My 2 cents ..Interesting discussion, but I don't think that you are right. Sure, some of the most frequent posters will tend to build up a common history. They will use the board for chatting, over time some will even develop friendships. B3ta will become an integral part of their social fabric.
However, I don't think it affects the 'I like this' voting in any decisive way.
First of all, even though there may be a dozen or two of these really active 'core' members, I think that they are far outnumbered by the occasional posters and the lurkers. People who will, without prejudice, click 'I like this' when they see something they like.
Secondly it contradicts my own experience. I am the irregular poster, active at times, less active at other times. My merits include winning the image competition a few times and being front paged on a few occasions. I have also posted a lot of things that didn't work out, ideas that seemed good when they popped up in my head but which in retrospect were dead ends. I generally agree with the 'verdicts' of the board, both when I hit the target and when I fail miserably. I try to make a point of learning from my experiences and I think that b3ta has helped me sharpen my sense of what is funny to other people and what is not. I don't attribute my occasional successes to being a member of any 'clique' since I'm obviously not.
An important thing to understand here is that on b3ta the idea weighs just as heavily as the execution. If you create a really funny or bizzare cartoon, the crowd will not mind that you drew stick people in MS Paint. You will probably also get a round of applause if you create a really beautiful or artsy drawing. But the stick people bizzareness might very well float to the top.
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Fri 29 Oct 2010, 8:16,
archived)
However, I don't think it affects the 'I like this' voting in any decisive way.
First of all, even though there may be a dozen or two of these really active 'core' members, I think that they are far outnumbered by the occasional posters and the lurkers. People who will, without prejudice, click 'I like this' when they see something they like.
Secondly it contradicts my own experience. I am the irregular poster, active at times, less active at other times. My merits include winning the image competition a few times and being front paged on a few occasions. I have also posted a lot of things that didn't work out, ideas that seemed good when they popped up in my head but which in retrospect were dead ends. I generally agree with the 'verdicts' of the board, both when I hit the target and when I fail miserably. I try to make a point of learning from my experiences and I think that b3ta has helped me sharpen my sense of what is funny to other people and what is not. I don't attribute my occasional successes to being a member of any 'clique' since I'm obviously not.
An important thing to understand here is that on b3ta the idea weighs just as heavily as the execution. If you create a really funny or bizzare cartoon, the crowd will not mind that you drew stick people in MS Paint. You will probably also get a round of applause if you create a really beautiful or artsy drawing. But the stick people bizzareness might very well float to the top.