My educational background is in business and marketing. I'm choosing to write a thesis on WWP and internet anonymity as it's a personal interest of mine as well as being made relevant to my degree through my 'Online Culture & Behaviour' unit at University. I've mentioned what University I attend on the first post of this thread. My specific thesis statement, which is still subject to change, is "Has participation in anonymous online activism aided in the construction of new online identities?" As with all research involving studies of people, there is a degree of trust and judgement needed throughout the process. I don't expect all information gathered to be genuine as all people in this world have the capability to stretch the truth.
Quite correct. It is vague and it does need tightening which is why I chose to limit myself to just the WWP website community. Quite often the last thing that happens in research is the fine tuning of the original research question which is why i stated that it's somewhat 'subject to change'. In terms of expanding on this, if you would like to read back through the thread, I've enlisted the opinions of a lot of users to help guide my thesis/statement over the last few weeks and there's a lot of information governing online identity and its surrounding theories. It should give you more of an idea of what I'm trying to do and where I'm trying to come from.
Okay, I just read back on this thread. First, I would not want to dissuade anyone from asking questions. But, I get the feeling that you want someone to basically write your paper for you and tell you how to go about doing it. That is interesting. Especially if this is supposedly a thesis. I thought that when writing a thesis, the individual was to come up with an original and educated point of view first, and then set about proving their own theory, both conclusively and independently. That you state that you are constructing a doctoral thesis, but do not actually present your specific theory, strikes me as being a red flag. Again, you can look around all you like. To not look into Chanology as a reference point while researching WWP as your specific focus of your research seems illogical. Have you ever gone to different parts of the web, like AOL or Huffington Post , CNN or just about every other news or lifestyle related type of forum, even if it is something as dumb as TMZ, or even Twitter for that matter, and noted that most of the posters there either make replies or comments either anonymously, or a variation of that, but using some pseudonym. In other words, some form of "anonymity" is actually very common all over the internet. What would be the difference between that type of pretty ambigious or impersonal exchange versus what you claim to have observed on WWP? And, what is your specific thesis statement? That is a critical thing to address, because it is the first and most important step in writing / researching anything with the intention of publishing a paper worthy of the advisors that one needs to consult with in Graduate School. Of course one is going to edit their own work as they go along, but that is a secondary step in writing.
The users of this forum have educated me throughout this thread and only now have I started the interview process. Don't mistake me for someone looking for others to write my paper - rest assured I'm battling this one alone. I don't believe you ever asked? I've chosen to base research on 'The Online Disinhibition Effect' (Suler 2004). The environment in which communication takes place, the nature of communication and the historical activist background of the participants. I disagree. research aims and objectives structure the research process and should be the first step in a research paper. Much like a novel, the title or statement is something that can be tailored at a later date, especially when conducting interviews where further key points that change the direction of research can crop up at any time.
ok. i bet if you were to enter simply the title of this thread in to the search bar, a lot of entries talking about the subject may likely come up. good luck.
I just tried that myself, and nothing directly related came up. nevermind. try google. happy researching.
I've got 7 interviews on the go at the moment (Those who have replied already, be expecting another e-mail shortly) Ideally I need at least another 3 more. Can anyone help?
That fucking coward better tell us his name and affiliation and be reputable. Oh wait, you are all just cunts. Talk to him.
Hi guys, To anyone who's taking part in the e-mail/chat interviews, I'll be replying with some more questions at some point in the next few hours so If you could check your inboxes periodically, that would be ace. Once again, to anyone who would be willing to participate, I still need 2 or 3 more people so if you could get in contact that would be brill. cheers again, Sean
Reading through your thread Sean, I would be happy to help through PM. I may not be the most educated or provide the best responses but I'm happy to see if I can lend you a hand in your research.
Just a heads up to everyone that I've now sent out all of the 2nd stage of replies to e-mails/chats. If you haven't had a chance to have a look yet, if you could do that as soon as possible it would be really helpful! To those that have replied, I'll be sending out another message to you at some point today. To anyone else, I would be really grateful if anyone else could participate. Pop me through a message if you think you can help and I'll follow it up asap. cheers, Sean
I'm sure it was an oversight, give the guy a break, he's working to a deadline. Volunteer its fast and painless I can assure you.
It's basically the standard batch of "HOW DO YOU ANONYMOUS?" with some added specifics about how you interact with the community here. If you've enjoyed doing interviews with any reporters or academics before, it's pretty much the same experience. Hasn't asked any retard questions about personally identifying info.
For the sake of curiosity, I would love to. But for the sake of ethics and uninfluenced information, I'm afraid I'm not going to. If the people I'm interviewing see other peoples answers/ thoughts then there is a strong possibility that their future answers would be influenced. I hope that makes sense? I'd be happy to post all of them afterwards if that helps? cheers, Sean
Hi Guys, Just a quick update for you all. I've coming to the end of my research now and I've got some really helpful information so this is just a quick thank you to everyone who's participated so far! If anyone else could spare a few minutes to answer a few questions then I would be really grateful. As some of the other guys have said, the questions don't involve anything personally identifying and are around the theme of WWP, anonymity and online identity. If you think you could help, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM and we'll go from there. thanks again, Sean
Also, I'm compiling a list of terminology/ abbreviations so the tutor marking my dissertation can understand and interpret the interview transcriptions. I didn't realise how much of a different language you guys all shared until this point! Interesting stuff!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/ http://memebase.cheezburger.com/ http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page http://www.catb.org/jargon/
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Word your answers carefully, and you are no less anonymous that you otherwise are on this board.
And even if you accidentally said something you didn't mean to say, I'm happy to remove absolutely anything upon request and I'm under both ethical and 'University Rules' obligation to remove personal and identifying information from the final transcripts anyway.
Hi guys, I'm coming to the end of my dissertation process now with my final deadline being about 2 weeks away so I'll be going dark for a while whilst I set up camp in the library to become crazy, reclusive and submerged in literature! I just wanted to say a really big thank you to everyone who's participated, be that by posting really helpful things in the thread, participating in my interviews or just generally assisting me along the way. You're a really interesting and fascinating bunch of people and you've definitely all given me a lot to both think and talk about. Rest assured when this is over I'll do my best to keep posting and potentially get involved in anything I can AFK. all the best and good luck! Sean
[Image]http://forums.watchuseek.com/attach...-bolt-through-tuniq-120-bump-fail.jpg[/Image] <<< BUMP! (wtf image tags messed up? gah!) This was actually a really interesting thread in my opinion, even got my own, often idle, brain-pan firing a synapse or two. @ Sean~ When you are all done I'd like to request that you blog your paper/put it somewhere for us ta read, and when you get your results it'd be awesome if you'd tell us how it went! Get yer /b/eh?
