The convention of being authentic

Townsville Free Stuff attracts its readers through the offer of free items in the local area.  Often it is a brief description accompanied with a picture.  Items appear to be shown in its current reality instead of being polished up with the description through false advertising.  If the item is run down the members can see it is run down.

There are generic rules for members to follow.  They include who can join – local adults with items to giveaway for reuse or recycling. The items must be free. Business advertising is not allowed unless services being offered are free.  People are not allowed to request items as it is a giving site.

 

Behavioural conventions include being kind and courteous.  Members must also abide by Facebook rules, and liquor and council law – for example for the giving away of pets. Bullying, derogatory comments or bad language directed towards other members or admin will not be tolerated. You will be blocked from the group without warning. If you regularly waste people’s time, you will also be blocked and banned from site.

If the item you are giving away has been picked up, it has been requested that the member please be so kind as to delete your post or comment on it that it has gone so admin can remove it. This is to keep the site up to date.

It is encourage to notify the site’s administrator of any spam post so that they can be blocked and banned. The administrator states to enjoy the site and thanks members for giving freely

 McNeill writes that “[e]ven in a public venue, diarists do not typically advertise that they are adopting a disclosing attitude towards overhearers—doing so would compromise the ‘authenticity’ of the reading experience by reminding reader’s of the diary’s public setting” (2012, p.322). The majority of participants within this virtual network do not compromise the authenticity by disclosing their attitudes towards overhearers.  However, the administrator seems to be an overhearer/overwatcher.  While most of the time, she pops in and writes to remind us of the rules, but in a recent post she asked a member to reduce how many items he acquires for the community gardens he sets up.  The member replies with his attitude. See below:

 

 
Within this site, it is hard to see the whole of a person to see if they are complete real and natural; one would have to stalk all 4000+ members throughout their Facebook pages to gain a better picture of the real selves.  But with regards to power, there seems to be a bit of a power struggle going within the above goings on.

McNeil L. (2012). Diary 2.0? A genre moves from page to screen. In Rowe & Wyss, Language and New Media: Linguistic, Cultural and Technologies Evolutions. Cresskill New Jersey:  Hampton Press Inc.