this should be fun

Howdy everybody :)

My name is Angela Shi and I'm a junior, majoring in Operations Research and Information (name change!) Engineering. I'm from Canada, like as our professor lol, though I hardly ever say "eh" and I've never heard anyone pronounce "about" as "aboot". However, I do say "washroom" and "pop" and pronounce "z" as "ZED" and all that weird stuff. Since we have so much snow and ice up there, I really like to figure skate and ski, as well as play tennis when the weather is nice. When there was time, I loved to watch soaps and TV serials, especially those dramatic weepy ones that have all those incredibly unbelievable coincidences.

For several years I’ve always spent some time on the Internet each day, but since I arrived at college, that time has apparently increased exponentially. There’s just so much to do online; the checking of emails dozens of times a day, Facebook(though that’s waning slightly), MSN, AIM, online news, games, the list goes on and on. Not to mention the super important sites such as Blackboard and uportal. Currently my apartment still doesn’t have Internet yet, and it feels like I’m cut off from all the significant things that are happening around me.

One type of site that I used to visit regularly are those forums (or discussion boards) dedicated to soaps. Some really well done, established ones are pretty much like an online community with all the essentials, not to mention very unique sub-forums too. These forums probably fit in the asynchronous discussion forum that Wallace discusses, since the boards are made up of threads made by individual posters who in turn, reply to each others’ posts. Also, board moderators are an example of the mediating variable described by Wallace; they step in if a thread gets heated or if there’s bashing involved.

However, forums are not completely asynchronous. The threads are not slow enough that a topic would remain popular for months or even weeks. If lots of new threads are posted then the older ones would get pushed down to the next few pages, and are then forgotten.

There are many types of people who frequent these boards. The ones who usually aren’t registered and simply read other members’ posts are called “lurkers”. There are also members who post each day, spend time writing soap-related fiction, and make graphics. And then there are posters like me, who find forums very convenient and useful for information such as recaps, spoilers and video clips. As much as I like to frequent these sites, I can’t imagine giving my real name to the posters, especially exchanging personal information such as phone numbers. Some members even post to arrange meeting times for fan events all over the country. I guess the Internet really does transcend all boundaries. :)