For this project I engaged in different forms of digital ethnographic research, I participated within the community as “Dice” a young social media influencer who is not as popular as they think they are. In crafting my own avatar I found myself choosing someone who is not so far from what I am, a younger gen xer, but also entirely different. I leaned towards picking an exaggerated stereotype of young social media users because it's a realm that I am familiar with and felt I could act out appropriately, but that also felt fun to play. It took me a while to come up with my character, I wasn’t sure whether to go for something so far away from who I am or not. I understand the appeal in trying out an entirely new life to slip into and wonder how my research could have been informed differently had I picked my persona to be “Greg 80 year old Lizard Collector”. I participated in the thread for around a month of time trying to comment on something every few days and do a few hours of scrolling to pick up on insights in the community. Highlights from my participation are shown to the right.
In my own social media use I feel very intimidated by my online presence and what it means whenever I post. This often leads to me not posting at all out of a weird online social stalemate. When using r/HaveWeWet I was at first still timid about posting and engaging with the community but quickly was able to get over it. The separation between your “real online self” and the virtual character is far enough apart to allow more freedom to post without thinking so seriously. As soon as I started posting I also was able to interact with others very quickly . When commenting, even if it's your first one, people in the community whether they are the poster or someone else seem to immediately join in. A lot of the fun comes from a stranger in the town jumping into the conversation as if they know everything about you. This is where I found the exercise of improv they provide for new users very useful, you try to go along with what people are saying instead of contradicting it. This allows for your character to not only be shaped by yourself but also the interactions you have with others and who they decide you are.
I gathered screenshots from different interactions on the subreddit and the meta reddit everyday to gather information. I also noted physical environmental settings through comments and posts that mentioned how the town may look in real life. There are references to different small businesses, unique houses, a creek that is in parts of the town, and a beach the town over that users interact with through comments. I used all of the evidence I gathered to create my digital gif “map” of how I envision this town to look like.
From research I conducted on R/HaveWeMeta the user base is pretty varied. People hail from all different parts of the world and range from high school age to elderly. Many of the character choices made are similar to themselves with slight tweaks to make them more “exciting” or who they wish they could be. Others have multiple alt accounts that they manage, one even mentioning having six, so they can interact as multiple different community members.
I was able to communicate directly with U/Devulah, the subreddits creator, about my project. Before creating a public site I wanted to make sure that my research and work would be welcome in this community. One of the main complaints I have seen from users is that a few times a year the subreddit gets attention by other means, posts in other subreddits or online areas, that cause an influx of users that don’t bother to read the comments. Recently there had been an influx that caused a lot of drama, one new user created a post claiming that hundreds of towns members had died in a shooting which ended up killing off some peoples characters and causing contradictions in peoples storylines. This was heavily complained about in the meta subreddit, r/havewemeta, and many were frustrated with the new users. I brought my research, questions, and proposal to the mod letting them know my hesitancy in posting as I did not want to disrupt the community environment. The conversation I had with them was enthusiastic and showed how much the creator loves the community they created on a whim based on a post of theirs in an unrelated subreddit. I am still in communication with them about how modding goes, what the community was like when it started, and how it's evolved since. It has been interesting to learn through post history how they shifted from using pictures to just text based interactions. Also to learn there are many long term users along with new people popping into town periodically. In my own research I noted many people who posted everyday and in r/HaveWeMeta there were a few users who thanked the subreddit for allowing an escape and friendship during quarantine. The subreddit may seem like it’s all jokes but it has allowed for community building and connection to be fostered on a unique platform.
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For example, nearby towns include Upper Duck Pond, which was founded in a split from Lower Duck Pond and is therefore the main rival. It is full of snooty rich Mormons and is rumoured to be a hellhole. We don’t like Upper Duck Pond, but it does have the better gay bar. Poleville which is really just a large hospital for the mentally ill, Rosewater which is a typical seaside resort and which is the major producer of apricots and Hydroelectric City which is the nearest big city.
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But this does lead me to the topic of the post; be considerate! Please, please, please read the rules before posting. Even if you just want to pop in for a casual “hello” once in a while, the mods/admins have put them there to ensure we all work well together and share in the fun of LDP. The rules are there to encourage good role playing etiquette.
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There used to be a stickied post about it, but now there is no way for new or less active isers to know about this. I’ve seen quite a few posts that involve COVID, social distancing, antimask, quarantine, etc. And everytime I send a dm, saying hey, COVID isn’t actually a thing in Lower Duck Pond... It’s a shame because some of these posts are really well-written, and after receiving my message most of them just delete their post. Only one person considered rewriting it.
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I liked when I first joined LDP and it felt like Pawnee from parks and rec. Harmless, sometimes a little wacky, pleasant and eccentric more than anything. Posts felt like something that could actually appear on a community board for a real town- not like diary entries full of murder and break-ins and arson and deadly romance triangles at every corner. I haven’t been posting as much lately because these storylines seem to have taken over and they’re just so serious and dark.
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You just post whatever and it gets added to the roleplay? Assuming it's reasonable to the storyline, at least? What would be too unrealistic to post?
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What apartments are available? I don't want to guess a random apartment to move into and end up moving into one of your guys's houses, regardless of the fact that I've known you since forever.