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Currently, the only moderator of this subreddit is absent and we've inherited a less than ideal sidebar. Pending admin approval, I'm hoping to be able to modify the sidebar in the near future, to suit our little community. So I ask: What should the sidebar include? What rules are an absolute must? What kind of content would you like to see? Discussion of the direction that this subreddit should take is very much encouraged! – roses_and_rainbows2
https://www.reddit.com/r/bujo/comments/6rzicz/
The creative processes in the community occur naturally, without anyone planning them.
Neither do the members actively meet to develop specific features together. The innovations of the system have therefor been of incremental nature. It has developed alongside the needs and taste of the members who use and share it. This is what makes the present creativity social. Not only do they actively use and modify, by sharing specific creations with the community, they also judge them to be good. One downside of this dynamic is, that enough members have to be knowledgeable enough to recognize something as useful, and be able to spread it in a way that it reaches the rest of the community. The contradiction of the voting and commenting function showed, that this can be tricky. Hence, the size of the community can be both in favor and a barrier for creativity. While a larger audience increases the ways in which something can be developed, through more re-creations, more feedback and more knowledge, it can also be problematic. Especially if the majority does not actively create, but only judge the creations of a minority.
70 community, pictures support the sharing of new ideas, solve problems and report experiences. It is crucial for the evolution of ideas.
Technical features of the environment can support a focus on member created content, instead of the person
The anonymity and absence of a personal page supports a focus on the shared contributions. As no other information, or social cues are present, the judgement of a creation is determined only by its quality, not by the status of the poster. Social creativity benefits from this as everyone has a chance to contribute which leads to more variation.
Two features of the physical environment, can be contradictory, and express an image, which is not shared by most of the active contributors
The active contributors are the minority in contrast to the lurkers. While both groups are important, the lurkers have the power to influence the overall image of the community, by voting on specific content. While the active contributors have different opinions on some topics, these fail to reach the mainstream, as it is expressed predominantly in the comments. Newcomers or outsiders might therefore get a wrong impression about the main topics discussed in the community. As a consequence, they might join for the wrong reasons, or not at all.
The commercialization of consumer created trends, has positive and negative impacts on social creativity
Due to the commercialization of the Bulletjournal some parts of the system have gained more attention and popularity then others. The predomination of the aesthetic focused Journals, in the communities and on other platforms, can demotivate some members to create themselves. They feel pressure to deliver creations of a specific look. On the other hand, the commercialization has increased the popularity and more people have started to participate. This has led to diverse creations and more possible uses.
Trust and supportive behavior led to an “open innovation” mindset which promotes social creativity in the virtual community
The culture in the community is supportive and a certain level of trust is present. They share personal problems and receive emotional support. On a “task” level, this is
71 reflected in the norm to freely copy, share, replicate and modify each other’s creations which is a major driver behind the evolution of the system.
Conflict, induced by mismatches of different motives, can lead to creativity supporting changes in the community
When different motives for participating mismatch, it can trigger a range of negative emotions. One of these mismatches in motives to participate, has led to the formation of a second community. This has generated two separate spaces for two different kinds of creations to develop: one aesthetic or art focused and one productivity or system focused. This conflict on a task level, hence, led to a change in the communities, which opened up for new ways of creativity to emerge.
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5 DISCUSSION
The question which informed the research of this thesis was how factors of the virtual setting, in which the observed communities are situated, influence the creative interaction between the members. The exploration of artefacts, created by the communities, as well as the observation of ongoing interaction, led to six main findings.
The following discussion aims at examining the findings in the light of the current state of knowledge on creativity and virtual communities. The main goal is to explain what has been learned by combining these two research topics. Particular attention is paid to the discussion of creativity from a social viewpoint and the various factors which influence it in a virtual world.
