The phrase “joining script” is used in the sociology literature to name the process by which individuals become members of a community. See for example this paper on joining scripts around open source projects.
Joining scripts can run the spectrum from implicit to explicit. The communities where this process is explicit are easier to think about. For example you have to apprentice to become a plumber. Take a course of study to become a doctor. Pass a test to become a lawyer. Be elected to become a school board member.
In other communities, the joining script is left quite ambiguous and fuzzy. Is moving into town enough to make you a townie?
There are presumably complementary processes around communities; for example ones for retiring from the community or for maintaining one’s membership.
When the community has made CommonCause around some artifacts they will have CommunityRituals? for managing additions, subtractions, and modifications of those artifacts. Are these rituals are analogous to the member JoiningScript; probably not very.
The JoiningScript is about how a person changes as he becomes a member of a community. (Well, some of it is about how that person “changes in the eyes of other people”, a change which really occurs in the minds of those other people).
The joining script changes over time, reflecting changes in the community (WikiLifeCycle). At the beginning, it’s fairly easy to join – but you may be asked to do a lot of stuff.
When the community reaches 10 or so people, the members often start to worry about hitting the SmallGroupDiscussionSizeLimit – the CommunityMayNotScale. Sometimes people feel there are “too many” people in the group, so they change the joining script to make it difficult for people to join the group.
See also: WikiJoiningScript
The joining script for CW is quite implicit. For example today I learned a 48x48 rule, who knew
.
grin. it’s implicit, i think, because it’s not really a requirement for being a member. it’s also relatively new – but i notice that there is more of a push for it now, than when i joined. i am not sure whether i consider that to be a good thing. the push, i mean. i like the little photos. i just don’t want people to feel forced into using them.
moving into town is definitely not enough to make you a “townie”, though it depends on the community. i recall a few of them from europe where the immigrants from 40 years ago were still considered “newcomers”.
:Hell, sometimes the third generation are still considered “Blow ins” in country places in Ireland. And the Berliners have a fine distinction between “Geborner Berliner” and “Gebuertiger Berliner”. The latter demands three (I think) generations of ancestors!
Sounds overcome to me. It’s due to the fact that Berlin “exploded” with the industrial revolution. In 1850 it had 500.000 inhabitants. In 1910 it had over 3 Millions. The major growth happened in the 1880ies and -90ies. People massively came to town to work for AEG, Siemens, Borsig, huge suburbian worker-towns were built rapidly like “Siemensstadt”. Suddently only one of six people in town had their roots in Berlin too. The two terms might have been in use, my granny when she was young might have known about them, but they aren’t anymore.
overcome != ueberholt! Ich habs in Gebrauch gehoert, aber eher scherzhaft. War ja schliesslich zehn jahre da (bei Ach Ah Je). Meine Kinder sind geborne Berliner! (Aber keine Gebuertige - meine Frau wurde zu Leipzig geboren).
The new commer is always afraid he will apear to be a jelly donut.
Once driving in a neighborhood in a neglected neighborhood in Boston we drove down a dead end street were some young gentlemen were playing stickball. They stared at us as we slowly worked the car around into the other direction. As we drove away one of them loudly told his collegues: “Ah! He’s wearing a seat belt!”
This is an interesting page. I also wonder about its relationship to WelcomeRitual?.
Evan! Thanks for the edits!
I think it’s part of the WikiJoiningScript to do some editing. B-)
I have a question about the idea of a joining script, which is coming up because of WikiJoiningScript. The question: is a JoiningScript about when you believe you’re part of the community, or when others believe you’re part of the community?
It seems like the example in the above-linked paper (in which I believe I’m quoted! Wow! I participated in this study, as one of the Freenet developers at the time), the concentration is on at what point others consider you part of the community.
It’s probably also worth noting that the term “joining script” is used in typography for script-style fonts where the end of one letter “joins” the beginning of the next letter, as in cursive handwriting.