Thank you to all the gymnastics bloggers and fans that have supported the debut of Double Front. Special thanks to Katie from Full Twist and Rick from Gymnastics Coaching for featuring Double Front on their own gymnastics blogs.
The successful launch of Double Front has provided me with more insight into virtual gymnastics communities. I believe the international, open-armed welcome I received is indicative of the passion, consideration and dedication of gymnastics fans around the world. From my experience, gymnastics fans are genuinely enthusiastic about not only the sport but also with sharing information about the sport with other fans. Instead of coveting information and knowledge, they provide access to it and encourage others to do the same. Gymnastics fans are also interested in international news about the sport, not only news from their own countries.
This of course does not mean there aren’t those fans and bloggers who are disrespectful or rude. I’m sure many of you have seen YouTube and blog comments where gymnastics fans are malicious and offensive. The negative comments I’ve seen are mostly about arguments over a gymnast’s execution, artistry or worthiness of being the winner. In a subjective sport like gymnastics, there will always be debates and disagreements over these topics. Gymnastics fans are passionate; their strong feelings about the sport are evident in both positive and negative communications in virtual communities.
Because little academic consideration has been given to gymnastics fans, gymnastics blogging or gymnastics media, I have started this Virtual Gymnastics Communities series to approach theses topic.
Defining Virtual Gymnastics Communities
Virtual communities are similar to physical communities with characteristics like shared interests, values, behaviors, beliefs, and material culture. Online communities, of course, are not limited by physical location and “operate to fulfill goals in multiple online spaces” (Plant, 52). Both physical and virtual communities exist within the context of communication and social interaction.
My conceptualization of virtual gymnastics communities (VGC) includes the online spaces found on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums and YouTube. These communities are comprised of gymnastics fans, bloggers, coaches, media and resources. Like any virtual community, VGC are dynamic and members of the community move in and out of the communities, changing the discourse and culture of the VGC. Many of these online spaces are dedicated to gymnastics only and often times have an “angle” like Russian gymnastics or college gymnastics. Some gymnastics online spaces also include other Olympic sports like figure skating.
Characterizing Virtual Gymnastics Communities
There are several models of online communities. Hagel and Armstrong categorize online communities into four broad areas: communities of interest, relationship, fantasy and (business) transaction. VGC are easily defined as communities of interest, but also have characteristics of communities of relationship and transaction.
Lazar and Preece categorize online communities by their attributes, support software, relationship to physical communities, boundlessness. In my experience, VGC exhibit the attributes I mentioned earlier: knowledge sharing, internationalism, consideration, passion. VGC use all types of social media and websites to interact with other members of the communities, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums. Those participating in virtual communities also participate in physical communities when attending gymnastics meets and events. Gymnastics communities are not either physical or virtual. They are hybrid communities, where members interact in person and online.
A discussion on social media and gymnastics was started on Gymnastics Coaching last week.
What has been your overall experience in virtual gymnastics communities? What social media platforms do you use to interact with other fans?
Virtual Gymnastics Communities, Part II will address membership in VGC and their roles in society, focusing primarily on sports journalism and sports blogging.
Double Front 
Rick McCharles
December 28, 2010
The most important virtual community are bloggers and other sites that have an RSS feed.
That group of folks see almost every post title via an RSS reader. And click through to read a percentage of them.
Next most important, I’d say, are the walled garden forums. Small but more tightly focused.
Facebook is scattered. Brigid the Couch Gymnast likely has the biggest network of gymnastic friends. And somehow finds the time to ready through the non-gymnastics stream to find some gems.
I doubt even Shawn or Nastia truly get much value out of Facebook. Crap tweets of no interest must exceed 90%.
Some sites like USAG or FIG get a lot of hits. But I’d not call it a community. One is a parent. The next a club administrator.
I’ve never considered YouTube a community and don’t have time to look at the videos to which I’m subscribed.
For some odd reason Flickr has never taken off as a community in gymnastics. Strange. Since there are sub cultures of dog photographers very active, for example, on that site.
… just rambling
ksboulden
December 29, 2010
Hey Rick,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
I agree that blogs with RSS or email subscriptions are a great tool for building relationships and creating sustained discussions. Blogging platforms give fans more space to create conversations and the ability to regulate information on the site.
I would also agree that websites of governing bodies like USA Gymnastics and the FIG are not a community. (This could be because these sites don’t encourage interaction, because they don’t post timely updates and or because they do not use social media tools effectively).
Although there is increased potential to be inundated with useless information on Facebook and Twitter, I think both social media tools are tremendously powerful at creating an international community, generating real time conversations, and sharing information quickly and via mobile devices.
I’d be interested to know how many gymnastics fans who maintain YouTube pages are active bloggers or Facebook/Twitter users. I think YouTube could be considered a tool for fostering community (if not considered its own community) for people who use it in concert with other tools.