Many traditional Internet forums have not adapted to the development of the web and their usability standard is low. In order to satisfy this unexplored market segment Zoorum AB is working on a project with the goal to develop a new kind of Internet application for topic oriented discussions. The goal of this master thesis is to design a usable Internet forum, in association with Zoorum AB and Teknikhuset AB. Our challenge was to manage the designprocess, contribute with competence in interaction and usability and functionas a connection between the technology and the users. The result is presented as guidelines for design and visualized in the shape of mock-ups.

With the advances in technology and popularization of the Internet, the interaction of human beings in real society has extended to the Internet forum. Due to the low barrier for entering the Internet, people can always speak their mind freely and make comments on whatever they want to. Behind a world that seems to have freedom and equality of speech, the expression of opinions is being tested by standards of different cultures and living backgrounds. Using Gossiping¢wthe most popular and interactive board on PTT¢w as the source data, this study identifies the spiral of silence between the mainstream opinions and non-mainstream opinions. Where the spiral of silence occurred, the study also examines the force which affected the spiral based on the theories of stigma and analyze its accompanying meanings. With different positions, people resulted in different critical standards and stigma phenomenon. When facing stigma, people should realize the causes of things from the social and cultural dimensions, and rethink the positive meanings that stigma brings to us instead of being afraid of it.

The growth of textual content on internet forums over the last decade have been immense which have resulted in users struggling to find relevant information in a convenient and quick way. The activity of finding information from large data collections is known as information retrieval and many tools and techniques have been developed to tackle common problems. Cluster analysis is a technique for grouping similar objects into smaller groups (clusters) such that the objects within a cluster are more similar than objects between clusters. We have investigated the clustering algorithms, Graclus and Non-Exhaustive Overlapping k-means (NEO-k-means), on textual data taken from Reddit, a social network service. One of the difficulties with the aforementioned algorithms is that both have an input parameter controlling how many clusters to find. We have used a greedy modularity maximization algorithm in order to estimate the number of clusters that exist in discussion threads. We have shown that it is possible to find subtopics within discussions and that in terms of execution time, Graclus has a clear advantage over NEO-k-means.

In popular culture, the integration of mankind and technology is often a tale of experiments gone wrong. For a biohacker, however, “going wrong” is an integral part of the project to update the human body. This study takes aim at the subculture of biohacking through the lens of technology and gender. More specifically, the intersection of gender and class in masculinist and queer constructions of identity. Additionally the study examines the entanglement of risk, gender and the body in grinder practice. Transcripts from the internet forum biohack.me were downloaded and relevant parts were selected. Through discourse analysis, articulations were read in relation to gender, class and the corporeal. The reader is provided with an outline of a “grinder subject”. This is identified as the a product of an cyber culture built on an ideology of DIY and freedom of information. It presumes an essence of humanity, uninformed by gender and body politics, just waiting to be hacked. Masculinist constructions of such a discourse includes an underdog “man-of-action hero” as a rebellion against established elites, and a technological martyrdom. The study informs the reader on an ongoing identification process regarding the integration of body and technology, beyond traditional spaces such as the research hospital. The study confirms well-established feminist views on discourses about the body and technology as implicitly gender marked as masculine. Additionally, a reluctance to discuss politics of the body as well as a indifferent or negative view of queer voices in such a situation. A rebellion against institutionalised bio-power might theoretically blend well with a corporeal feminist critique on gender, but is instead trumped by fear of ridicule and ambitions of mainstream acceptance. However, the study observes a a glimmer of traditionally marginalised and queer folk speaking up about their experiences within a context of grinding. This also questions the notion that discussions of the body and technology assert a binary gender system. A feminist theoretical view on grinder practices requires a analysis of the body open to scrutiny, modification and harm. In discussing “aftercare”, a collective/individual management of risk emerges as a gendered cyborg concept, and the body as an essential agent in the grinder project. This is articulated through encouragement and concern when presented with failed grinder projects.This further supports the entangling of the body and the biohacker subject as a corporeal and gendered agent.

