Newbies, Welcome to the World of Message Boards--#6 Opt. 1

Many who decide to sign up to be a member of a message board for the first time often have no idea of the structure, norms, and rules involved. An asynchronous message board or forum usually has a theme or community structure attached to it. Some message boards include themes about a particular artist, movie, religion, technology or specialize in people a certain age, going through a similar situation, or similarly skilled. Members sign up by choosing a username, password, and avatar, as well as any personal information they would like to disclose to other members of the community in their member profiles or "signatures" which are colorful messages, often of brief quotes or pictures displayed after that member posts. After filling in these fields, potential users must read an agreement statement and cornfirm that they have read and agree to the statement.

One of the most important message board conventions is the concept of avaoiding the "freepost" or free post. The number of posts a user makes in a forum is displayed right under a user's name and avatar, and makes an extensive statement of the relative contribution, influence and impact that user has on the message board community. As such, members conform to the philosophy that each post a member makes should contribute to the discussion in some way by self-disclosing, arguing, counter-arguing or bringing up an important point of discourse. If each member posts honestly and fairly in this manner, the post count will indeed be an accurate reflection of each member's importance in the community.

Freeposting, however is looked down upon. Freeposting is the posting of a meaningless, message, devoid of content, time or effort being put in. Sometimes a freepost is an advertisement of a product, in case which the poster is a spammer. Sometimes a freepost is a one-sentence angry pointless rant, often characterized by bad spelling and excessive use of the Caps-lock key, i.e. : "BRITTANEY SPEARS IS A AWEFUL SINGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Freeposts can be more subtle, concealing the lack of effort or thought going into the message by having a longer body, but essentially conveying nothing. However, freeposts may be blatant, coming in many at a time by a single user. For example, users may use a letter a message, spelling out a quick sentence or phrase, often profane, that they would like to communicate.

Sometimes freeposts are accepted by well-regarded members of the board. These members utilize freeposts usually to mock true freeposters, or they may do it simply because they can do it and not be looked down upon by memebers of the message board community.

People usually come to understand the norm by reading and admiring the amount of detail and thought put into each user's message. Since the conversation can range from philosophical, to personal experiences, to opinion, new users to the board, or "newbies" generally come to realize honest and intelligent input is valued over one liners, misspelling, and poorly thought out postings.

The Leviathan, originally defined by Thomas Hobbes as "that mortal god, to which we owe under the immoral God; our peace and defence", is the figure on the internet that we give up freedoms for in return for orderliness. The Leviathan is often a moderator that can edit or censor messages, providing the role of a relaxed authority figure. Message boards often have a moderator, or a higher-up administrator that enforces the norm of no freeposting. The moderator deletes posts that he or she deems as flagrently obvious freeposts, thereby lowering the post count of the member, as well as inflicting a sense of shame on the user. A repeated offender is blocked from the message board, or has his or her account deleted.

Most theories Wallaces states in chapter 4 apply to the norm of meaningful posts in an online message board community. For example, the "sign on the door" Wallace talks about certainly applies. The "sign on the door" is a way to give newbies general rules about behavior and participation to the specific online space before they post in the forum. In message boards, it can be seen by the general agreement one is asked to sign before registering to be a member in the board. As well, there are many "Sticky Threads," or threads that are secured to the top of the forums urging new members to read them. In the threads, there are general rules of thumb to follow on the boards, some of which include no freeposting.

In addition, Wallace describes the arched brow concept. This is the way group members politely, or not so politely remind an offending member, usually a newbie that his or her behavior is out of line. On a message board, most "vet" or veteran, respected members will not be as forgiving of freeposting newbies. When a freepost is made, a usually cutting, sarcastic remark is made first by a vet, and then other members of the board will conform and each add their contributing derisive remark to the freeposter. Especially if the freeposter is new, it takes a long time to build up respect back up among the members. Usually an extremely creative excuse for freeposting or shocking amount of wit/intelliegence in future posts can compensate for violating the earlier norm. In more subtle freeposts, a user is reprimanded in a lighter manner by fellow users. The arched brow method usually works, as new members wish to be accepted by the vets, or existing members want to be respected and one day, elevated ij status as a vet. The few that continue to ignore the norm are subject to action by the Leviathan.