"Experts" in community?

[JeLe]

Lately I've been working on a research project, with the task of making a discourse/ activity analysis of a community of my choice. For me, the speedcubing community is an obvious choice. There's plenty of discourse and plenty of activity groups, well-evidenced by the growth of this forum. All of this is good, but I came up with this question to guide my writing a bit more:

What is the real or perceived role of the "expert" in the speedcubing community?

Both discourse analysis and activity analysis have some element of different members of the group having different roles. With that in mind, I want to throw a few open-ended questions out there to hopefully provoke some thought:

What do you think are the main roles of members of the cubing community? Is there a line between the literal ones (e.g. WCA delegate, moderator) and the more nonmaterial ones (e.g. member, teacher)?

Do you think that experts in the community have a role of their own, particularly as newer cubers look to them for advice or role modeling? Do you think that they simply fit into other roles?

Do we tend to misunderstand the roles of others?
(This one in particular is interesting from my point of view; I know that when I was a new cuber I developed a bit of the "teach me your ways" complex around more experienced people.)

How do you define "expert?" Someone who has been around for a long time, someone who has contributed significantly to the community, or just someone who is sub XX? What other factors could qualify one as an expert?

Anyway, I hope that this can provoke some thought and give me some insight into the perspectives of others. Let me know your thoughts, and if anyone wants to add more questions onto the ones I thought of, go ahead. Cheers.

 

[SpeedCubeReview]

What do you think are the main roles of members of the cubing community? Is there a line between the literal ones (e.g. WCA delegate, moderator) and the more nonmaterial ones (e.g. member, teacher)?

There is a line. I do not see delegates (at least no one is vocal about who is and isn't) on the forums on Facebook much but they should be the high authority on rules and professionalism. People who are trying to be teachers (I will put myself in that category) should also promote professionalism. It doesn't not mean fun isn't allowed, but to maintain that cubing is something to be taken as a real hobby with real strategy/methods and strategy.

Do you think that experts in the community have a role of their own, particularly as newer cubers look to them for advice or role modeling? Do you think that they simply fit into other roles?

"Experts" in the community I feel are put into that place because of their role. I've heard people say that I'm an expert, but I feel that I am not. I am no where near as involved as people who truly compete and have been cubing for 5+ years. Because of my channel and what I do I am now in that role to promote educational and professional material.

Do we tend to misunderstand the roles of others?
(This one in particular is interesting from my point of view; I know that when I was a new cuber I developed a bit of the "teach me your ways" complex around more experienced people.)

I think the idea of solving a cube fast seems mystical and that there must be some secret. I can't tell you how many people I have met who thinks there is just one move you do repeatedly to solve it. Once they do understand how it is done, the idea of memorizing 100 algorithms again seems impossible and the "teach me your ways" is more of a "I don't think I will love long enough to really learn this"

How do you define "expert?" Someone who has been around for a long time, someone who has contributed significantly to the community, or just someone who is sub XX? What other factors could qualify one as an expert?

I define it as someone who has been around for a long time, contributed significantly to the community, and able to compete. I don't think sub-xx would be accurate. I Take RedKB as an expert, but I thought I remember seeing him in one video last year say something about being around 20 seconds. Expert is very subjective to the experience of the cuber. an Expert to a true beginner is anyone who can solve the cube, for someone around a minute it is anyone sub-20, for people sub-20 it is anyone sub-10, etc.

 

[cmhardw]

What do you think are the main roles of members of the cubing community? Is there a line between the literal ones (e.g. WCA delegate, moderator) and the more nonmaterial ones (e.g. member, teacher)?

I think these roles are different for different people. Most if not all of the WCA members are also experts/teachers/leaders in their local communities as well, even if this is not noticed on the forum. Those who are not WCA members can still be experts/teachers/leaders and I think there are more of these experts than WCA experts. I would think the main roles are 1) WCA members (these have several sub-roles as well) are those who participate in the process of making official competitions happen around the world, 2) Forum moderators are those who participate in connecting cubers together via the internet, 3) Competitors are those who compete and offer inspiration for their skills/prowess to others, 4) Teachers are those who cube and also teach others how to cube, 5) Members are those in the community who participate actively and perhaps have other roles as well. Experts I would define as someone who is very knowledgeable in a/multiple role/roles.

Do you think that experts in the community have a role of their own, particularly as newer cubers look to them for advice or role modeling? Do you think that they simply fit into other roles?

I think they represent those who are very knowledgeable within their role of expertise (see roles above)

Do we tend to misunderstand the roles of others?
(This one in particular is interesting from my point of view; I know that when I was a new cuber I developed a bit of the "teach me your ways" complex around more experienced people.)

I'm sure this does happen a lot. I think the community is not always aware of how much work goes into being a forum moderator or WCA delegate. Those who have multiple roles may not always acknowledge the full diversity of the "Members" role for those who are cubers without yet another role.

How do you define "expert?" Someone who has been around for a long time, someone who has contributed significantly to the community, or just someone who is sub XX? What other factors could qualify one as an expert?

