Some Insight Into Activity Levels

This week I made another post on my forum where instead of posing a question I provided a response to another member's question. I am currently monitoring how my own post fits into the thread and activity in this section of the forum. 

However, in the process of doing this, I made a fascinating discovery about my forum: Activity Level Titles. What are these you ask? Well when I looked at my post in the long thread, I saw under my username the title "snail". I was rather confused (and my ego a little bruised) when I saw this. Then, I saw that under each member's name there was an animal name. From recognizing active users on the forum, I deduced that the speed of the animal corresponded with the amount of activity that group member had in the forum. 

My suspicion was confirmed when I clicked on an icon next to a random user's name. Along with the animal name, I could learn how many "community points" this user had, and what their "community rank" was. With each post a member makes, they earn points. When I clicked on my own profile, I learned that I only have 10 points for my two posts in the forum, and that my rank is #6,543. Meanwhile, in this same thread there were members who had community ranks as high as #10. I was intrigued by the speed related animal titles so I found a complete listing of the animal titles and the community points required to be assigned one. It is as follows:

Title

Points

Snail

0

Tortoise

20

Mouse

50

Cat

100

Hare

250

Roadrunner

500

Greyhound

1000

Racehorse

2500

Gazelle

5000

Cheetah

10000

Eagle

25000

Falcon                                                                                                                                             50000

I found it very creative to relate the activity level on the website to speed; I would imagine the competitive runners on this forum get very excited when their activity level raises them up to a new animal level. When you click the icon by a member's name you are also able to see their "profile", which along with their ranks and points, provides one with the posts that member has made and the posts that member has "liked". 

This new discovery about the ease of discovering who is "active" on the forum and who is not fit into my theory about possible exclusivity in the site. I previously felt like my post was ignored by some members, and now that I know members could easily see how new I was to the site, my suspicions are somewhat confirmed. While it is probably beneficial to know if the person responding to you is an active member of the forum with "credibility", it also makes new members stick out a little bit. I haven't decided if this is a good aspect of the forum or not. Anyone have any thoughts about this? 

Personal Records and Digital Citizenship

 As I looked through my forum on running, in search of examples of Digital Citizenship, poor or positive, I came across a very interesting post. A forum member posted a question yesterday and has already received 85 replies. The question was: 
"Have you ever looked at another person's PR (Personal Record) and laughed? C'mon...be honest" 

Upon reading this post I was prepared for all sorts of negative Digital Citizenship. My snap judgement was to expect elite runners to describe laughing at all sorts of "pathetic" personal records. I expected justifications for laughing, but definitely expected laughing. However, I was once again shown that assuming does not usually turn out well.

Most of the responses to this post described how rude it would be laugh at another runner's PR. Many of the responses emphasized the fact that PRs are PERSONAL, and that each person deserves to be proud of where they are in the journey of running. The original poster chimed into the conversation to clarify why he asked the original question, explaining:
"I did overhear a coworker do so yesterday and it really bummed me out. It just made me think... is runshaming something that is done now?" The runners in this forum seemed to respond with an overwhelming opposition to the act of runshaming. However, based on other posts I have read on the forum, I do feel that runshaming can occur, but in a much more subtle way. It seems to me that while these forum members would never openly laugh at a fellow runners' PR, they do demonstrate a touch of arrogance at times in their conversations on the forum. 

This thread made me realize something about Digital Citizenship, positive and negative behavior on forums is not always obvious. Forums will not always openly display rude behavior; however, when examined closely this arrogance or disagreement may be visible. Nevertheless, I was pleased to see that the members of this forum, at least in the open, scoffed at the thought of making someone feel bad about their Personal Records for running. 

Another fascinating thing I discovered while observing this thread was a side conversation that related to the topic. Apparently during the 2012 election, Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan claimed to have run a marathon in "something around 2:50". The members of this forum discussed how "dumb", or "funny" this "lie" was. One of the members stated, "He lied. And stupidly lied about something that could be easily verified. No one would have had anything bad to say about him if he'd run an average or even a slow marathon. But claiming sub-3? Lame.

My First Post in the Forum

This week I made my first post in the forum "Runner's World". I spent a bit of time choosing a section and thread to respond to in my first post. I decided that my first step should be responding to a thread, or joining the conversation in a thread, rather than creating my very own thread. I thought this might lead to more responses than my own solo post. In the "5K to Half Marathon" section, I joined a thread titled "Sub-45:00 10K in 2014", which is a thread about peoples goals to achieve a 10K time under 45 minutes. While running under 45 minutes would be a stretch for me in 2014, I am currently training for a 10K, and that race is the area where I am interested in improving. 

Once I chose my thread, I posted the following reply: 
"Hey everyone, I love the advice about10K running. I have not ran a 10K in over a year but I have taken the plunge and signed up for one on Dec 22. Any advice for last minute training? I have about 3 weeks left to get ready and I appreciate any suggestions!"

I hoped that my general post would spark any number of responses, and I genuinely hoped I might get some advice from these runners who seem far more advanced than myself. After 6 days I am somewhat disappointed to report that the only response I received was the following:

"Sorry! No advice here. I'm training for my first! I guess my only advice would be to race where your fitness is now."

While I appreciated the honesty and the fact that anyone replied, I was amazed at the limited response. I was especially surprised that the person who started the thread, and who is quite active in the thread, did not respond to me in any way. Since my post on Sunday, several other members have posted unrelated responses, to which the starter of the thread and many other members have responded. What I believe I have found is that within this particular thread, the elite runners seem to be, while not hostile, a bit cliquish. Many of these members post every day, sometimes even several times a day. They are in the "inner circle" of the thread, and the forum in general possibly. I however, am a new member, who many of them do not feel the need to engage in conversation. However, I am hopeful that in another section and thread I may find better luck. There is a whole section of the forum for beginners, which is where I think I will make my next post. It was interesting to observe that what may appear like good digital citizenship, may be more exclusive than you might think.