Dot Com Unity: Exploring the Sense of Community in the Af Gang, Idles’ Online Fan Group

DOT COM UNITY: EXPLORING THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN THE AF GANG, IDLES’ ONLINE FAN GROUP

Wetenschappelijke verhandeling Aantal woorden: 20.044

Emile Dekeyser Stamnummer: 01305525

Promotor: Prof. dr. Frederik Dhaenens Commissaris: Ben De Smet

Masterproef voorgelegd voor het behalen van de graad master in de richting Communicatiewetenschappen afstudeerrichting Journalistiek

Academiejaar: 2019-2020

Deze pagina is niet beschikbaar omdat ze persoonsgegevens bevat. Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent, 2021.

This page is not available because it contains personal information. Ghent University, Library, 2021.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my mother, father, brother Basile (d’you reckon I’d get away with putting a cycling emoji between these brackets?), Robbe (riejen!!!), and Bo for their unconditional support during these intense months. Coincidence or not, a bubble of five people who I probably cherish the most, certainly now. Shout- outs to Eva as well for proofreading some passages.

My sincere thanks as well to my supervisor for allowing me to write on the AF Gang and believing in this topic, as well as the supervisor from my bachelor paper last year, who referred me to prof. dr. Dhaenens.

And then finally: thanks to every participant in the interviews, and the admins of the AF Gang for allowing me to write about the wonderful community they have created. KFG!

This section can only end with three words. Three words I’ve noticed mean a lot to not only myself, but to all the people I have talked to throughout this research:

ALL IS LOVE

Emile Dekeyser August 2020

Table of contents Acknowledgements ...... 3 Table of contents ...... 4 1. Abstract ...... 6 1.1 English ...... 6 1.2 Dutch...... 7 2. Introduction ...... 8 3. Literature study ...... 9 3.1 Online fandom studies ...... 9 3.2. Community in an online context ...... 10 3.2.a. Shaping online community: the Medium-force ...... 12 3.2.b. Shaping online community: the Topic-force ...... 14 3.2.c. Shaping online community: cluster of forces connected to the members ...... 16 4. Research design ...... 17 4.1. Research goal ...... 17 4.2. Methods ...... 17 4.3. Sample ...... 18 4.4. Interview structure ...... 18 4.5. Ethical reflections ...... 19 5. Analysis ...... 20 5.1. The role of the Medium-force ...... 20 5.2. The role of the Topic-force ...... 25 5.3. The role of the Members-force ...... 32 5.4. The role of the Influential Members-force ...... 39 5.5. The role of the Offline Contexts of the Members-force ...... 43 5.6. The role of the Meetups-force (additional force) ...... 44 6. Conclusion ...... 46 6.1. Main conclusion ...... 46 6.2. Limitations ...... 49 7. Works cited ...... 50

8. Appendices ...... 57 Appendix I: Sample matrix ...... 57 Appendix II: interview questionnaire ...... 58

1. Abstract 1.1 English

This study focuses on the AF Gang, a Facebook group formed by fans of the British rock band IDLES in 2017. It aims to provide an insight on the establishment of a sense of community in the group that allows its members to move beyond their object of fandom and encourages them to open up about all kinds of personal issues, from mental health issues, over other medical conditions, to grief and loss. In order to do so, we draw on five ‘online community-shaping forces’ reported by Baym (2000): the medium, the topic, the members, the influential members, and the members’ offline contexts. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with a sample of eleven AF Gang members and further contextualisation using relevant document analysis concerning both the AF Gang Facebook group and IDLES’ music, we have collected a fairly wide range of roles these forces play in the case study.

Most of the collected data pointed at the importance of the topic (IDLES) and the influential members (the admins of the group). The specific way in which IDLES presents its prosocial messages of inclusivity and self- love is considered to play a central role in shaping, as well as maintaining, the sense of community. The impact of the influential members was mostly observed through the use of particular AF Gang traditions established by the admins, such as the slogan “all is love”, which regularly returns, making it an implicit code of conduct. However, the discussion cannot be reduced to these two forces, as examining the other forces provided valuable information as well. Two specific features of Facebook (the medium) are an example of this: the emoji reaction buttons and the participants’ experience of a sense of realness are also believed to play a role in shaping the sense of community in this case study.

1.2 Dutch Deze studie focust op de AF Gang, een Facebookgroep opgericht door fans van de Britse rockband IDLES in 2017. De studie tracht inzicht te verschaffen op het gemeenschapsgevoel dat gecreëerd wordt, en de leden toelaat voorbij hun fan object te gaan, alsook hen aanmoedigt openlijk te praten over persoonlijke problematiek, van mentale gezondheidsproblemen, over andere medische problemen, tot verdriet en verlies. Om in ons opzet te slagen baseerden we op ons vijf ‘gemeenschapsvormende krachten’ gerapporteerd door Baym (2000): het medium, de topic, de leden, de invloedrijke leden, en de offline context van de leden. Via kwalitatieve diepte-interviews met een sample van elf leden en verdere contextualisatie via relevante documentaire analyse van de Facebookgroep en IDLES’ muziek, verzamelden wij een brede waaier aan rollen die deze krachten spelen in de casestudie.

Het merendeel van de verzamelde data wijst op het belang van de topic (IDLES) en de invloedrijke leden (de beheerders van de groep). De specifieke manier waarin IDLES hun prosociale boodschappen van inclusiviteit en eigenliefde verkondigt wordt gezien als iets dat een centrale rol speelt in het vormen, en behouden van het gemeenschapsgevoel. De impact van de invloedrijke leden wordt vooral duidelijk door het gebruik van zogenaamde AF Gang-tradities die in het leven gebracht zijn door de beheerders van de groep, zoals de slogan “all is love”, die zo vaak terugkomt dat de leden er een geïmpliceerde gedragscode in herkennen. De discussie kan echter niet gereduceerd worden tot deze twee krachten, want ook het bestuderen van Bayms (2000) andere krachten leverde waardevolle informatie op. Twee specifieke kenmerken van Facebook (het medium) zijn hier een voorbeeld van: de emoji-reactieknoppen en de beleving van een vorm van echtheid spelen volgens de participanten ook een rol in de vorming van het gemeenschapsgevoel in de AF Gang.