An expert is someone who is respected among others who share his/her same role, as well as potentially respected by others in other roles. For example an expert teacher is one that other teachers look up to, as well as members and even other roles respect and look up to. An expert forum moderator is one who other moderators respect, and maybe also members respect as well. Etc.

 

[MoyuFTW]

How do you define "expert?" Someone who has been around for a long time, someone who has contributed significantly to the community, or just someone who is sub XX? What other factors could qualify one as an expert?
Feliks Zemdegs, Feliks Zemdegs, Feliks Zemdegs. Done.

They provide someone with someone to look up to for one thing. Everyone wants to be like Feliks say

 

[pjk]

What do you think are the main roles of members of the cubing community? Is there a line between the literal ones (e.g. WCA delegate, moderator) and the more nonmaterial ones (e.g. member, teacher)?
I would agree with Chris (cmhardw) above for sure. The community is collection of everyone, and each role is important. WCA delegates handle the official competition-related stuff, but there are tons of people who are just as familiar with the WCA stuff who aren't WCA delegates, mainly because there is no need for them to be. Moderators (of the forum) handle the culture of this site, which is important to keep discussion smooth and useful for everyone. Without them, the community probably wouldn't exist and if it did, it would be chaos. Members of the community are all either teachers, learners, or contributors. Teachers help people learn more about what they know, and contributors are people who may already know the same but add input to a discussion to further the knowledge and understanding. The more unique input, often the better the discussion. As a whole community, those are basically the roles. However, someone who started last month in their community which is now 5 people may be a teacher to them, while a learner or contributor here. That's the cool thing about the internet.

Do you think that experts in the community have a role of their own, particularly as newer cubers look to them for advice or role modeling? Do you think that they simply fit into other roles?
Depends on how you define expert. Are the fastest solvers the best experts? I'd argue otherwise. Speedcubing is unique in that being fast (which is often how people are ranked in the community) doesn't necessarily mean you know more. While being fast does require a certain level of understanding, most of the best advice communicated on the forum today isn't done by the highest ranked people. I'm sure there are people who contribute a lot on the forum and are always chasing their curiosity, but have little interest in the competitive aspect of cubing. Consider that most of the current world record holders today started learning on this forum and became better through it, it is fair to say that many of the best in the future are learning on here now or another related community. The sheer amount of information out there, contributed by anyone who asked a question, answered a question, or participated in a discussion, is enormous, and it provides a big foundation for many people in the future to learn from.

Do we tend to misunderstand the roles of others?
I don't think roles are often misunderstood. When you go to a competition, it is implied that someone who set it up knows how to run it. When you're on the forum it is implied that someone set it up and moderators help moderate it. And when you read a discussion it is clear who is contributing and who isn't.

How do you define "expert?" Someone who has been around for a long time, someone who has contributed significantly to the community, or just someone who is sub XX? What other factors could qualify one as an expert?
According to Google an expert is defined as "a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area." I think an expert is someone who knows a certain level of information related to a specific field. In cubing, you can learn probably as much as the best in the world just by reading and practicing through the internet, without ever posting, or talking to anyone in person. As a result, I'd consider you an expert, since you could know as much or even more about cubing than others, and if asked, teach it. Cubing for a long time certainly allows you to understand trends in the community, but it says little about how much you know about cubing itself (or any specific event itself).

 

[JeLe]

Feliks Zemdegs, Feliks Zemdegs, Feliks Zemdegs. Done.

They provide someone with someone to look up to for one thing. Everyone wants to be like Feliks say

So your definition of an expert is... Feliks?
I'm kidding, but this is the line of thinking I was treading on when I mentioned how we place experts in the role of "role model." I think most people certainly do see Feliks as both an expert and a role model, and in his case I think it's a very good thing. However, I don't think it's always the best thing to make "expert" synonymous with "role model," even if that's our tendency. Some experts may not make good role models, and some role models may not be the most expertly.
This was part of my thinking behind the "misunderstanding" question as well. So, more food for thought.

 

[MoyuFTW]

So your definition of an expert is... Feliks?
I'm kidding, but this is the line of thinking I was treading on when I mentioned how we place experts in the role of "role model." I think most people certainly do see Feliks as both an expert and a role model, and in his case I think it's a very good thing. However, I don't think it's always the best thing to make "expert" synonymous with "role model," even if that's our tendency. Some experts may not make good role models, and some role models may not be the most expertly.
This was part of my thinking behind the "misunderstanding" question as well. So, more food for thought.

Haha. I was kind of joking. I would say Feliks is an expert though. It also depends on how big the community is? Are you talking about local like cities, or the whole cubing community? Chris Olsen is also an expert I'd say. He puts out a lot of informational videos

 

[rj]

I've been around for a while, I'm an expert at LSEM, and I'm faster than 99.99% of the world. Count me in!

 

[JeLe]

Haha. I was kind of joking. I would say Feliks is an expert though. It also depends on how big the community is? Are you talking about local like cities, or the whole cubing community? Chris Olsen is also an expert I'd say. He puts out a lot of informational videos

You have a good point-- a lot of these things are dependent on the scale. The friends who I have introduced to cubing sometimes see me as an expert, but I wouldn't give myself that status.
That's why, for the purposes of my study, I'm looking at the entire cubing community.