Capstone project presentation on boards.ie's history and evolution from Masters in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) students at the School of Information and Library Studies (SILS), University College Dublin on 29 July 2011. Research work carried out by Paula MacSweeney, Eva Ryan, Karen Skelly, Kelly Tiernan, Laura Cahill, Ceire Murphy, Amye Quigley, and Roisin Tangney. Supervised by Dr. Norman Su.

1. An Evolution

2. The Study… The Research Team Paula MacSweeney Eva Ryan Karen Skelly Kelly Tiernan Laura Cahill Ceire Murphy Amye Quigley Roisin Tangney 2

3. How has Boards.ie evolved from its original inception? How has this affected its original user base? 3 3

4. An overview…

5. Over 100,000 visitors per day Over 700 forums 382,212 registered users Currently ranked 14thwebsite in Ireland 5

6. Current Competitors… Askaboutmoney.com 6

7. New Accounts by Year 7

8. Literature Review Relevant literature

9. Previous Research History of discussion forums Virtual communities User motivation for posting The internet in Ireland 9

10. History of Discussion Forums Factors contributing to success: Meeting the needs of distinct communities (Notess, G. R. 2009) Emergence from subcultures (Rheingold, H. 1994; Turner, F. 2005) 10

11. Boards and the history of discussion forums Our Interest: Did the founders and original users consider themselves a subculture? If so… How it organised itself? How it regulated itself? 11

12. Virtual Communities “ A virtual social space where people come together to get and give information...” (Preece, J. 2001) 12

13. Virtual Communities “ Like markets and hierarchies, communities are an important source of knowledge. OCs are open collectives of dispersed individuals with members who are not necessarily known or identifiable and who share common interests, and these communities attend to both their individual and their collective welfare.” (Faraj, S., et al, 2011) 13

14. Boards.ie and Virtual Communities Studies focus on general workings of online communities Our Study: Boards.ie focus What role does community play? Do community norms exist? 14

15. User motivation for posting Information exchange (Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. 2011) On-going dialogue and discussions (McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. 2000) 15

16. User motivation for posting Voicing an opinion (Lee, et al. 2006) Enjoyment of helping others (McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. 2000) 16

17. Internet in Ireland 1998 still poor technological climate Major increasein internet access between 1996 – 2000 (35%) (OECD, 2002; Information Society Ireland 1996; 2000) 17

18. Gap in the research? No research within an Irish context Evolution from small subject-specific to very large general forum 18

19. Grounded Theory “ A reaction against the extreme positivism that had permeated most social research” (Suddaby, R. 2006) Constructing meaning out of the inter-subjective experience of users Narrative based on interpretation of history 19

20. Methodology Project Approach

21. DeconstructivistApproach to History 21 (Munslow, 2006)

22. 22

23. Data Interviews with founders Interviews with First Users Quake Archives 23

24. Founder Interviews 4 Boards.ie Founders Semi-structured interviews Approx. 90 minutes in length 24

25. First User Interviews 50 first users contacted 9 semi-structured interviews 6 interviews to be conducted in the forthcoming weeks 25

26. Coding 26

27. First Postings on Quake.ie WWWBoard Archives from February 1998 to July 1998 7290 archived postings analysed and coded 27

28. Content Analysis Coding Results 28

29. Findings Results

30. The Original Vision Founders First Users Community Expansion of a Hobby-site Opportunities for Public debate Updated version of Quake boards Current Reality Information Sharing Resource without Community 30

31. The Quake connection

32. Quake Forum 32

33. Quake Players IT Backgrounds “A lot of people who played Quake were IT professionals” (F2) Gamers “They just wanted to play Quake. Quake players are pretty hardcore and pretty determined” (F1) 33

34. Quake Players Low internet connectivity “It was dreadful. I mean, I couldn’t play when it rained.” (F4) Geographical constraints “The responses that you get from the server is lagged by about 0.2 of a second which makes a huge, huge difference.” (F1) 34

35. Quake Community “…as consequence if you were a Quake player and you could play, you were part of this group and… everybody else were norms...” (F1) 35