2. Introduction

The AF Gang is amazing. People share their problems with each other and they help each other get through things. It has got nothing to do with us. They have created this community themselves, and it helps each other and others. Whenever anyone new joins the group, they are there for them. It is expanding and they continue to be so nice to each other. It is madness. Lee Kiernan, IDLES’ guitarist in Don’t Go Gentle: A Film About IDLES

In June 2020, the IDLES fan group AF Gang premiered Don’t Go Gentle: A Film About IDLES. The film tells the story of the rise and breakthrough of the British rock band IDLES since their formation in 2010: from the unsuccessful first steps in their career to the release of well-received and critically-acclaimed albums Brutalism (2017) and Joy As An Act Of Resistance (2018), and from playing to three people in small venues to performing in front of thousands of devoted fans at Glastonbury Festival, the biggest music festival in the United Kingdom. A second important element of the film is that it zooms in on the creation of the AF Gang, their fan community hosted on Facebook. The AF Gang was created by fans of the band in 2017 and the Facebook group currently holds more than 29.000 members. In the film, it is explained how – next to a place to discuss IDLES- and music-related things – the AF Gang Facebook group also, and perhaps more importantly, functions as a sounding board for its members to open up about all kinds of personal issues they deal with: from mental health issues, over other medical conditions, to grief and loss. Before the Don’t Go Gentle film release, various music magazines had already reported on the AF Gang (Clarkson, 2020; England, 2019; Richards, 2018; Harrison, 2017) and how it functions as a life-affirming community (Richards, 2018) that helps to save lives (Clarkson, 2020) and proves that social media is not always toxic (England, 2019). These articles too focus on a sense of community that is established within the AF Gang, which allows and encourages its members to actively seek out, offer, and receive support regarding their mental health battles or other personal problems. This study seeks to understand how this sense of community, that allows the members to move beyond talking about their object of fandom and to open up about their personal issues, is created.

3. Literature study 3.1 Online fandom studies

These popular sources mentioned in the introduction indicate that something special is going on in the fan group, but the AF Gang and its sense of community provide for a relevant case study in academic literature as well. Studying the AF Gang essentially means studying fans, hence why the case study belongs to the discipline of fandom studies. Within media studies, the most influential academics in the field of research of fandom studies in online contexts have studied other concepts rather than how community is established. Jenkins (1992) has explored the manners in which fans approach, read, interpret and adapt the fan text, and Sandvoss (2005) studied how the image of ourselves and who we would like to be is reflected in the object of our fandom. Contexts in which community has been researched in fandom studies include online television soap fandom and offline music fandom. Baym’s book Tune In, Log on: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community (2000) belongs to the first category and concerns the development of a sense of community on an online soap forum, and how this led to the formation of friendships between fans. Cavicchi’s Tramps Like Us (1998) belongs to the second category, it is an extensive study of the sense of belonging together, and community – in an offline context – experienced by Bruce Springsteen fans.

To our knowledge, an online counterpart of Cavicchi’s study on music fans has not yet been undertaken. This could be due to the fact that, as Giles (2013) described, research concerning online music fandom is rare, as most scholars in the field of online fandom mainly concentrated on fans of television series. (Jenkins, 2006; Pearson, 2010; Stein and Busse, 2014). This is remarkable because there is a close-knit relationship between music fans and the development of the internet. Baym (2018) even claims that music fans have built the internet. She argues that

from the start, there was an unusual synergy between music fans and the developing world of network computing. Wherever there was networked computing, there were music fans communities leading the way, long before the masses, most musicians, or those in the music industries caught on. (p.95)

Online fandom and music fans thus share a rich tradition, which is why the observation put forward by Giles (2013) is remarkable. Yet, he is only partially right. Baym (2018) lists two ways in which musicians can deal with the online presence of their fans: either accept their autonomy and leave them to their own devices, or let them help by incorporating them into the business model. Based on this distinction, online music fandom studies can equally be divided into two categories: a first one in which the artist is present in the

online fan community, and a second one in which the artist has chosen not to interfere on the platforms designed by the fans (which is the category the AF Gang belongs to). Studies belonging to the first category cannot be considered as rare, it is well-documented how artists have engaged in conversations with their fans (Click, Lee and Holladay, 2013; Beer, 2008), set up crowdfunding campaigns to finance an album (Baym, 2018; Potts, 2012), and actively rely on fans to produce content such as video clips (Potts, 2012) and even songs (Shryane 2010). Studies belonging to the second category, on the other hand, are in line with Giles’ observation. Apart from Giles’ (2013) study, Wall and Dubber (2010) and Bennett (2012) have explored these ‘fan-only’ communities. In these studies, the focus is on the relationship between fans and their fan object (the fans and the music), and how the fans discuss concerts, new releases, song lyrics, and engage in ‘specialist’ talk about the fan object. These studies concerning ‘fan-only’ communities do not focus on how fans move beyond their object of fandom.

3.2. Community in an online context

It is noteworthy that studies on these fan-only communities have focused on various things, but not on how community is created, despite community being the ‘in-term’ in online studies. (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar, 2007) However, defining community has been proven to be very complicated. Preece and Maloney-Krichmar (2007) mention there is a feeling of angst connected to using the term and Kendall (2011) goes as far as saying that defining community means defining the undefinable. The latter study lists three approaches to defining community in a digital context: the first is by Porter (2004) who focuses on interaction around a shared interest, the second emphasizes relationships and shared norms, values, and identity (Etzioni, 2004, p. 225), the third approach follows Feenberg and Bakadjieva (2004) and concerns how online forums create virtual community. Defining community is that complicated Kendall (2011) even points out how academics have suggested to abandon the term. A less radical solution is offered by Preece and Maloney-Krichmar (2007) who suggest that:

A more productive approach may be to accept community as a concept with fuzzy boundaries that is perhaps more appropriately defined by its membership. […] While this approach to definition might be hard to accept, it may encourage us to concentrate more on substantive issues such as how communities are created, evolve, or cease to exist online.

