Software systems form an essential part of Western society,serving as tools to uphold institutions, processes andservices. It is understandable, therefore, that the mostfundamental aspects of programs are their function and utility.But they are not, however, the only things programmers areconcerned with when writing them. On the contrary, programmers also discuss about many otheraspects of software, including the beauty of code. Theydistinguish between different programming styles and expresstheir personal preferences, often by way of admiring andvilifying other people's code. Programmers' identification withaesthetic preferences may give rise to vanity, to disagreementsso entrenched that they deserve the name of 'holy wars' and toother similar phenomena. This thesis describes and analyses these phenomena, whichultimately originate in the human faculty to create andappreciate nuances, to become attached to them and to engage indisputes because of them - even infields as standardised ascomputer programming. Its aim is to expose the aesthetics ofcode, and in doing so, to discuss the symbolic aspects ofinstrumental action at large. Keywords:aesthetics, code, instrumental action,internet discussion fora, programming, symbolic action / <p>NR 20140805</p>

Members of 26 MySpace social groups for self-injury (SI) provided data for this study investigating knowledge of SI, friends’ perceptions of SI, and the impact of online activity on SI. This study proposes that people who have belonged to these online SI groups for longer periods have higher levels of SI knowledge than those group members who have recently joined. In addition, the study proposes that individuals who self-injure have higher levels of SI knowledge than professionals who work with individuals who self-injure. An additional purpose of this study is to explore information regarding the reasons why people belong to online SI groups, the outcomes of participating in them, and their perceptions of their online peers’ and face-to-face peers’ attitudes regarding SI. A convenience sample of 101 members solicited from SI social groups on MySpace completed the survey, which consisted of five sections including the following: demographics, experiences with SI, knowledge of SI, activities related to SI in MySpace groups, and perceptions of online and face-to-face peers’ attitudes regarding SI. The knowledge section of the survey contains a 20 item measure previously used by Jeffrey and Warm (2002). A knowledge score was created based on participants responses to these 20 items. This score was used in the analysis of both hypotheses one and two. Results indicate that participants have a good understanding of SI, based on their mean knowledge score. In addition, results reveal that the current sample’s mean SI knowledge level is higher than are four of the seven groups' mean knowledge scores. Length of membership on online SI groups is not significantly greater for individuals who score higher on the knowledge of SI measure as assessed through independent t tests. Descriptive information indicates that participants perceive their online friends to react more positively to their self-injurious behaviors than they do their face-to-face friends. In addition, the sample does not indicate that participation in online SI groups has an impact on the frequency of their self-injurious behaviors, which is consistent with prior research (Murray & Fox, 2006). Limitations discussed include sample size and solicitation, survey length, and the lack of a thorough assessment of online activity.

<p>Software systems form an essential part of Western society,serving as tools to uphold institutions, processes andservices. It is understandable, therefore, that the mostfundamental aspects of programs are their function and utility.But they are not, however, the only things programmers areconcerned with when writing them.</p><p>On the contrary, programmers also discuss about many otheraspects of software, including the beauty of code. Theydistinguish between different programming styles and expresstheir personal preferences, often by way of admiring andvilifying other people's code. Programmers' identification withaesthetic preferences may give rise to vanity, to disagreementsso entrenched that they deserve the name of 'holy wars' and toother similar phenomena.</p><p>This thesis describes and analyses these phenomena, whichultimately originate in the human faculty to create andappreciate nuances, to become attached to them and to engage indisputes because of them - even infields as standardised ascomputer programming. Its aim is to expose the aesthetics ofcode, and in doing so, to discuss the symbolic aspects ofinstrumental action at large.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>aesthetics, code, instrumental action,internet discussion fora, programming, symbolic action</p>

The diploma thesis analyzes internet discussions and Facebook sites that relate to banks and banking products. This analysis has been prepared for the potential value for marketing purposes, but also for other users outside the field of marketing. The main objective is to propose a regularly administered overview containing metrics and characteristics, which would provide information about the current status of the topics that were discussed at the monitored data sources. At first are described the methods of marketing research regarding to the possibility of obtaining data based from Internet discussions. Next are described the intermediate objectives. The base is description of downloading data from the mentioned sources. There have been identified two web pages and Facebook profiles of five banks, which are the data sources. Another objective is to create Java programs for downloading data and storing them in Elasticsearch. This data is enriched by sentiment analysis of users' comments. The main objective is based on defined metrics and characteristics that will be displayed. Subsequently, the data are analyzed using the proposed visualization in the application Kibana. The resulting data are interpreted, and there is designed a form of their distribution, which is the main objective of this work. The contribution of this work is the description of the processing of data that can be obtained from the website and public Facebook profiles with emphasis on their content, and their further enrichment and finally data visualization designed for wide range of audience.

