HIERARCHIES
There
are some established hierarchies within the community. Andre, Andreas
and Johan
each have an administrative role in the community. Andre built the site
and has
complete authority over what is added, removed changed, etc. Andreas is
the
main user of the picture page - one of the key elements in the creation
of the
site. Anyone can post pictures, but he usually is the one to contact
other
members, collect the pictures from an event and then post them for
everyone to
see. Johan is in charge of the gamming aspect of the site. Before
working on
this project I thought the gaming forum and administrator were ideas
that never
amounted to much, but as it turns out many members (mostly the guys)
use the
inramessage option to discuss games, create fantasy leagues and create
their
own game which I was told is TOP SECRET at this time. Therefore Johan's
responsibility
is to facilitate private conversations and he is the key player in
arranging
face-to-face meetings with those in
These three guys and a few of their
friends are the main users of the site. While there is no official rule
that
they are the key players, the patter was established and the community
accepted
it. This coincides with Preece's idea that "The core community's
activities encourage others to join and, like a seeded crystal, the
community
grows" (207). When the guys forming this core community are very active
in
posting comments and pictures, others also become more active. When
they are
only casual users, so are the other members of the community. It is
important
to note that these observations are based on public communication on
forums and
news. It is entirely possible that users outside of the core group are
communicating through intramessage or email, but the communication goes
undetected to other users. The only thing I know for sure is that
people still
sign on to the site regularly even when there are no new public posts.
These
people are either lurking or using private means of communication.
Regardless,
the hierarchy is present and those users, like me, who are low on the
chain
react to the actions of the core members.