When looking at the community debate in the online fandom context, it is important to note how Sandvoss (2005) is also less concerned with defining the undefinable:

While the debate as to whether online networks can be accurately described as communities is ongoing, there can be little doubt that many fans themselves imagine these networks as a community and equal to other friendship ties. (p. 56)

This indicates that the fandom scholar Sandvoss does not engage in those questions put forward by scholars who suggest abandoning the term community. Sandvoss puts the fans first, what matters most to him is that fans perceive these networks as possessing a sense of community. The debate pops up in Pearson (2010) as well, when she argues that “clearly the issue of community in all its ramifications constitutes a key and unresolved tension in fandom as well as in the digital economy as a whole” (p. 93). At one point Pearson then asks how important community to fandom is, and how that community should be defined. In order to answer this, she draws on an exchange between Kristina Busse and Cornel Sandvoss on Henry Jenkins’ blog in 2007. Pearson observes that to Busse, fandom and community go hand in hand, as Busse states that “fandom requires a community and participation in that community – and possibly self- identification with that community” (Busse and Sandvoss, 2007). It can thus be concluded that however complicated the issue of defining community may prove to be, fandom scholars still attribute a great deal of value towards fans themselves experiencing a sense of community.

Fellow fandom scholar Baym (2000) sees community as a platform on which social relations can be built between those people that engage with each other on the platform. In a similar way as Sandvoss (2005) and Pearson (2010) emphasize the importance of fans themselves perceiving online networks as communities, she too highlights it is important that the fan forum she examined “feels like a community for those involved” (Baym, 2000, p. 197). Her vision on community concerns the way in which online forums create virtual community, and thus closely resembles the approach of Feenberg and Bakadjieva (2004).

In the previous subchapter, it was highlighted how in research on ‘fan-only’ groups in online music fandom studies the focus lays on how the fans talk about the fan object, and not how a sense of community is created. Baym (2000) makes a similar observation relating to online television fandom studies. She praises Jenkins (1992) for its social groundings, meaning that it does not study fans in isolation but in relation to their social networks, but regrets that the focus is still only on “how these communities function as organized institutions of interpretation, focusing on the media text and the fan generated text in response” (Baym, 2000, p. 18), and not on how interpersonal connections are formed. The main goal of her book (2000) closely resembles the aim of this study, as it too seeks to understand how the members in her case study (r.a.t.s., a soap forum) move beyond the object of their fandom (soaps) and start to build social relations. Because of this close resemblance, her study, which is a key work within fandom studies, and her

findings provide a valuable theoretical background for this discussion. To answer her question, Baym draws on five forces that shape online community:

(1) the medium; (2) the topic; (3) the members of the community; (4) the influential members; (5) the offline contexts of these members.

The unique interaction between these ‘online community-shaping forces’ enables the members of her case study to develop a welcoming and supportive environment in which friendships can be formed with people they, at first glance, only have their love for the object of fandom (soaps) in common with. Consequentially, equally to Baym (2000), applying this framework to our case study should provide us with an insight on the development of a sense of community that enables and encourages the members in the AF Gang to move beyond their object fandom (IDLES’ music) and start to open up about their personal issues. All these forces are at play differently in her case study than they are in the AF Gang. The IDLES fan group operates around a different topic (music rather than soaps), on a different medium (the social network Facebook rather than the Web1.0 forum Usenet), and, naturally, has different members (with different offline contexts and different people taking up an influential role). Using Baym’s findings as a framework thus means determining how these forces are at play in this case study, and what this says about the community that is created.

In the last subchapters of this literature study, Baym’s indications on how to apply these five ‘online community-shaping forces’ to other case studies will be described. Next to this, we shall also outline the relevant scholarly work on the medium (Facebook), the topic (music and lyrics), and the cluster of forces connected to the members, that should be taken into account when applying these forces to our case study, and to determine their role in the creation of a community that allows the members to open up about their personal issues.

3.2.a. Shaping online community: the Medium-force

Baym (2000)’s relation to the Medium-force in her framework is complicated. On the one hand, the whole framework is built upon indicating that there are more forces at play in shaping online communities than just the online medium. It serves as a reaction to early researches suggesting that the medium is the only force that is important in influencing computer-mediated interaction, something which she calls short- sighted:

Conceptualizing all online communities as a single phenomenon because they share medium is like reducing all towns, cities, and villages to a single phenomenon because all of them are built on earth. (p. 201)

On the other hand, this does not mean that Baym considers the role of the medium as inferior or non- existent, she does explain that the medium rightfully has its place in the framework. She points out that “the removal of geographical constraints allows people who might otherwise never meet to come into contact” (Baym, 2000, p. 199). But much more importantly, she explains that rather than looking at the one commonality (the fact that it is online), studies trying to understand the complexity of online groups should examine the differences, mainly in terms of the specific features of the platforms on which the online communities are hosted.

Baym’s case study, the r.a.t.s. community, is located on a Usenet newsgroup. She argues that specific features of that platform, the header-organized and interest-specific structure, shape the online community. Her research was conducted in the 1990s, at a time in which the Web was still seen as Web 1.0, the web of documents (Anderson, 2007). As of this writing, we are now in the context of Web 2.0, the web of people (Anderson, 2007), in this context, social network sites are central. The AF Gang is located on the social network site Facebook, meaning we should thus look at the specific features of the Facebook platform and how these shape online community. In a later study, Baym (2009) herself has observed how:

Hardly any work looks at community in the context of social network sites, leaving a wide- open terrain for future scholarship. Online community research has shown that online groups develop behavioural standards, internal hierarchies, and provide social support. With the exception of social-capital analysis, there are no parallels within social network research, although these phenomena are likely at play. (p. 398)

This study is thus trying to find out whether for this specific case study, the findings on the creation of a community on Usenet newsgroup (popular in the 1990s) may or may not be similar to a social network site such as Facebook, one of the most popular platforms of the early 21st century.

It is plausible that the shift from a Web 1.0 newsgroup (r.a.t.s.) to a Web 2.0 Facebook group (AF Gang) comes with a different sense of community that is created, and that therefore the medium plays a big role in this issue. Research by Preece and Ghozati (1998) on emphatic online communication on 100 Web 1.0 communities has shown that while empathy has a role in all but 19/100 communities they examined, its role is most significant in actual patient and emotional support communities, in which fandom

communities cannot be categorized. Similar research on social network sites such as Naslund et al. (2014), on the other hand, have shown that being active on social media (whose primary function is not patient and emotional support) has allowed people who struggle with mental health problems to feel less alone, support each other, and share strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges. Gowen et al. (2012) and Naslund et al. (2016) found similar results, while Fergie, Hunt and Hilton (2016) have tempered the enthusiasm, suggesting that that “social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content” (p. 86). One barrier to participation in online interaction and sharing health experiences put forward in the latter study is the “concern about compromising the presentation of identity” (Fergie, Hunt and Hilton, 2016, p. 46) on the platform.

