4. Does your IRB or whatever sets research ethics guidelines require individual permission for data mining existing posts?
5. Are you also analyzing other forums for a comparative study?

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10-03-2011 at 11:14 PM
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martz
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Another willing participant here.

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10-03-2011 at 11:43 PM
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12th Archivist
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I would enjoy participating as well.

Seems like fun. I already have a few ideas for the question, should you ask them. :)

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10-04-2011 at 12:40 AM
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Someone Else
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I think I'm ready for another adventure participating.
10-04-2011 at 03:00 AM
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Dischorran
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MHighbrow wrote:
Are there age restrictions on this study?
Yes. You must be 18 or over to participate. This is because of ethical regulations at the university.

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10-04-2011 at 03:11 AM
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Bombadil
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Me too. I am not posting much these days, but anyway...
10-04-2011 at 07:15 AM
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Banjooie
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Oh man

I'm probably required to go along with this aren't I
10-04-2011 at 01:02 PM
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12th Archivist
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Banjooie is a whole forum all on his own. You might want to make a second thesis on him in the context of trolling.

Also, I defy you, Banjooie.

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[Last edited by 12th Archivist at 10-04-2011 01:08 PM]
10-04-2011 at 01:08 PM
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Banjooie
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defying me in this thread as well is also suitably ludicrous

also that would make this guy the second person to attempt to write a banjooie thesis.
10-04-2011 at 01:09 PM
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Jacob
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Happy to help, but agree with the above posts.

If consent is not required to just read and analyse posts restrospectively, then that's probably the way to go, since you avoid the selection bias from people deciding themselves whether you can use their posts, and you can look at a larger time period. And this avoids people modifying their behaviour because they're being observed.


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10-04-2011 at 03:17 PM
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noma
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There's not that much to look at, but feel free to "study" my posts or send me a questionnaire.
10-04-2011 at 03:51 PM
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Blondbeard
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Sure you can look at my posts. But I think it might be a bit of a small sample to just look at architecture/hold-posts from oktober.

I don't think I've posted anything yet this month, and it's far from certain I will.
10-04-2011 at 04:33 PM
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MHighbrow
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Wow, I didn't expect this kind of a response so quickly. Thank you all so much! I'll get around to sending out PMs making sure you're okay with this later in the week, hopefully tomorrow, but I'll try to address your concerns now.

RoboBob3000 wrote:
One suggestion, perhaps. You might want to instead focus on a month's worth of posts that have already occurred. Informing people that they're being studied might poison the well. If you want current, why not try Sept. 2011? Or maybe go back and look at a high-activity month, such as a month after a new Caravel product was released.

Edit: Also, you might consider also reading the Development, Electronic Gaming, Bugs, Feature Requests, and Site forums. Those too are a great source of forum creativity and collaboration. It's especially awesome when we start a discussion about a game and somehow manage to lure the game's actual developer to our thread.

I understand why it would be more natural to study older posts, but I felt it would be better to be very upfront about this study so that you understand what's happening before you post. Some people might find it a bit jarring to find out that some student they've never met before wants to pick through their old posts. This method is a bit more ethical in terms of participants knowing what's actually going to happen. The hope is that if you agree, you're not too concerned about other people reading and analysing your posts anyway. :P

As for reading extra forums, along with other people's suggestion that:

Dischorran wrote:
2. Why only a month? Does that really provide enough data for a good analysis?

A little bit of data can go quite a long way! This "content analysis" part of the data collection is going to be more quantitative than qualitative - that is, it won't actually be that analytical, beyond what purpose each post serves and how well-liked it is. That already can tell me about a few basic trends about what kind of posts are well-liked, and a month's worth of data across six boards on the forums, even considering that these forums don't move too quickly, should provide enough data to that end. The real meat of the data will come with the interviews, as they'll provide insight directly from the community itself about how it works.

Dischorran wrote:
3. You're still going to miss private beta boards - a lot of community creative action happens out of the public eye.
4. Does your IRB or whatever sets research ethics guidelines require individual permission for data mining existing posts?
5. Are you also analyzing other forums for a comparative study?

Honestly, I'd forgotten about the private beta boards! I've never done much hold-building myself. I'd already planned this study without those in mind, so I think I'll get by without them, but I'll keep them in mind and see if I can talk to a tutor about changing the study ever so slightly (assuming I can convince someone to let me into a beta board :P). Thanks for the heads-up!

The ethics board at the University would probably challenge me if I didn't require individual permission for looking at posts. I was always planning to look for individual permission anyway, because - maybe I'm just speaking for myself here - I know I'd be alarmed if I found out someone was studying my conversations / actions / whatever without my consent.

I won't be analyzing other forums for a comparative study. This isn't just my decision - I had been considering looking at other forums, but after discussing the idea with my tutor I thought it would lead to too much data of too many different types (I don't know of any forums quite like this - I've never seen a system like the Rank Points / Mod Points we have here, for instance.)

