Practicum Post #4-Ashley Merten

I'm currently spending some time on gleeforum.com. Since my last post, I've made some progress on my friends list. I "friended" about 15 people, and I've heard back from about half of them. The other friend requests are still pending, and most of the members that I haven't heard from haven't been active for about six months or more. The process of making friends on the website reminded me a lot of a social networking site. You can request a member to be your friend, and then your friend request is "pending" until they respond back to you. Now that I have a few friends on the website, I can message them. The site does not have a chat function, which would be useful, in my opinion. I messaged a few of my friends, but it seems that they are more interested in posting on the forum, where everyone can see.

I participated in a few new chat discussions, and it seems that most members are really excited for the season hiatus to end next week. Since the show has been on hiatus, the discussion of the website has really shifted from show content to the "deeper meaning" of the show. Members discuss the symbolism from the show and what the characters on the show really represent.

When I first started participating in this forum, I was fairly skeptical of it. I didn't really think it was a community because people didn't form bonds with one another. I still don't feel that it is a community as much as a social networking site may be, but there is definitely some sense of community on the website. Members are all very open and friendly with one another. Members do not really have close relationships with one another, they just talk to whoever will listen. The website is definitely a means for people to open up to others, so it is definitely a community in some sense.