The case study of the AF Gang seems to lean more towards the more positive discourse than the more negative discourse. However, as scholarly works on social media platforms and emphatic online communication present contradicting results, further research is needed to identify what role, if any, the medium and its specific features play in creating a sense of community in the AF Gang that allows people to open up about their very personal issues.

3.2.b. Shaping online community: the Topic-force

The topic around which most discussion revolves is the second force indicated by Baym (2000) as shaping online community. She explains that the topic plays a central part in her framework and that it brings with it a purpose. In her case study, the central topic is television soaps, and the purpose that comes with the topic is that of interpreting the content of these soaps. Baym goes on to state that because soaps are “emotional, relational, and talk-oriented” (p. 199-200), the environment that is created to interpret these soaps ideally is one that is welcoming and supportive. In the case study of this research, the band IDLES is the central topic around which most of the discussion is considered to be centred. Because despite our observation that a lot of the conversation in the AF Gang is not necessarily IDLES related, it cannot be contended that the AF Gang is a fan group dedicated to IDLES.

One of the main objectives of this study is trying to understand what forces shape the sense of community that allows the AF Gang members to open up about personal issues, and thus move beyond discussions about the topic (i.e. IDLES, the object of fandom). This observation leads us to the expectation that other things than the topic’s influence are at play in shaping the sense of community that characterizes the AF Gang. However, because the topic plays such a central part in Baym’s framework, it is thus not unlikely that

the specific nature of the topic is an important factor in permitting fans to move beyond that very same topic after all.

Studies on music lyrics and the interpretation of these lyrics have highlighted the importance of the topic as well. In the academic field of effect studies, scholars like Greitemeyer (2009), Jacob, Guégen and Boulbry (2010), and Ruth (2016) have examined the effect of music with prosocial lyrics on prosocial behaviour, “the broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself—actions such as helping, comforting, sharing, and cooperation” (Batson and Powell, 2003, p. 463). Greitemeyer (2009) conducted three experiments and concluded that exposure to songs with prosocial lyrics (1) affects an individual’s internal state which may instigate behavioural reactions, (2) fosters interpersonal empathy, and (3) increases helping behaviour. Jacob, Guéguen and Boulbry (2010) examined the effect of listening to prosocial songs on tipping behaviour in a restaurant and discovered a significant increase in this prosocial act. Ruth (2016) conducted a similar experiment with a similar outcome, but warns to take into account different explanations, such as situational states and personal traits of the customer and/or server, as well. Despite the warning that these results are thus dangerous to generalize, and the fact that they are not methods that are used within fandom studies, they do show that a certain topic (music with prosocial lyrics) can potentially influence prosocial behaviour.

In fandom studies as well, the importance of the topic – the fandom object – has been highlighted. Sandvoss (2005) proposes a model of fandom where the projection of ourselves, and who we would like to be, determines the attraction to the object of fandom, with what fans need to build an intense identification. This can also be seen in offline music fandom studies: Cavicchi (1998) observes how “fans identify general values important to being a fan and [Bruce Springsteen stories] serve as models for acting in specific situations in which fans might find themselves” (p. 169). Being a fan is thus linked to identifying yourself with the object of fandom, and mirroring yourself to that object, and can, therefore, be seen as influencing your behaviour.

Similarly to Baym indicating that the topic plays a central role in her framework, the results observed in these effect studies and music fandom studies once again suggest that it is plausible that it may be the specific nature of the music and lyrics of IDLES after all that allows the members of the AF Gang to move beyond talking about the band and start opening up about personal issues. However, taking Ruth’s (2016) warnings not to exaggerate the influence of lyrics on one’s behaviour in mind, as well as our observation that what the members of the AF Gang essentially do is moving beyond the topic of their

fandom, hence why it is expected other things than the influence of the topic are at play as well, here too, further research is needed to identify the exact role of the topic in this case study.

3.2.c. Shaping online community: cluster of forces connected to the members

The last three forces in Baym (2000)’s framework consist of the cluster of forces connected to the participants in the community: the members, the more influential members, and the offline contexts of the members. These forces are harder to examine in the context of a literature study, as all three of them obviously differ heavily in any online community. Two networks will never contain the exact same individuals with the same offline contexts, and with the same members taking up an influential role. To get a good picture of these three forces, Baym makes a few suggestions for each force, but they are not as specific as her suggestions to examine the role of the medium (detecting specific features of the platform) and the topic (looking at the interpretations of the topic).

Concerning the Members-force, Baym recommends looking at characteristics such as the gender ratio of the community, or the dominant style of writing and language patterns. Related to the Influential Members- force, Baym mentions Anne, a contributor in her case study, of whom she says that “her extremely sociable and welcoming style has helped to set the interpersonal tone for the group and has single-handedly welcomed countless new participants” (Baym, 2000, p. 200), but she also points out the role of certain traditions, such as the weekly polls, established by individuals in the community. The Offline Context-force is mainly related to how the content of the posts in the AF Gang is shaped by the backgrounds of the members. As Baym puts it: “people’s self-disclosures in r.a.t.s. indicate diverse full offline lives that are brought into the group. Their online identities are congruent with those that they stake out offline” (p. 204).

As these suggestions are thus less specific than those related to the first two forces, the role of the Members-force, Influential Members-force and Offline Context-force can only be unearthed through the process of interviewing, the next stage of this study.