I det allt mer digitala samhället, har olika samhällsaktörer implementerat digitala verktyg i sitt arbete. Däribland socialtjänsten, som samhällets yttersta skyddsnät och en minst sagt betydelsefull välfärdsaktör. Det relateras till syftet med denna kvalitativa fallstudie, som har varit att undersöka det sociala arbetets innehåll, på det webbaserade råd- och stödforumet Soctanter på nätet. Fallstudie har använts som forskningsstrategi och analysmetoden består i en tematisk analys. Studien tar avstamp i hermeneutiken och Zygmunt Baumans teori "liquid modernity", som har använts för analys av frågor och svar. Därutöver används begreppen makt och maktutövning, vilka har förankrats i Foucaults maktanalys. Studien visar att de som ställer frågor på forumet har olika relation till socialtjänsten. Vissa har en etablerad kontakt, andra har inte det och vissa ställer frågor åt någon annan. De frågor som ställs berör olika områden inom socialtjänsten, men även sådana som faller utanför. Utvecklingstrender har också visats, när det gäller frågorna som ställs. Däribland speglar dessa det aktuella samhällstillståndet som råder. Bland frågorna har också en trend angående anonymisering kunnat spåras. Ett annat resultat är att svaren som finns många gånger är generella samt att frågeställare ofta blir upplysta om rättigheter och skyldigheter. Därtill visas det att frågeställare har en syn på socialtjänsten som sakkunniga, oförstående och i vissa fall ett emotionellt stöd. Det är tydligt att det sociala arbetet befinner sig i en digitaliserad era. Vi har i den här studien kunnat konstatera att vidare forskning om onlinebaserat socialt arbete behövs.

This qualitative thematic analysis study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how the work of social services with children and youths is presented on the internet forum Flashback. The debated topic of social services kidnapping children is a subject that arouses concern and fear among many families, something that can lead to families not daring to turn to social services for help. The empirically guided method resulted in seven different themes. The results indicated a clear negative portrayal of social services work with children and youths. This presentation is based on factors such as social workers low competence, arbitrariness and belief that the children in care of social services are exposed to neglect. Furthermore, it is stated that the social services lack transparency and needs to be controlled by other authorities. Despite a largely negative portrayal, some users shared positive experiences argued with educational commentary against other users. This study also intends to understand the users’ discussions about trust or distrust of the social service. The prominent emotion on the internet forum is mistrust but also ambivalence. Users express that the social work will never be good enough as social services do too much on the one hand, and too little on the other. In conclusion, this study gained an understanding of how the portrayal, together with the users ́ arguments, is the basis for trust and mistrust. I summary, the understanding of trust is an important component in the complex social work. This insight can possibly contribute to authorities and social workers being able to discover strategies of how individuals trust in social work can increase.

The aim of this study has been to highlight and describe the perceptions of beggars, by studying and analyzing empirical data collected through observing different threads on a Swedish discussion forum. We wanted to study how beggars are mentioned in the discussion forum to illustrate the opinions and perceptions. To analyze the data a qualitative method of meaning condensation were used. The result was analyzed from a perspective of deviant behavior and three theories: Goffman's theory about Stigma, Beckers labelling theory and the theory about the established and the outsiders by Elias. The results showed that beggars are categorized and described as criminals, misfits and frauds. The results also gave us the conclusion that there are negative attitudes towards beggars.

Flashback is one of the most well known internet forums in Sweden. People visit the site to discuss different topics, to share information, to express opinions or to read posts by others. On Flashback’s ‘crime forum’ the users gather to share information but also to express opinions. These discussions have a tendency to become heated and with the increased wave of gangrelated violence and shootings in Malmö, Sweden 2018, forums like Flashback play an important role in what information is available to the public. This case was used to form the study’s main questions; How are facts used in threads and what are their sources? How do users interpret these events and how is it expressed through reasoning and personal opinions? How are opinions, behaviour and virtual community formed in an environment based on anonymity? To form a case and further investigate these questions we have organized different Flashback posts related to the Malmö-shootings and categorized them into themes. The interpretations would later on show various conclusions. Some conclusions were predicted, while other conclusions were shown when analyzing the material. The results showed that flashback-users use facts when sharing a link, to strengthen the shared information, to support theories about the case and sometimes when discussing the victims or suspects involved. How users interpret the events on Flashback is based on the intention of the individual. Some users are more likely to discuss political aspects. Other users intend to discuss the matter with an humours tone, these posts can be seen as an disinhibition effect (Suler 2004). Identity has shown to be a useful factor when analyzing an internet-forum. A conclusion from analyzing identity shows that behaviours are encouraged when the fear of being exposed is averted. Overall the result shows that the foundation of the virtual community on Flashback is the information that is shared between users.

