Throughout the semester, I have learned a lot about online fandoms, and my opinion of them has changed a little bit. I began the semester with a fairly negative opinion of them (I kind of thought it was just a means for people to talk about their favorite aspect of the media, but that it didn't got any deeper than that). On gleeforum.com, I have had the opportunity to share my opinions about the show, but discussion has become a little bit deeper than that (as I got more involved in the website).
I made 48 posts to the forum, and participated in TONS of polls. The members were really interested in member ratings of the episodes and of the actors and actresses. I've also posted a little bit of fan art. At the beginning of the semester, I was pretty much an outsider on the website. I didn't feel like the website was a community at all, and had a pretty negative view of the site. However, as the semester progressed, I gained a few friends (although none of them ever messaged me back). I never created any close relationships with any members, but I feel like this is due to the nature of a forum. There were so many members and so many discussion topics that I never really communicated with people more than once or twice. Members never really reached out to me when I joined, either.
I approached the website as a legitimate fan of the show Glee. I started out posting simple posts in response to discussion topics. As the semester went on, I decided to see if members would get angry if I posted a topic that wasn't about the show--no one seemed to notice or mind.
The overarching question that I examined this semester was whether or not gleeforum.com is a community. At the beginning of the semester, it did not feel like a community at all to me. As I started to get into it a little bit more and learned my way around the website, I discovered that it did possess some qualities of a community; however, I still don't feel like the website is totally community-oriented. People go on the website for only one reason: to talk about Glee. Members don't go to other members with personal problems or to discuss personal issues--they only talk about Glee...
In closing, I enjoyed learning a little bit about fandoms, and I have a little bit more respect for them now than I did before the Practicum project. I'm still not sure if it's the hobby for me, though!!!
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