4. Research design 4.1. Research goal This study will thus focus on the AF Gang, an online community built by fans of the British rock band IDLES. The AF Gang was established in 2017, is hosted on Facebook, and currently holds 29.644 members. In the introduction, it was indicated that various popular sources have reported on how, next to a place to discuss IDLES-related things, the Facebook group also functions as a sounding board for its members to open up about all kinds of personal issues they deal with, from mental health issues, over other medical conditions, to grief and loss. These sources have indicated how there is a strong sense of community present that encourages them to open up about these personal issues. This last aspect is what separates the AF Gang from other fan-only groups that are central online in music fandom studies, as these have mainly focused on how fans engage in specialist conversations concerning their object of fandom (cf. supra), and not how fans move beyond their object of fandom, or how community is created within the fan group. The concept of community in an online context is something that has been studied in the context of television fandom studies and Baym (2000) has named five forces that shape online community: (1) the medium, (2) the topic, (3) the members, (4) the influential members, and (5) the offline contexts of the members. The interaction between these ‘online community-shaping forces’ enables the members in her case study to move beyond their object of fandom, and develop a welcoming environment to build social relations. Our aim is similar:

To understand how the sense of community, which allows the members to move beyond their object of fandom and encourages them to open up about their personal issues, is created within the AF Gang. In order to do so, we will draw on Baym’s findings as a framework and determine how the ‘online community-shaping forces’ are at play and what their role is in the creation of the sense of community and supportive nature within the AF Gang.

4.2. Methods To determine the role these forces play, we have decided to base ourselves on qualitative in-depth interviews, a common approach in fandom studies. The decision was made following Grossberg (1992), of whom Wall (2013) says that:

Grossberg wants to explore in more detail what is actually achieved through fan activity, and how it is achieved. Rather than defining the meaning of fan behaviour from a theorist’s social position, as mass culturalists did, Grossberg attempts to understand fans’ feelings from a fan’s position. (p. 236)

This research as well seeks to find out the fans’ perspectives of what the important factors are in how the sense of community and supportive nature within the AF Gang is established.

The data we collected in the in-depth, semi-structured interviews were analysed via the constant comparative method and, at different stages throughout the research, observations and fragments were compared thematically to seek for similarities that regularly returned (Bevers and van Bohemen, 2016; Bennett, 2013; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). This means that the roles the ‘community-shaping’ forces play in this case study were determined inductively. In order to adequately contextualise, the data we collected have also been contextualised by relevant document analysis concerning both the AF Gang Facebook group and IDLES, the band the fan group is dedicated to. The data are also linked to the relevant theoretical findings that were outlined in the literature study, as well as other sources.

4.3. Sample A theoretical sample of eleven members of the AF Gang Facebook group participated in the in- depth, semi-structured interviews. The sample matrix can be found in the appendices (Appendix I). The ages ranged from 20 to 52. When assembling the sample we mainly strived for a well-balanced mix between active and less active members. This choice was made because Baym (2000) has pointed out that heavy posters are considered to be setting the tone for the group, and one of the things we hoped to find out was to what extent the experiences of the sense of community within the AF Gang of the active and less active members relate to each other. Three of our participants (IDLER 1049, Ellie and Scum) have obtained a badge that indicates that they are ‘conversation starters’, a system that Facebook uses to identify those members that start meaningful (in terms of comments and likes) discussions in a group. These are our most active members. A second category we use is ‘prominent members’, which consists of five participants (Gotho, Patrick, Craig, Watermelon Carrier, and Jason). These members have a high level of activity (as indicated by the Facebook search function) in the group in terms of regularly posting and commenting, but they have not obtained that badge. The last category is the less active members/lurkers, which, in our case, consists of three people (Emma, Brecht, Luka) who have made one or two posts since joining, and rarely comment but still offered relevant data.

4.4. Interview structure The interviews were semi-structured. This means that a list with relevant topics and questions (the questionnaire can be found under Appendix II) was used to give direction to the interviews, but we also strived to allow each respondent the space to elaborate on and interpret each concept. After some general questions about the participants’ affiliation with the AF Gang, the interviews started with an open

discussion on ‘sense of community’ in general and in the AF Gang context. They were then presented with a PowerPoint slide that showed seven forces that can potentially shape online community: (1) Facebook (the medium), (2) IDLES music and lyrics (the topic), (3) the members, (4) influential members, (5) own experiences related to the AF Gang content, (6) AF Gang traditions and taglines, and (7) AF Gang meetups. These forces correspond with Baym’s findings, as the goal of our research is to determine how the ‘online community-shaping forces’ are at play and what their role is in the creation of the sense of community and supportive nature within the AF Gang. The seventh (7) force was added to the framework because we had noticed that the AF Gang has a strong offline component as well (cf. infra). Forces five (5) and six (6) are both connected to the ‘Influential Members’-force, but we decided to divide them into two. This decision was made for clarity reasons, and because we expected it was possible that someone would not regard certain individuals as more influential, but could still attach great importance to the role of the regularly returning traditions and taglines (cf. infra) in shaping the sense of community. Each participant was asked which, in their opinion, two forces shape the community the most, and whether there were forces that they would not link to this debate. During the next phase of the interview, we have then delved deeper into their choices and the specific role these forces may or may not play in the AF Gang, with the expectation to come to a conclusion in terms of what their role is in the creation of the sense of community within the AF Gang.

4.5. Ethical reflections Before participants were sought, the admins of the AF Gang – Lindsay Melbourne, Louise Hughes, and Brian Mimpress – were contacted, and asked for permission. We stated clearly what the purpose of the research was, and they confirmed their consent via e-mail. After this confirmation, the participants were sought by putting up a post in the Facebook group, stating the purpose of the research. These chosen participants were then asked to sign a document which asked whether they agreed to cooperate. In this document, the purpose of this research was once again clearly outlined and emphasised, in order to guarantee consent. To avoid any confusion, the interviewer also accentuated the content of the document orally before the interview took place. Due to the specific nature of this research, at some points, the participants were expected to share personal and/or confidential information. To ensure their privacy, all personal details, i.e. places of residence and names, are either omitted (locations & names of fellow members) or pseudonymised (own names) from the transcriptions and analysis (Stevens, 2018, Mortelmans, 2018; Sales and Folkman, 2000). The participants were asked to pick a pseudonym themselves. Some of the interviews were conducted in Dutch, the native language of the interviewer. When cited in the analysis, these fragments were translated into English, trying our utmost best to remain as close to the original statements as possible. To guarantee the reliability of this research, all information collected

throughout the research was ordered by theme, coded, and saved in a digital database. This database is only accessible to the people working on this research. All recordings of the interviews, which were conducted via the Zoom web application, are stored in this database as well. As researchers, we strictly performed our duty of care by protecting the participants, and not harming them, and not violating their human rights (Stevens, 2018).

