Be a part of my first Communications assignment!

[yaemes]

Hey, yaemes here. My real name is James, I'm 19 and I've been a lurker here for a few months. I asked a few questions about batteries a while ago and received such great responses that I'd like to be more of a part of the community.

I just started studying at Kettering University (I brought my bike). My first assignment in communications class is a pretty big one. It involves writing about a discourse community. Basically a discourse community is a collection of people that have a common attribute. Like the readers of a blog all visit that blog, or your college friends all go to your college, or everyone that works at your office is, you know, hired by the same company, etc... Discourse communities can have more embedded communities within them as well. Well when my professor was telling us about discourse communities, I was thinking about us, the members of Endless-Sphere. Take a look at us:

So far, I've realized Communications 101 is basically about putting names on sort of obvious things. We have sub-forums for our sub-communities. People that post in multiple forums are part of multiple discourse communities.

This project is about analyzing the way people in a discourse community communicate.

A lot of us know a lot about building ebikes and some of us are actually experts in a relevant field, like Electric Engineering. What I'd need for this assignment is the opportunity to get a document or even a fantastic post that someone from here has written. I also have the opportunity to make a short interview with a professional in our community. If anyone can be a part of my first Communications 101 assignment, it would be great!

 

[317537]

Maybe you need a level in there those who are interested in all parts of the technology.

Honestly I cant think of what parts I like more. Some here just ride e-bikes and share their experiences.

 

[AussieJester]

Best of luck with the assignment, i myself am more into the mechanical/building side of things, i have
two pretty detailed worklogs threads here on ES that might or might not be useful? Welcome to use any or part of them for your
assignment if they can be of use.

Best of luck

KiM

p.s Links to mentioned logs below in my sig

 

[yaemes]

Best of luck with the assignment, i myself am more into the mechanical/building side of things, i have
two pretty detailed worklogs threads here on ES that might or might not be useful? Welcome to use any or part of them for your
assignment if they can be of use.

Hey AussieJester, you rock. The stuff you've written up is exactly what I was looking for so I'll ask you a few interview questions later. Thanks a million!

 

[Zoot Katz]

There are even sub-sub forums to those depicted on your diagram.
I, for instance, rarely read items posted to the non-hub motor forums. Aussie Jester has little interest in hub motors.
We sometimes communicate in the ebike general, technical, general discussion and other forums listed in the board index.

I was a Usenet junkie and sometimes still pull headers from the rec.bicycles.* hierarchy to keep track of friends and trends.
After 10 years most of it is the SOS rehashed.
My interaction is limited these days though three face-to-face connections I'd made there are on my list of Face Book friends.
I've never met the ES member "Chalo" but I've known him for enough years on Usenet to consider him a friend and reliable source of information.

As far as Face Book goes, I may have about four posts there in 18 months or longer. I think Face Book is kinda lame so haven't built a friends list by requesting a link with everybody on there who I do know. I get to see them often enough in real life.

A local forum of fixed and freak bike riders has its cliques and quirks.
I have met, danced, drunk and ridden with many of the people there yet some of them I don't recognise by their pseudonyms.
That's a little disturbing when they call me by the name my mother gave me and I don't know who they are.
Most of them are young enough to be my grand-children and lots of them could be my kids.

Bicycles are the best cross-generation and cross-culture communication device ever invented.

You may quote me on that.

 

[fechter]

Good starting point. I'd suggest adding boxes for trolls, flamers, and spammers. They exist in virtually all forum groups.

 

[Zoot Katz]

Good starting point. I'd suggest adding boxes for trolls, flamers, and spammers. They exist in virtually all forum groups.

A Usenet feature lacking in web based forums is the ability to cross-post.
Sometimes a subject may be pertinent in more than one forum and a user is required to make multiple posts.

 

[AussieJester]

Good starting point. I'd suggest adding boxes for trolls, flamers, and spammers. They exist in virtually all forum groups.

A Usenet feature lacking in web based forums is the ability to cross-post.
Sometimes a subject may be pertinent in more than one forum and a user is required to make multiple posts.

Interesting you mention this Katz, i just received a few emails from a forum i have never visited to find a topic discussing my DIY Springer fork LoL seems it was 'cross linked' from a forum i had a worklog on. i had never seen this before, do the two forums need to be in 'partnership' or is it simply a 'random' thing do you know?

KiM

 

[Zoot Katz]

Good starting point. I'd suggest adding boxes for trolls, flamers, and spammers. They exist in virtually all forum groups.

A Usenet feature lacking in web based forums is the ability to cross-post.
Sometimes a subject may be pertinent in more than one forum and a user is required to make multiple posts.

Interesting you mention this Katz, i just received a few emails from a forum i have never visited to find a topic discussing my DIY Springer fork LoL seems it was 'cross linked' from a forum i had a worklog on. i had never seen this before, do the two forums need to be in 'partnership' or is it simply a 'random' thing do you know?

KiM

I was speaking of cross-posting between different forums on the Endless-sphere site.
I imagine lots of start-up forums are dying for lack of content so might "borrow" from more established forum sites.
Bikefourms.com started by siphoning posts from the Usenet rec.bicycles.* newsgroups.

 

[yaemes]

Hey, 317537, we were saying in class that putting you in one discourse community doesn't stop you from being in another. So you can post on lots of subforums and be a part of multiple discourse communities.

Zoot Katz, I'm putting what you said about the distinction on subsubforums and how bikes are even a communication tool. If I can make a good argument about how bikes are one of the ways our discourse community communicates, I think that distinction can bring up my grade.

Thanks for all the responses!

 

[yaemes]

AussieJester!

Will you do this interview?

Are you a mechanical engineer?

You have an awesome post about your e-trike project, and obviously you post here frequently. What other kinds of writing do you do?

If writing is not your primary method of communication with other people who make or ride e-bikes, what other ways do you communicate?

Do you think that bikes can be a form of communication between generations?

What communication skills would you recommend to someone new to Endless-Sphere?

What is it like to have used your knowledge and skills to build something that helps you cope with your disability?

 

[317537]

Hey, 317537, we were saying in class that putting you in one discourse community doesn't stop you from being in another. So you can post on lots of subforums and be a part of multiple discourse communities.

Zoot Katz, I'm putting what you said about the distinction on subsubforums and how bikes are even a communication tool. If I can make a good argument about how bikes are one of the ways our discourse community communicates, I think that distinction can bring up my grade.

Thanks for all the responses!

Ahh that works too.

Just my stats are then in multiple boxes, make sure you put this into your math.

 

[317537]

Good starting point. I'd suggest adding boxes for trolls, flamers, and spammers. They exist in virtually all forum groups.

:lol:

That should make the project interesting. I hated all this social learning at school. It really makes learning mechanical. When you understand the dynamics of communication when broken down into figures, flow charts in perfect detail by then you litterally have missed the point.

The mind boggles with this subject to me.

Communication?

Learning how to communicate with women wins the confusion award.