One of my adult passions has to been to invest and manage real estate, notably in the city in which I reside: Hong Kong. I decided for this assignment to become active in one of the online expat website’s forum related to buying, selling, investing, and managing real estate in the city.
Assimilation into the forum was fairly simple. I created an account and began posting and commenting on topics I found interesting or just had something to say. Most of the topics can be divided into two main areas: predicting the future, and asking advice. I tended to start first in the advice category, commenting on various posters’ questions concerning the buying process, tips to rent out their flat, how to deal with a bad tenant, and so on. As I became more comfortable with the forum, I started to explore posting in the “prediction” topics. These topics tended to be much more emotional and tense than the simple advice topics. I believe this was due to the fact that many of the posters were heavily invested, and their net worth was closely tied to the outcome of their prediction.
To me, it is very clear which posters are accepted, and which ones are ignored or discounted from the responses that are posted. Whether or not posters agree or disagree, the manner in which they do represents whether or not someone is accepted. An outright rejection, personal flaming or ignoring a post can mean that the poster is not accepted, while a cogent response (even an emotional one) which relates to the topic can indicate acceptance.
Disagreements could get nasty and personal on the forum, as the topics dealt with personal wealth and possibly vast sums of money. People don’t generally respond well when they are told they poorly invested hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a result, emotions tended to run high and flames and insults abounded. These disagreements typically either ended in compromise, a person withdrawing from the thread, or didn’t really end at all. The audience of this forum is somewhat more mature and educated than the average forum, so these arguments tended to resolve fairly quickly, but the anonymous nature of the internet tends to inflame rather than contain emotional outbursts.
The Wood and Smith reading from this week talks about how important the community is to an individual, be it real or virtual. One interesting aspect of this particular community is the fact that posters valued the anonymous ability to ask advice without fear of loaded advice or the responder having an agenda. Traditionally, many financial advisors who offer tips on property have a specific agenda, or are selling something. The online community solved this issue for the posters in a unique way.
The forum I joined contained people from across the city, content to discuss a highly specific topic, a commonly shared passion for real estate. This suggests that culture at large is continuing to use the internet as a source of knowledge, advice and community as opposed to traditional networks. If people are willing to debate serious financial topics in a forum that can determine long term wealth, is there anything people won’t discuss online?
I didn't see to many "nasty" disagreements in the virtual community I joined, but then again I was involved in discussions regarding becoming a parent. I am sure that acceptance and rejection looks different depending on the virtual community. Some virtual communities foster giving and taking advice while others foster debates. I think these differences reflect our culture's individualistic values. We join whichever communities suit our personal interests.
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