5. Analysis 5.1. The role of the Medium-force As explained in the literature study, the role of the Medium-force in Baym (2000)’s framework consists of two elements. Firstly, the removal of geographical constraints which brings people together, and secondly, how specific features of the online platform help shape online community. In regards to Facebook, the platform on which the AF Gang is located, it was also pointed out how scholarly works on emphatic online communication on social media sites offer contradicting results. There is the more positive discourse found in studies (Naslund et al., 2016; Naslund et al., 2014; Gowen et al., 2012) that suggest that being active on social media allows people who struggle with mental illness to feel less alone, support each other, and share strategies for coping with day-to-day challenges. Yet, more negative portrayals are found in Fergie, Hunt and Hilton (2016), in which the authors state that “social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content” (p. 86). Based on the fact that AF Gang- members share their personal stories in the Facebook group, it was expected that their experience of the medium would lean more towards the positive than the negative discourse. However, elements of both attitudes towards Facebook were observed in the interviews. In this subchapter, we will outline which specific features of the Facebook platform the interviewees have indicated as playing a role in either shaping (when related to the positive discourse), or complicating (when related to the negative discourse) their experience of a sense of community in the AF Gang.

Before delving deeper into which elements of both the positive and negative discourse were observed in the interviews, and which specific features of Facebook play a role in the establishment of a sense of community, it is worth mentioning that only three of the eleven participants mentioned Facebook as one of the two forces that are most instrumental in shaping a sense of community in the AF Gang. The reasons why Craig, Scum and Jason chose Facebook are in line with Baym’s observation that “the removal of geographical constraints allows people who might otherwise never meet to come into contact” (Baym, 2000, p. 199). Interestingly, the three participants did not mention any specific features of Facebook. The

features were unearthed when the positive and negative attitudes towards Facebook were discussed with all participants.

In relation to the more positive discourse on emphatic online conversation on social media sites, it can be said that all three elements of the conclusion put forward by Naslund et al. (2014) – (1) feeling less alone, (2) supporting each other, and (3) sharing coping-strategies for day-to-day challenges – were observed in various interviews. A specific element of the medium that was mentioned by Emma, Scum, Ellie and Luka as relating to the first two elements is Facebook’s emoji reaction buttons, in the form of, for example, a thumb (‘liking’) and a heart (‘hearting’). Emma stated that receiving likes or hearts on a post generates a feeling of being heard, and thus feeling less alone. The accounts of Luka, Scum and Ellie express similar views, although they are more connected to the second element, the showing of a certain degree of support. As explained by Luka (who identifies as a lurker):

I do not think I would make an actual comment that soon [on posts relating to mental health issues], but usually I react with a heart or a thumb. It is a bit passive, but I sometimes put myself in the position of the poster and to receive a thousand likes or hearts on a post like that, I think that must feel very nice. Also, it is not that much of an effort to click on a heart, yet it still expresses a certain degree of support.

This is in line with studies by Hayes, Carr and Wohn (2016), on how a like on Facebook may have many meanings and must be seen as a complex message, and, more importantly, Spottswood and Wohn (2019), on how the reaction buttons help users to engage in social grooming. In the latter study, it is outlined how giving emoji reactions to negative posts are used as a way to “respond in some way in order to maintain the relationship (a.k.a. social grooming) when a lack of closeness or familiarity with the posters may make it difficult to determine how to respond” (Spottswood and Wohn, 2019, p. 250). In that way, it is not a coincidence that the importance of reaction buttons in offering emotional support was mentioned by Luka and Emma, as a lack of closeness or familiarity stems forward from their status as lurker/less active member.

To Gotho, Patrick, and Craig, the emoji reactions are less important. They use them, mainly because it is the easiest way to interact without having to write a comment, but the actual commenting, the high quality of those comments, and receiving helpful advice when they are asking for it, is more important. These sentiments are linked to the third element of Naslund et al.’s conclusion, sharing coping-strategies for day- to-day challenges, which in its turn could be related to the fact that Facebook facilitates many-to-many

communication, meaning that you can comment on Facebook posts. However, being able to comment can hardly be seen as a Facebook-specific feature, many-to-many communication is also facilitated by other social network sites (Hawn, 2009) and Web 1.0 platforms such as Usenet (Baym, 2009). Therefore, comments, and more specifically the quality of those comments, is something that is down to the members using the medium, and is thus connected to the Members-force, as will be further explained in subchapter 5.3.

Elements of the negative discourse on emphatic online conversation on social media sites, the observation that “social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content” (Fergie, Hunt and Hilton, 2016, p. 46), were observed in the interviews as well. One barrier to participation in online interaction and sharing health experiences put forward in the abovementioned study is the “concern about compromising the presentation of identity” (p. 46). This came forward in the accounts of Luka and Watermelon Carrier, who feel to a certain degree reluctant to share their own personal experiences in the Facebook group because they have added friends to the group (Watermelon Carrier) or have family in the group (Luka). Similarly, despite Brecht and Emma mentioning that they would not feel reluctant to share more personal things, they do indicate that having no family or friends among the members plays a big part in this. As Emma summarizes:

It feels like one big group filled with strangers. I don’t know any of the members personally, and I guess it would be different if I did. I’d certainly keep more low profile.

The three lurkers in the interview sample, along with Watermelon Carrier, thus feel that these types of posts would conflict with the presentation of themselves towards their friends and family.

However, this seems to be a rather small side note, as it does not necessarily has to do with something that is connected to a specific feature of the medium itself. Most negative attitudes towards the medium detected in the interviews were related to grudges the participants hold to Facebook as a platform in general. More specifically, the reasons why Ellie, Gotho, Patrick, IDLER 1049 and Brecht indicated they are not particularly a fan of Facebook are connected to either the more recent studies on cyberbullying, hate speech and trolling on the platform (Singer and Brooking, 2018; Nagle, 2017; Del Vigna et al., 2017), or older studies on Facebook and the internet in general, and how these platforms lead to problems of attention distraction (Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010; Hong et al., 2014) or displace social ties and hinder well-being (Kraut et al., 1998).

