We explored narrative interview data from three super-users, all of whom agreed to divulge their real names. We also extracted these super-users’ relevant posts from the forums to expand upon their interview responses. The prolonged amount of time that super-users have been members of forums, coupled with their extensive interactions forums, made their interviews and postings ideal units of analysis.
Our first super-user, Armen, goes by the screen name icedneonflames and has been a member of Brave Boards since 2001. Armen has earned Metal Guru status after having posted more than 10,000 times. A local musician, Armen originally joined the forum in search of other musicians with whom to have discussions. In the 10 years since Armen joined Brave Boards, he has posted 22,052 times (as of July 29, 2011) and logs in on a daily basis.
Jenny, another Metal Guru, and our second super-user goes by the screen name corvidae. She has been a member of Brave Boards for close to eight years and has 19,043 posts (as of July 29, 2011). Although she does have a screen name, Jenny does not refrain from using her real name when online. Using the forum to help organize an annual “heavy-metal picnic” at Hyde Park in Toronto, Jenny demonstrates that there is considerable overlap between her online and offline lives.
Our third and final super-user, Ilya, originally joined Encyclopedia Metallum in order to broaden his musical tastes and learn more about heavy metal. Today, Ilya’s wide knowledge base of heavy metal music, combined with his knowledge of forums and locating information on the Internet, make him a valuable expert in both the musical genre as well as forum and Internet usage. Ilya tends to log on daily to various forums to read what has been written and to make contributions.
In addition, we include analyses of interviews from two browsers, Derek and Mark (both pseudonyms, as they asked that their identities remain confidential), who typically visit Blabbermouth and Encyclopedia Metallum.
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