Rating community
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A rating community is an online community in which members "rate" each other on various factors and only those whom the community approves are allowed to join. Rating criteria vary depending on the community, but often include musical taste and physical attractiveness. Membership in the community represents the approval of one's peers and is thus a kind of status symbol. Members work to perpetuate the system, since their own authority depends on the exclusivity and desirability of membership. Critics argue that rating communities only strengthen social stratification and elitism. Supporters argue that they are a reaction to traditional stratification, since many rating communities claim to value different criteria than traditional cliques.
Several "crews" exist on LiveJournal that are notorious for their difficulty in admitting new members as well as fielding many applications in a single month. For music, there is fuckyoucrew, for books, thebookyoucrew, for movies, theflickyoucrew, and for art, artyoucrew. A long-standing feud has developed between artyoucrew and the other three. Fuckyoucrew, thebookyoucrew, and theflickyoucrew all had their origins with the same people and there is much cross over among membership.
A fakejournal is a livejournal account created for the sole purpose of trying to gain membership into one of the communities. The journals are always spotted and banned.
The application consists of a livejournal user submitting a top 20 list of whatever the sujbect of the crew is. For music it is bands and artists. For books, all written works (though they state that you can't list just an author). For movies, the 20 best movies. And for art, top 20 paintings. Accepted members vote on the application with either "yes" or "no." If one is unsure a 'relevant top 5' will be asked. Those questions are designed to either expose a weakness or to demonstrate further knowledge. They can be very easy or incredibly difficult. Unanswered challenges will almost always result in a vote of no. Majority rules, and the applicant is either accepted or banned. On rare occasions they may be asked to re-apply at a later date.
Backlash is quite common among rejected applicants. This can result in whining on the applicant's personal journal, complaining in another less exclusive community, and, less frequently, may result in a new community.
Typically, when a new community is created, the first few members to join automatically become members, but all subsequent members must apply and face the judgment of the community. Application generally involves answering a standard questionnaire and posting a given number of photographs of oneself. As in many rites of passage, the process can sometimes be cruel and approach hazing.
While many rating communities are serious takes on vanity and elitism, many publicly state that they are "just for fun" and judge on personality rather than looks. Members of such rating communities claim that the application process is merely a way of distinguishing others with similar interests or personalities with the intention of establishing friendships. Particularly, there is a vast difference between "hot-or-not" rating communities that judge almost exclusively on the basis of looks and are comprised mostly of teenagers, and communities such as thebookyoucrew, which may be viewed as an attempt to establish a forum for intelligent, well-read, passionate people to communicate with one another.
[edit] External link
- Some examples of rating communities on LiveJournal.com, a popular virtual community engine.