Gotho, Ellie and Patrick belong to the first category, as their resentments towards Facebook relate to the more recent studies, with Patrick stating that all he sees on Facebook is violence, which has a traumatising effect on him, and Gotho mentioning the presence of “racist dickheads” and “negative repercussions” that come with commenting on Facebook. Gotho was very vocal about her opposition to Facebook:

If it was not on Facebook… I mean, I couldn’t give a shit if it was on Facebook or not, because I’d actually prefer it if it was not. Facebook is better off with me staying on their platform because of the AF Gang.

What she is referring to in regards to “Facebook is better off with me staying on their platform”, is the 2018 Cambridge Analytica Scandal. Because of the scandal, it became apparent that during the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States, the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica used Facebook users’ personal data for political advertising without their consent. This played a big part in the election of Donald Trump as president of the US. The scandal made her want to quit Facebook because she does not want to share personal data with these kinds of companies, but the realisation that she would miss out on the AF Gang made her stay.

Much like Gotho, IDLER 1049 mentions the AF Gang as his main reason for staying on Facebook:

The AF Gang is my main reason for still being on Facebook. I think there are times when I could have walked away from Facebook. When I was doing my degree before IDLES were even properly together, back in 2012-2013, I stayed away from Facebook for six months, because I just had enough. It was a distraction, and it was boring.

His reasons are more related to the older studies on Facebook and the internet in general, and how they lead to problems of attention distraction (Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010; Hong et al., 2014), or displace social ties and hinder well-being (Kraut et al., 1998). Similar sentiments were found in the accounts of Brecht and Patrick (who thus belongs to both categories), who generally consider Facebook, apart from the AF Gang and some of the other music groups they are in, as a waste of time.

However strong the oppositions to Facebook were, none of the participants believed that there is a valuable alternative platform that is so widely used and allows them to have the communication they do. A similar experience of the AF Gang in terms of interaction, sense of community, and supportive nature, was deemed impossible on the other platforms on which the group is already active. Instagram is thought to be “a bit of free advertising, not really an interactive experience” (IDLER 1049) or “more of a ‘top-down’ conversation”

(Gotho). Twitter is regarded as more interactive, because by replying to tweets you can engage in a conversation, but it does not offer enough space to have the same kind of conversation, as users can only use a limited number of characters (280). Interestingly, the interviewees hint that they prefer Facebook over Twitter because they are “given the space for lengthy conversations” (Williams, 2015, p. 10), an argument that was made by Williams in defence of still researching forums in a time when most fans gather on social media sites (including Facebook) to discuss their object of fandom. Another disadvantage of Twitter is the fact that you do not know who is behind the keyboard when tweeting from the AF Gang page, which is seen as less personal. That personal aspect to the debate would also disappear if the AF Gang were only active on their website.

Could other online platforms the participants have had experiences with in the past offer a valuable alternative? Ellie and Watermelon Carrier were active on respectively Tumblr and a classic forum, two platforms associated with (music) fandom, and their experiences were far from ideal. Ellie feels that running a so-called ‘aesthetic blog’ on Tumblr with a username and picture that have nothing to do with who you are leads into a toxic environment in which fans can and will start making up stories about their object of fandom because they remain fairly anonymous. The last time Watermelon Carrier was as active in an online community as he is now, was in 2008 on a traditional forum dedicated to the band Dogs. He holds fond memories of that time, and explains how “there was definitely a community behind it”, but feels that “it was nowhere near as good [as the AF Gang]”:

It was an online forum, so it was a lot less active, I would say. I had a feeling you really had to try and get in, and make an effort to contribute. It was not as linked to yourself as well, it was more anonymous.

Even though Watermelon Carrier sometimes feels restricted because people he knows personally are in the group (cf. supra), he states that the advantages of the AF Gang being a Facebook group far outweigh that minor disadvantage. One advantage is that because scrolling through Facebook is a constant in his life, it makes it easier to participate, as it takes a lot less effort than logging in to a separate forum, like he had to do on the Dogs-forum in 2008. Facebook being a big part of a general social media routine and habit was also an advantage put forward by Craig.

But the advantage pointed out by Watermelon Carrier which resonated the most with other people’s accounts was that the conversations feel much more real because the AF Gang is on Facebook:

It tends to be that if I post something, you are going to see this ugly face next to the comment I’ve made (laughs). Rather than some username, it is my actual name. You can click on my profile, you might see other bits about me, in that way it does seem more real.

That sense of realness is something that is absent on the more anonymous platforms Tumblr and the classic forums, but it is something that is also rather Facebook-specific, as explained by Ellie:

I have all my family on Facebook, I have all of my friends, I have my name on there, I have pictures of nights out, you can see things I have achieved throughout my life, etcetera […] The fact that AF Gang is on Facebook lets people post about their real lives because that’s where you post about your life.

That sense of realness is thus perceived positively by Watermelon Carrier and Ellie, but also by Craig (“it helps having real people rather than silly names with cartoon characters”), and Patrick and Jason who both strictly oppose to acting anonymous on the internet. The reasoning behind it is that this sense of realness makes the members more identifiable and allows them to be more honest about themselves. According to the accounts, this then stimulates their eagerness to share their personal stories related to topics such as mental health, and certain medical or anxiety struggles.

Referring back to Baym’s framework, it can be concluded that even though there are voices of dissent in Gotho, Brecht, IDLER 1049 and Patrick – who hold grudges towards Facebook, but do indicate that they do not know an equivalent platform that allows them to have similar conversations –, the participants have indicated two specific features of Facebook that play a role in establishing a sense of community and supportive nature in the AF Gang. The first specific feature is the reaction buttons, which are seen as generating a feeling of being heard and possessing a certain degree of support. A second feature is the experience of a sense of realness, which makes the members more identifiable and therefore stimulates an eagerness to share personal stories. A third feature was mentioned as well, the fact that Facebook facilitates many-to-many communication in allowing people to comment on posts. However, as this can hardly be considered as Facebook-specific, it is something that is connected to the Members-force, as will be explained in subchapter 5.3.