Banjooie wrote:
also that would make this guy the second person to attempt to write a banjooie thesis

One dissertation at a time please. :P

I hope that's clear - I'm not the best at concise explanations, so let me know if you need anything clarifying again!

Also, quick reminder that you need to be 18 or over to participate. Sorry to anyone who's under 18 who already said yes. I'll edit my original post to make that clearer.
10-04-2011 at 09:18 PM
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Elfstone
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I have posted very little recently (going through a desperately bad patch at the moment :weep ) but you are welcome to read my old posts and send me your questionnaire.

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10-04-2011 at 09:57 PM
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Jatopian
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I think it's interesting from a sociological standpoint that high on our priorities if we find we're being studied is to critique the study.

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10-04-2011 at 09:57 PM
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Maurog
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You're welcome to read all my posts, do what you want with them, contact me whenever you like. I'm not very active lately, though.

Also, the mod points system is pretty worthless. In the long run, it relies on constant resupply of points from people with infinite amounts thereof. Which presents the following problem - if there is a tiny amount of such trusted people, then you risk all of them leaving at some point and leaving the spring dry. Then the system runs on surplus points for a while but eventually it runs out of steam. If, on the other hand, there are too many people with infinite points, they become a flaw in the system all on their own. Eventually some of them will be corrupted by power and use their points for anti-system purposes, negating the very meaning of the points. I've seen it happen.

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10-05-2011 at 09:30 AM
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Banjooie
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The mod point system isn't really indicative of anything: I contribute the least of anyone here and have a significant sum!
10-05-2011 at 10:14 AM
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west.logan
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It also depends on the person reading your post to remember to mod it up or down. There's been plenty of times when someone posts something helpful and no points are exchanged. I forget too sometimes.

It also appears that people mod up those they are buddies with and not so much for the best content, which is human nature. I could be mistaken but that's my observation.

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10-05-2011 at 01:31 PM
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Jatopian
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Banjooie wrote:
The mod point system isn't really indicative of anything: I contribute the least of anyone here and have a significant sum!
You make people laugh and whatnot. Least contribution:rank ratio is probably that guy who got 100+ rank points from clicking the bar but never posted, whatever his username was.

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10-05-2011 at 06:43 PM
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MHighbrow
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Ha, I forgot to edit the original post five minutes after saying I would. Fixed now.

Interesting points about the mod point system being raised. I think it's still a good indicator of general approval, even taking into account people not being able or forgetting to give points to posts they like. However, I've got an interview question that asks about the rank point system, so we'll see what the general consensus is, I guess...

Gonna start sending out PMs now just to formalise the thing - if you want to take part in this study but I don't send you a PM soonish (say, the next day or so), make sure to yell at me!

EDIT: All PMs sent, I think (and I've alway got a few replies, thanks for that!). If I missed you, please point it out!

[Last edited by MHighbrow at 10-05-2011 09:05 PM : Update on PMs]
10-05-2011 at 07:36 PM
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Syntax
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More than happy to help (London here).

Oh, and I love this hold
10-06-2011 at 11:51 AM
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MHighbrow
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I've started sending out the questions! If you've agreed to interviews and check your PMs you should find a message where I try to schedule a date. Please reply if you can!

If you check your PMs after the date I suggested has been and gone, don't worry. Send me a PM asking for another date, or wait until I make a quick effort later in the month to chase you up.

I know a few of you don't log into your accounts that frequently, but if you're taking part in this and haven't checked your inbox in the last couple of days, please do so!
10-07-2011 at 06:21 PM
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MHighbrow
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Thanks for letting me know. :)

There's no firm time constraint, but as I've told other people who've asked, before December would be ideal. Most of the dissertation drafting will be done before the Christmas holiday, so the basic content will be set in stone by Christmas and I can't guarantee I'll be able to incorporate any extra information or data I get.
10-07-2011 at 07:09 PM
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Elfstone
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Questionnaire complete. :)


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10-15-2011 at 04:26 PM
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MHighbrow
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It's now November in the UK, so studying people's posts has ended as of thirteen minutes ago! Thanks again to everyone who was kind enough to let me look at their posts and bother them for interview responses. I'll chase up a few people who expressed interest in interviews but who I haven't been in contact with since for whatever reason, but most of the heavy lifting is done now as far as data collection goes.

Now to actually write the thing up. I'll let you know what I find by mid-February at the latest (that's when the deadline is, after all!), but hopefully a lot earlier than that. (For any of you who still have interview responses to send back, by the way, it's not too late yet!)

Thanks again for all your help! I couldn't have asked for a nicer community. :)

[Last edited by MHighbrow at 11-01-2011 12:14 AM]
11-01-2011 at 12:13 AM
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