Den här uppsatsen har behandlat diskurser på internetforumen Flashback Forum och Familjeliv kring mäns utsatthet för sexuella övergrepp. Syftet var att undersöka hur män som offer för sexuella övergrepp beskrev sina upplevelser av utsatthet samt analysera hur dessa utsagor bemöttes. Genom att dolt studera diskussionstrådar på internetforumen kunde olika diskurser som forumanvändarna använde identifieras. Dessa diskurser analyserades utifrån våldtäktsmyter, hegemonisk maskulinitet och teorin om ideala offer. Resultatet visade hur manliga offer konstruerade sig på olika sätt; de kunde erkänna händelsen men inte offerskapet, sätta sig i förhållande till förövaren eller jämföra med kvinnliga offer. De som bemötte männen uttryckte framförallt olika våldtäktsmyter där den vanligaste myten var att män inte kunde våldtas till skillnad från kvinnor. Att både offren själva och övriga användare jämförde offerskapet med kvinnliga offer tydde på en föreställning om att kvinnor blir tagna på allvar som offer, trots alla exempel på motsatsen. / This study has examined discourses on the internet forums Familjeliv and Flashback, about male victims of sexual assault. The purpose was to examine how male victims described their experiences of victimization and analyze how their stories were responded to. Through a hidden observation on internet forums we could identify different discourses that were used. These discourses were analyzed with different rape myths, hegemonic masculinity and theory of ideal victim. The study showed how male victims constructed themselves in different ways; some admitted to the event but not their victimhood, others compared their victimization with female victims. The users that answered the victims mostly expressed rape myths, the most common were that men can’t be raped unlike women. That both victims themselves and other users compared the victimization with female victims suggests a conception that women always get a legitimate status as a victim, despite all the examples of the contrary.

The aim of this study is to present how English borrowings (loanwords and phrases) are integrated into Swedish grammar and spelling rules. The hypothesis is that borrowings appearing in the unchanged form in Swedish occur much more frequently in internet forums than in press. The study is based on the analysis of a material consisting of around 70 English borrowings found in different entries from one of the largest Swedish online discussion forums, flashback.org. The whole corpus comprises of 661 randomly selected entries. Each of the 70 borrowings appears in every possible spelling variant and grammatical form. The statistics presenting the number of occurrences of a given borrowing come from 38 corpora available at Språkbanken. The material collected from online forums and from the newspapers and magazines, make it possible to compare the quantity of borrowings in these two types of media.  The study consists of a theoretical and a practical part. The former introduces the topic of borrowings while the latter is devoted to the analysis of the specific examples contained in the material.    The theoretical part begins with the presentation of the most popular classifications of borrowings appearing in the linguistic literature. Subsequently, there is a description of the three processes that each borrowed word must undergo before it appears in the recipient's language: the introduction, distribution, and establishment. At last is presented the way in which the grammatical type and the meaning of borrowings change when they enter the recipient's language.    The practical part focuses on the analysis of the examples. The borrowings are divided in nouns, adjectives, verbs and borrowed phrases. The study consists in a thorough investigation of all of the spelling variants and grammatical forms of individual words as well as in an observation of the number/frequency of their occurrence in both media. The study confirmed the hypothesis set out in the beginning, namely, that English borrowings that appear in Swedish in an unchanged form more frequently occur in the online discussion forums than in the press. It is also observed that nouns are the most numerous English borrowings encountered in Swedish, internet forums contain borrowings with a greater number of grammatical forms and spelling variants than the press and the phenomenon of borrowing complete English phrases occurs more often on the online forums than in the press.