The diploma thesis titled "Language Correctness and Incorrectness as an Argument Used in Online Discussions" deals with a language criticism which is used as an argument in online discussions. Firstly, the thesis frames language and speech, argumentation, rhetoric, and communication. Then it introduces online discussions and describes how they work, and how they contribute to communication. It is also focused on the users as creators of content in online discussions. The thesis analyzes the corpus of online discussions in which the argumentation based on language correctness and incorrectness is contained. According to communication situations, the thesis classifies by what language criticism is started, what arguments are used by the critics, how the critized react, and how the others perceive language criticism. The research also examines the consequence of language criticism in online discussions. The goal of the thesis is to determinate whether and how language incorrectness may affect information value of particular post, and how the arguments based on language correctness and incorrectness are used.

The internet offers citizens new possibilities to participate in political communication by setting topics on the agenda of public discussion that are neglected by the conventional media. The article examines if and how the topics of the new emerging political public on the web differ from the topics generated by traditional media. The empirical analysis reveals that the topics are mostly the same. However, the analysis also shows that a clear separate public sphere exists that deals with topics outside the political mainstream.

The main purpose of this study has been to explore and determine how the journalistic work was used by internet users to start and keep a discussion on the internet going. We started in the aftermath of a local arson in a town of Sweden, where a discussion on the internet forum Flashback and the local newspapers commentary fields was raised. We have used these discussions to study what part the journalistic work play in these events. To do that we used a critical discourse analysis and a rhetoric analysis to investigate how these discussions use news articles to make their point. We divided the comments into four different categories, which are comments about understandings of the event, comments that talked about the matters of fact, criticism pointed at the newspaper and comments that identify the offenders. The result of the analysis shows that both forums use journalistic work as facts in their discussions. Both also use earlier articles that were written before the arson, to make their point in the discussion.

The thesis deals with manifestations of lexical dynamics in the language of Internet discussion forums. The chosen communication sphere is typical for its creativity and spontaneity, respectively active exchange of lexical means and the effort for fresh expressions. For these reasons, the language of discussion forums on the Internet is a suitable material basis for the confrontational description of lexical innovations in contemporary Bulgarian and contemporary Czech. The theoretical part of the thesis defines the notion of neologism and the terms connected with it, as well as the specific features of Internet communication. In the practical part, a structural and semantic analysis of Czech and Bulgarian neologisms is carried out, and considering that a large part of the new lexicon used in the discussion forums is borrowed mainly from English, more attention is paid to the interpretation of the meaning of these loanwords and the ways of their adaptation in Czech and in Bulgarian.

abstract: The overall purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of teaching and learning in the context of an informal, online discussion forum. This investigation utilized the Community of Inquiry (CoI) elements of Teaching Presence and Social Presence along with the construct of Learning Presence to examine Adobe® Forums, Photoshop® for Beginners Forum (PfBF) an internet discussion forum designed to provide support for beginning users of Adobe Photoshop. The researcher collected four days of discussion post data comprising 62 discussion threads for a total of 202 discussion posts. During this initial pilot analysis, the discussion threads were divided into posts created by members who were deemed to be acting as teachers and posts written by members acting as learners. Three analyses were conducted. First, a pilot analysis was conducted where the researcher divided the data in half and coded 31 discussion threads and a total of 142 discussion posts with the Teaching Presence, Social Presence and Learning Presence coding schemes. Second, a reliability analysis was conducted to determine the interrater reliability of the coding schemes. For this analysis two additional coders were recruited, trained and coded a small subsample of data (4 discussion threads for a total of 29 discussion posts) using the same three coding schemes. Third, a final analysis was conducted where the researcher coded and analyzed 134 discussion posts created by 24 teachers using the Teaching Presence coding scheme. At the conclusion of the final analysis, it was determined that eighteen percent (18%) of the data could not be coded using the Teaching Presence coding scheme. However, this data were observed to contain behavioral indicators of Social Presence. Consequently, the Social Presence coding scheme was used to code and analyze the remaining data. The results of this study revealed that forum members who interact on PfBF do indeed exhibit Teaching Presence behaviors. Direct Instruction was the largest category of Teaching Presence behaviors exhibited, over and above Facilitating Discussion and Design and Organization. It was also observed that forum members serving in the role of teachers exhibit behaviors of Social Presence alongside Teaching Presence behaviors. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Technology 2014

Analýza obsahu webových diskuzních fór jako zdroj dat pro výzkum nových trendů v užívání psychoaktivních látek ve srovnání s daty získanými od jiných populací Mgr. Eva Drápalová ABSTRACT Background: One of the most significant new trends in substance abuse today is an unprecedented rate of new psychoactive substances (NPS) emergence on a global drug market. While collection of scientific data about the effects and risks of numerous NPS is a timely process, the substantial amount of information about the very same substances is being exchanged on drug discussion forums, creating a pool of data with a potential for research of the NPS trend. Aims: This dissertation aims to evaluate a potential of internet discussion forum content analysis methods by (i) describing and comparing the characteristics of discussion forum visitors to NPS users who do not visit such forums; and subsequently by comparing the internet forum content analysis results describing (ii) a prevalence of NPS use, (iii) effects and context of NPS use and (iv) discussed internet retailers selling NPS with data retrieved by other methods. Methods: Differences between two groups of internet survey respondents were analyzed using Pearson Chi-square and Student's t-test to address the first aim of this dissertation. Furthermore the results of both...