Presentation to Cardiff Mixed Speakers Club.

Cyncoed Methodists Church, 18 April 2011

From false hero to Snert: Characterisation in modern
online communities

Jonathan Bishop

Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems
The Institute of Life Sciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP


Abstract Have you ever watched a film, and thought to
yourself, this plot is very familiar or Im sure Ive met these
characters before? This comes as no surprise. Screenwriters
make frequent use of characters and situations, which they
know we will find familiar. It is these plot components and
familiar characterisations that help to keep our interest
engaged.

Keywords: Internet trolling, flaming, Snerts, Trolls, genres

1 Introduction
The Russian scholar Vladimir Propp (prawp) devoted his
career to analysing the plot components of common Russian
folktales. He identified a staggering 31 narrative functions
and eight broad character types (Propp, 1968). These were;
the villain, the dispatcher, the helper, the princess, her father,
the donor, the hero and the false hero. According to Propp,
every story has to have a hero who dominates the storyline -
and nearly always seeks and eventually wins the heart of the
princess
2 An investigation
Let us test this theory of Propps by applying it to the medium
of feature film. Ive chosen Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
(Reynolds, 1991). In this legendary story of a man who robs
from the rich, to give to the poor, Robin Hood is cast as hero
with Maid Marion assuming the role of princess. Some re-
imaginings of the Robin Hood legend cast Guy of Gisbourne
as the false hero while the villain is, of course, the Sheriff of
Nottingham. Marions father presents an obstacle between her
and Robin, although in some versions of the story such as
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves the role of Marions father
is assumed by the woman who shares a house with her, whom
makes attempts to protect Marion. The dispatcher in this
story is a character called Azeem who gets Robin out of
prison, while the donor is Marions brother Peter, who gives
Robin a ring (Propps magical object) and makes him swear
to protect her. In nearly all renditions of the Robin Hood
story, the character Little John takes on the role of helper,
who, without which, Robin would not be able to complete his
quests.
2.1 The feature film and online community genres
The medium of feature film is now almost a century old. Does
Propps analysis of character types still hold true when put to
the test against a more modern phenomenon: the online
community? Some types of online community, such as Multi-
User Dungeons (MUDs), continue to support Propps theory
well, but for the majority the eight characterisations that he
identified they are largely irrelevant. Following some
research in 2008, I identified no less than eleven characters
which exist in online environments (Bishop, 2008). Some of
these were already documented. Others I invented.

3 The Internet Troll
The most talked about and controversial variety of online
community participant is definitely the Troll. The Troll posts
deliberately provocative messages intended to start a fierce
argument (flame war) between other members of the
community (Herring, Job-Sluder, Scheckler, & Barab, 2002;
Porter, 1996). Stepping in to counter troll activity is the Big
Man, so-named after the Big Men in tribes such as the Siane
who form a de facto council that confirms social policy and
practices (Campbell, Fletcher, & Greenhill, 2002; Campbell,
Fletcher, & Greenhill, 2009). Big Men are pivotal in the
community, supporting group order and stability by
personally absorbing conflicts. Snerts are even more badly
behaved than trolls. It is their raison dtre to be obnoxious by
posting messages with the sole intention of causing gross
offense. Snerts are apparent in most online communities and
rarely support or recognize any of the Big Men unless there is
immediate personal benefit in doing so.
The posted messages of Snerts and Trolls may look similar.
However, when you apply the definitions described in my
theory the key differences between them become clear. A
trolls intention is to provoke a reaction, for example by
playing devils advocate in an argument. Snerts, on the other
hand, are only interested in being directly and openly
offensive.
Howard Rheingold, the online community researcher and
author of seminal text The Virtual Community describes
sociable online community participants, who I have now
termed Flirts (Rheingold, 1993; Rheingold, 2000). Marc
Smith on the other hand has identified members of an online
community who, after being banned for unacceptable
behavior, return (as might the Scarlet Pimpernel) with a new


From false hero to Snert: Characterisation in modern online communities

Presentation to Cardiff Mixed Speakers Club.
Cyncoed Methodists Church, 18 April 2011

identity, intent on realising for themselves a form of personal
justice (Smith & Kollock, 1999). I call these E-vengers.
Jenny Preece has written a number of articles on the subject of
empathic communities (Preece, 1998). She has described
sympathetic and empathetic online community participants.
Their common reaction to others may be summed up with the
acronym MHBFY (my heart bleeds for you). I call such
characters MHBFY Jennies. Some community members
known as Chat Room Bobs - are driven by the desire to
achieve sexual gratification through the sharing of pictures
and dialogue of a sexual nature (Jansen & James, 1995;
Jansen & James, 2002). Others I call them Rippers are
characterized by feelings of helplessness (such as 21-year-old
computer expert Brandon Vedas who killed himself during an
online chat session in 2003 Ripper was Brandons screen
name). Finally, there are Wizards and Iconoclasts. Wizards
are the beta testers of the online community. They love a
learning curve and are always open to experiencing advances
in technology. Iconoclasts are the Wizards nemeses, who
seek only to destroy rather than build online communities.

4 Discussion
As I hope I have shown you, the codes and conventions that
apply to one form of new media may not apply to another.
Those characters in films which are merely broadcasted to us
are widely different from those we create as manifestations of
ourselves in cyberspace. So Ill leave you to ponder this -
which character are you?
5 References
Bishop, J. (2008). Increasing capital revenue in social
networking communities: Building social and economic
relationships through avatars and characters. In C.
Romm-Livermore, & K. Setzekorn (Eds.), Social
networking communities and eDating services: Concepts
and implications (). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Campbell, J., Fletcher, G., & Greenhill, A. (2002). Tribalism,
conflict and shape-shifting identities in online
communities. Proceedings of the 13th Australasia
Conference on Information Systems,
Campbell, J., Fletcher, G., & Greenhill, A. (2009). Conflict
and identity shape shifting in an online financial
community. Information Systems Journal, 19(5), 461-
478.
Herring, S., Job-Sluder, K., Scheckler, R., & Barab, S. (2002).
Searching for safety online: Managing" trolling" in a
feminist forum. The Information Society, 18(5), 371-
384.
Jansen, E., & James, V. (1995). NetLingo: The internet
dictionary. Oxnard, CA: Netlingo Inc.
Jansen, E., & James, V. (2002). NetLingo: The internet
dictionary. Oxnard, CA: Netlingo Inc.
Porter, D. (1996). Internet culture. London, GB: Routledge.
Preece, J. (1998). Empathic communities: Reaching out across
the web. Interactions, 5(2), 43.
Propp, V. I. A. (1968). Morphology of the folktale Univ of
Texas Pr.
Robin hood: Prince of thieves. Reynolds, K. (Director).
(1991).[Motion Picture]
Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Finding
commection in a computerized world. Boston, MA:
Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing.
Rheingold, H. (2000). The virtual community: Homesteading
on the electronic frontier (2nd ed.). London: MIT Press.
Smith, M. A., & Kollock, P. (1999). Communities in
cyberspace Routledge.