Many of the readings for this term have emphasized the role of digital environments in developing identity and agency in digitally native users. My assumption in approaching the Weaving Today community is that, in a community of adult "immigrant" users, identity formation is less important. Adult users might be more likely to use an affinity space to create or maintain personal affiliations, or as a resource to find answers to specific content-related questions. During the time when I was working with the site, some changes were made in how information about users was presented, including showing the number of posts for each user next to their avatar. This allowed me to more easily assess the amount of activity of each participant, and bore out the original assumption that users of this site do not spend a great deal of time using it.
My method for working with the Weaving Today website began with reading through the forums provided. I noted the number of posts in each thread, and the types of interactions (whether a single user posted frequently to the same or different threads, whether interaction was call-and-response or involved more chatting, etc.) I then read through the blogs, noting how frequently posts were made and the type of material addressed by each contributor.
Having gathered an idea of how the site's users were engaged, I started looking for the ways in which individuals interacted with the site. This mostly involved reading through posts to see if there were patterns of use that could be helpful in understanding how weavers were using the site in their work. Because the site includes an individual's number of posts next to their avatar, this was fairly easy to track. I looked closely at those who had large numbers of posts but who were not employees of the site's magazine, attempting to find any "super-users" who spent large amounts of time in the space (there weren't any). I also went to the site frequently to see which users were signed in. Once a day or so, I signed in myself.
Once I had determined a general pattern of use, I made my first post. It was to the "introduce yourself" thread, one that does not get a lot of traffic. I identified myself as a student and a weaver, and asked for information about how weavers use digital resources. I received only one answer, from the "queen bee" of the website, who provided a summary of digital weaving resources:
For all that weavers use tools and methods that have changed very little for hundreds of
years, we also use an amazing number of digital products and processes. We communicate
on this website, for one thing, and on others, including mainstream social networking sites.
We create and use electronic books. We use special weaving software to generate designs,
plan colors, manipulate weave structures, and even to drive some looms. We depend on
digital photography and share videos and process photos in ways that speed up our learning
and improve our woven cloth.
Although an individual weaver may use any of these resources, it is by no means necessary to use any of them for the art and craft of weaving. Assuming that the users of Weaving Today have some facility in digital environments, it seems reasonable to assume that they may be more likely to avail themselves of other digital resources as well.
My method in examining this website has been neither systematic nor exhaustive. What I have found is a discernible pattern of light use, much of which occurs "under the radar," that is, without signing in. This may be because the majority of users don't actually sign up, or because they need not sign in only if they want to make a post (all other aspects of the site are available without signing in). I have yet to receive any additional answers to my digital resource post. Perhaps this is because the participants are too busy trying to figure out how much yarn they need for their next project.
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