Hi, I've got a draft paper I'm currently revising for journal submission that introduces something close to this, and though it focuses on political forums, it may apply to others as well. Email me off-list if you'd like a copy (and others feel free to do so as well). ~DEEN Nils Löber wrote:

Dear list members,

in the course of researching for my master's thesis on image board culture (think 4chan, LOLcats, Rickrolling etc.) I have been trying to find literature describing a typology of internet forums and forum-like precursors (BBSes/USENET/...) with respect to formal properties such as moderated vs. unmoderated, anonymous vs. pseudonymous vs. real names, distributed vs. centralized and so on.

Even though I put quite some effort into finding literature, I couldn't find anything even closely approaching a comprehensive overview/typology. In fact, the wikipedia article on internet forums was as close as I came.

Can anyone here help me out and point me to relevant sources? Many thanks in advance!

Best regards Nils Loeber _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

-- Deen Freelon Ph.D. Student, Communication University of Washington dfreelon@u.washington.edu ReCal = online intercoder reliability calculator http://dfreelon.org/utils/recalfront/

Nils, I've found the following useful: Matzat, U. (2004): "Cooperation and Community on the Internet: Past Issues and Present Perspectives for Theoretical-Empirical Internet Research," Analyse & Kritik, 26, 63-­90. The author doesn't provide a comprehensive typology of online fora, but focuses on a key issue: the conditions under which an online group can be considered to be an online community. Rob -- ------------------------------------- Dr Robert Ackland Fellow and Masters Coordinator Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute The Australian National University e-mail: robert.ackland@anu.edu.au homepage: http://adsri.anu.edu.au/people/robert.php project: http://voson.anu.edu.au ph./fax: +61 2 6125 0312/+61 2 6125 2992 mail: Coombs Building, 9 Canberra, ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA Information about the Master of Social Research (Social Science of the Internet specialisation): http://adsri.anu.edu.au/study/msr.php ------------------------------------- Nils Löber wrote:

Dear list members,

in the course of researching for my master's thesis on image board culture (think 4chan, LOLcats, Rickrolling etc.) I have been trying to find literature describing a typology of internet forums and forum-like precursors (BBSes/USENET/...) with respect to formal properties such as moderated vs. unmoderated, anonymous vs. pseudonymous vs. real names, distributed vs. centralized and so on.

Even though I put quite some effort into finding literature, I couldn't find anything even closely approaching a comprehensive overview/typology. In fact, the wikipedia article on internet forums was as close as I came.

Can anyone here help me out and point me to relevant sources? Many thanks in advance!

Best regards Nils Loeber _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/