One of four blessing this holiday season
Bounty
This is the second in the 4 part series, addressing the blessings we share as part of this wonderful community. The first blessing addressed was community published Monday December 16, 2013. Today’s blessing is Bounty and the two remaining blessings are Friendship and Support. I hope you enjoy the blessings of this holiday season, and I know if you are reading this blog, you are enjoying the blessings of being a member on TUDiabetes.org or any other social media site where you find sustenance.
What is the bounty of our online community? It can be found in the wonderful people, content, and relationships we form with each other. We have perhaps the finest web content that is related to diabetes, and its care. I think you will have to agree that among various web sites TUDiabetes offers the best of the most important items in a diabetic web site.
Bounty in this context means plenty, largess, or abundance. Bounty is defined by Dictionary.com as:
“a generous gift or generosity in giving” ("Bounty," 2013) .
So the point is that in my opinion TUDiabetes.org and other diabetic social media sites offer diabetics the blessing of bounty. That is they offer us a generous gift of content, friendship, discussion, information, and expression. When we post a discussion item (ask a question) we participate in the bounty of the TUdibetes site. When we answer a discussion item we add to the bounty. It is true, bounty is one of the one four major blessings we share this holiday season.
Of course our bounty is shaped by the limits of contribution. Li writes about online communities that “the growth of online communities may be attributed to the valuable information they make available, but what is more important in sustaining the online communities are the people who contribute that information—information that benefits all members of the online community and attracts new members” (2010, p. 3). Certainly we have a bounty of both content and individuals who contribute to that content. Have you ever noticed the wide variety of content that is generated in our community? It runs from blog posts like this to questions about diabetes, both simple and complex to the silly random comment that brightens our day. Yes it is true the variety of topics covered, the respect in how they are covered and the real world way in which they are answered does do as Li suggests provide “valuable information” (2010, p. 3) that is useful, interesting or funny for a vast majority of members.
Take for instance the online Thursday lecture series. Think of the incredibly valuable information that the Thursday lecture series brings us. For instance, then master chat series, the complete diabetes organizer, the big blue dance party, the creators of the bionic pancreas, and the director of Marjorie’s fund. Who else provides that kind of content in the diabetic web space? The truth is no one does and like our other blessings we share in these as well.
In addition to a richness of information we also have a richness of people. Have you noticed, as I have the great variety of people who routinely grace our site? We are blessed with participants; from Europe, Africa, South America, Central America, North America, Australia and people form some Asian nations. We are blessed with young people who find us as they try to manage their new life with diabetes, people who do not have but who support diabetics, the so called type 3’s and of course we have experienced hands that contribute daily to the discourse of the web site. People like my friend Shoshana27 who have lived with diabetes for over 70 years, and who still teach me a thing or two each time I encounter them. It is a vast ever recycling learning community. Full of resources, and experiences, that keeps us grounded, hopeful and going forward, even with a chronic disease.
Finally, we are truly blessed with the bounty of well-behaved members. Now this is not always the case in other organizations and it would not be here if not for the work of volunteers, and paid staff who support the community standards. How many boards give welcomes to every member, often form multiple people? None I know of. How many other times have those of us do welcomes heard, the thanks of people who come to our web site and remind us that TUDiabetes just feels different? For those of us who have visited other sites we know that most sites are full of backbiting, sniping at each other and flame throwing in discussions.
Lee conducted a study of online groups and the various initiatives used by perpetrators and those who are victimized alike. What was found in general is that when attacked people tend to withdraw and only as a last resort do they strike back (2005). Also left unchecked when people flee the web site, those sites devolve into a normal routine of self-destructive behavior (Lee, 2005) . I think we can all agree that that the people who have chosen to cast their lots with this site, have chosen to forgo the bullying that often occurs on other sites. Truly we are blessed with the bounty of good people and for that we are far better.
References
Bounty. (2013). Retrieved from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bounty?s=t
Lee, H. (2005). Behavioral Strategies for Dealing with Flaming in an Online Forum. The Sociological Quarterly, 46(2), 385-403. doi: 10.2307/4120995
Li, X. (2010). Factors Influencing Willingness to Contribute Information to Online Communities. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 2010 Annual Meeting.
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Rick