Practicum Post #6-Ashley Merten

I just spent about an hour on gleeforum.com, and I learned a lot about its members. I discovered a few discussion threads about the members themselves. For example, one thread asked members how old they are. Most people that responded were in their late teenage years. I discovered that members are actually interested in the other members of the website. I'm beginning to think that the website is more and more like a community every time I spend time on it.

I still have not received any private messages back from other members, which is somewhat disappointing. I also noticed today that members have intertwined their social networking sites with the website. For example, there was a whole discussion about the spoilers released on Twitter. I found this pretty interesting because it shows how much social networking sites really have invaded every aspect of our lives. I also noticed a few discussion threads that are about the "deeper meaning" of the show. Members discuss how the show has touched their lives and how it has affected their real lives. This also demonstrates that the website is somewhat a community.

I definitely think there are some interesting dynamics to this website. People look to the website to share their personal feelings and to talk about how "Glee" affects them. However, I'm not really sure if people go on the website to helps others, as people do in a community. They use the website as a platform to share their feelings and to be heard.