Facebook it.

I think almost everyone has heard about Facebook by now or better yet, has their own Facebook page. Facebook is an example of today's social media and it's growing in popularity all over the world.
For all of the Facebook users out there, I found this video on Youtube which I found to point out some of the 'lesser' and even annoying parts of Facebook. You might or might not agree with them but check it out. This shows that eventhough your idea for a community might rise to great popularity, you still have to be on the lookout for improvements. And yes, I do agree with most of this guy's points.

Part of a community...

Well, i've been trying to find my way on fangoria and seeing what it is all about. And so far it's been ok. It takes some effort to become engaged at a community. You have to be willing to put time in it and through that establish a persona inside the community. This way you start to connect with other members. I'm usually more the lurking type so sometimes I really have to push myself in order to comment or really contribute something legit to the topic. Though i have to admit it's been interesting to be more active on a forum. I still have a way to go and things to uncover but i'm enjoying 'the ride'. More on that 'ride' next time.

Taking the 'lead'.

Last time in class discussion we talked about how to be a 'leader' on your community or how to lead it. When setting up a community it is always important to understand and know how to maintain order and make sure your community will become a place where people enjoy coming to and engage with others.
Sometimes this is easier said then done and for newcomers it might come in handy to have some support. When browsing the net I came across this forum. It's a resource for owners and administrators of online communities. Since we're making an online community of our own in class and we also have to think about this stuff, this site might be useful and maybe provide you with the answer to a problem you've been looking for!

www.theadminzone.com

Entering the world of Horror.

Well it's time to continue my ramblings about my journey into the world of the Horror fandom. In my last blog I mentioned I was going to join the Fangoria community. And so I did.
I've been hearing all these fancy stories from classmates that joined different communities and got all these questions when creating a profile. Well, that wasn't the case at Fangoria. To register they only want your username, a valid e-mail and password. And then there's these two weird questions about what year it is? I mean, that was kinda weird to ask. But i guess it's all for a reason. To conclude the registration process I had to agree to their rules and confirm I was 13 years or older. And after all that the gates to the Fangoria community were opened.

Once you entered the community you can update your profile with a signature, gender, location and set how you want to receive e-mails and updates. It's kinda minimalistic, so your behaviour on the community itself will define your personality to others since you can't really get that information out of the profiles.

Well I'm a member of the community so now it's time to start digging and become an 'active'. I already saw they have a topic section to introduce yourself so I'm thinking that will be my next step! I'll let you all know what will follow so come back soon for more!

To be continued...

It's you but also not.

After last weeks discussion in class about virtual personalities I came across a video on youtube about virtual personalities or avatars. It showed this created avatar saying a, what seemed, prerecorded message. It looked kinda interesting so I visited the website that was displayed in the movie.
It appeared to be a website about MiVatars, which according to this site are:

"MiVatars are animated lifelike, interactive Avatars designed to enhance the way you communicate with your friends across social networks and more. Forget about boring, lifeless emoticons and download a miVatar today and change the way you engage your social network on sites like Facebook, MySpace and more."

They have a bunch of these MiVatars on there, each with a few different lines to say. I figured that this might've been interesting to share. Maybe some of you out there like them, to spice up your Facebook page or whatever social network you're using.
The idea of it is interesting, at least I think so. We all crave to create characters online. For example the use of avatars (BuddyPoke!)on the Dutch social network site 'Hyves' has become quite the succes. They appear on a lot of profiles these days. So there's a certain need we have for these cartoony characters to reflect our persona.

It looks like the people behind the MiVatars haven't taken it to its full potential, but there's still some free ones to grab. So who knows? There might be a Mivatar to your liking. And we all like free stuff!