36. Quake Beers Offline “We used to meet in Messer Maguire’s pub in the basement, or a section of the basement where just a bunch of Quake players came together.” (F4) 36

37. The move From Quake.ie…

38. … To Boards.ie

39. Boards.ie Founder 1 Vision A place to talk in Ireland A platform to discuss issues 39

40. Boards.ie Founder 2 Vision “ I probably wouldn’t have imagined that it would spread to non-tech types.” (F2) 40

41. Success “We have 400 sign ups a day or something crazy ... yeah we often say we don’t want more people. People are our problem...”[F1] 41

42. First User Perspectives

43. Quake Community Past Present Small Common bond Sub-culture Large Many topics General public 43

44. From Quake to Boards “It didn’t really register --- I don’t think it was a massive jump in terms of change.” (GK) “I’ve vague memories of being surprised. So just a bit of a surprise but not a huge one.” (MO) “It didn’t really affect me at all.” (YM) 44

45. Early Boards Days “Initially when the site was quite small I probably would have glanced at most of the forums. Now it’s become such a large entity that people probably stick to a handful of forums.” (RF) 45

46. Boards Growth & Community Decline Growth in population “ I don’t think that it’s the same sort of community where people would have been probably a lot closer when boards started off ... it was a smaller site and it was very much tailored around those people doing the same sort of activity.” (RF) 46

47. Boards Growth & Community Decline Decline in community feeling “But the old Quake scene slowly declined.” (NS) 47

48. Boards Growth & Community Decline Change in user lives and interests “I’m not a huge participant anymore. I suppose maybe it’s reflective of the fact that I’ve gotten older.” (GK) 48

49. Boards.ie as a corporate entity? “One of the problems Boards has now is that its perceived rightly or wrongly to be a corporate entity...” (RF) 49

50. How do the First Users perceive Boards.ie today? “Irish Human Google” Knowledge sharing Information seeking Local information 50

51. Boards as an information source “It’s really matured in the last whatever ten years. It provides I think a really useful service. A place where people can exchange information.” (GK) “If I’m looking for information anything Irish really and you refine your search to Ireland --- there will be a topic with Boards.ie.” (YM) 51

52. Community in Boards.ie now? Sub-communities within Forums “I think there are definitely communities there because you do have them within the forums...” (RF) 52

53. Limitations

54. Limitations Lack of literature about Irish internet history Interviewing only a small cross section 54

55. Future Work Conduct further interviews with First Users Complete coding and analysis of archive data and interviews 55

56. Conclusion

57. How has Boards.ie evolved from its original inception? How has this affected its original user base? 57

58. The Original Vision Founders First Users Community Expansion of a Hobby-site Opportunities for Public debate Updated version of Quake boards Current Reality Information Sharing Resource without Community 58

59. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Boards.ie for their co-operation & providing us with information. In particular we would like to thank the founders of boards.ie and the early users who agreed to be interviewed for this project. Finally we would like to thank our supervisor Dr. Norman Su. 59

60. Questions?

61. References Brown, T. (1987). Ireland: A social and cultural history; 1922-1985. London: Fontana Press. Faraj, S., Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Majchrzak, A. (2011). Knowledge collaboration in online communities . Organization Science. Ferriter, D. (2004). The transformation of Ireland. London: Profile. Lee, M., Cheung, C. K., Lim, K. H., & Choon Ling, S. (2006). Understanding customer knowledge sharing in web-based discussion boards: An exploratory study. Internet Research , 16 (3), 289-303. McLure-Wasko, M., & Faraj, S. (2000). "It is what one does": Why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 9 (2-3), 155-173. 61

62. Notess, G. R. (2009). Forget not the forums. Online, 33 (2), 41-43. Preece, J. (2001). Sociability and usability in online communities: determining and measuring success. Behaviour & Information Technology, 20 (5), 347-56. Rheingold, H. (1994). The Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerized World. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (2nd ed.). London: Sage Publications. Suddaby, R. (2006). From the Editors: What Grounded Theory is Not. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 633-642. Turner, F. (2005). Where counterculture met the new economy: The WELL and the origins of virtual community. Technology and Culture, 46 (3), 485-512. 62