5.2. The role of the Topic-force In the interviews, seven out of eleven participants (Brecht, Emma, Luka, Patrick, Watermelon Carrier, Gotho and Scum) mentioned the topic (IDLES’ music and lyrics) as being instrumental in establishing a sense of community in the AF Gang. At first glance this seems rather surprising, as it has been indicated

before that what essentially happens in conversations in the AF Gang in which people open up about their personal struggles, is people moving beyond discussions about the topic (IDLES). Hence why it was expected that other things than the topic are at play. On the other hand though, being a fan of IDLES is what connects most of the members of the AF Gang, which therefore makes IDLES the central topic around which most discussion revolves, and this is something that plays a central role in Baym’s (2000) framework. As Baym explains, the topic brings with it a purpose, that of interpretation, which in turn ideally leads into the creation of a particular environment that allows the fulfilment of this purpose. Projected onto her case study, she explains that the topic is soaps and the interpretation that soaps are emotional, relational, and talk-oriented then leads to an environment that is welcoming and supportive.

The central topic in this case study is thus the music and lyrics of IDLES, and consequently, the question arises how the participants interpret that topic, and what this says about the environment that is created. It was observed that the answers to that question – “What is the main message that you take from listening to IDLES?” – are closely related to three central themes of the band’s second album Joy as an Act of Resistance (released in 2018): (1) power in vulnerability, (2) love yourself, and (3) unity, inclusivity and solidarity.

The first theme was identified by Watermelon Carrier (“there’s power in vulnerability”), Craig (“vulnerability is okay, it is okay to cry […] Since getting into IDLES, I’ve been crying more than I have ever done in my life”) and Patrick (“don’t be afraid to cry and to deal with your personal tragedies”). Three songs on the album explicitly deal with that idea: there is the “I wanna be vulnerable!”-outcry in ‘Love Song’, the cover of soul singer Solomon Burke’s ‘Cry To Me’, and, most importantly, ‘Samaritans’. The title of the last song refers to a charity organisation that IDLES-frontman Joe Talbot describes as “the epitome of what we want to achieve” (Glynn, 2018), as it provides emotional support to people in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide. The song lyrics deal with, in Talbot’s words, toxic ideas about being a man (“the mask of masculinity / is a mask that’s wearing me”) and masculine norms which he describes in the song’s verses as:

man up, sit down, chin up, pipe down, socks up, don’t cry, drink up, don’t whine, grow some balls, he said.

Various studies (Wong, et al., 2017; O’Neil, 2012) have shown that conformity to such masculine norms is associated with negative mental health, as well as unfavourably related to seeking psychological help. In the chorus, Talbot expresses that he does not want to conform to these norms. The line “I’m a real boy and I cry!”, which contrasts directly with the masculine norm “don’t cry” from the song’s verse, demonstrates the showing of vulnerability as a reaction to those ‘toxic’ norms that lead to negative mental health. In that way, it is thus not surprising that the three participants who mentioned ‘power in vulnerability’ as one of the main messages they take from listening to IDLES are male.

To a lot of participants, the “love yourself”-message is really important. Emma states that “the lyrics to ‘Television’ touched me deeply and made me think differently about myself”, to Watermelon Carrier an important aspect is that “you can’t be a good person when you treat yourself like shit”, and Gotho, Ellie, IDLER 1049 and Patrick all indicated similar things. The two songs on the album that most explicitly deal with these themes are ‘I’m Scum’ and ‘Television’. The former is a celebration of imperfection, while the latter is dealing with depictions of beauty and perfection in magazines and on television which, as pointed out in various studies (Mills, Shannon and Hogue, 2017; Clay, Vignoles and Dittmar, 2005; Tiggemann and McGill, 2004), can lead to mood and body dissatisfaction. This means that ‘Television’ shows that, much like masculine norms having a negative effect on mental health, beauty and perfection standards displayed in popular media cause a similar effect. Talbot takes a stand at these standards by reminding the listener to accept themselves and feel confident with themselves, which is emphasised through the repetition of the phrase “love yourself”.

The third theme relates to the second in the sense that it is not only about loving yourself, but also loving others, which was expressed in variations such as “compassion for all” (Luka), “looking after and caring for each other” (Scum), “teaching how to be tolerant with yourself and others” (IDLER 1049), and “in one word: unity” (Brecht). The use of that last word is not a coincidence, an exclamation of “UNITY!” wraps up the album, which seems to suggest this is the main message the listener needs to remember from the album. Unity-exclamations are also repeated throughout ‘Danny Nedelko’, one of the band’s most well-known songs (at the time of writing it is their most streamed song on Spotify and second most viewed music video on YouTube). ‘Danny Nedelko’ is a pro-immigration song celebrating multiculturalism, although passages such as “he’s made of bones, he’s made of blood, / he’s made of flesh, he’s made of love, / he’s made of you, he’s made of me, / unity!” can be interpreted as a celebration of not only immigration but diversity and inclusivity as a whole.

Allowing and stimulating vulnerability, self-love, and inclusivity can all be considered as prosocial themes. This means that the participants’ interpretations of the topic are conform Jenkins’ (2006) argument that fan communities ensure uniformity of reading the fan text. In the AF Gang, however, this uniformity is implied, because the members rarely actively discuss IDLES’ lyrics. Yet, it should also be noted that every participant indicated that those messages they take from listening to IDLES are very important in their experience of being an IDLES-fan. The value they attach to the messages range from a reinforcing of the beliefs they have had all their lives (mostly indicated by the older participants such as Scum and Jason), to something that gives them strength, and encouraging them to carry on (Ellie, Watermelon Carrier, and Gotho) or re-evaluating their outlook on life (Emma and IDLER 1049). Patrick and Gotho even confessed that if the lyrics would be more generic they would stop listening to the band, or would never have become such a big fan in the first place.

Following Baym’s argument that in her case study the interpretation of television soaps (the topic) as emotional, relational, and talk-oriented leads into a welcoming and supportive environment, it seems reasonable to conclude that an online community built around a topic that is interpreted as allowing and stimulating vulnerability, self-love, and inclusivity leads to an equally welcoming and supportive environment. Moreover, as themes like self-love and inclusivity can be considered as prosocial, this would also be in line with the positive outcomes of the studies on the effect of music with prosocial lyrics on prosocial, supportive behaviour (Jacob, Guégen and Boulbry, 2010; Greitemeyer, 2009).

However, as Baym points out, this is something that ideally happens, not automatically. Giles (2013), for example, mentions two studies on online fandom communities with a similar topic as Baym’s case study, i.e. television series, that are far less harmonious (Johnson, 2007; Scodari, 2003). Applied to online music fandoms, this nuance shows that just because a band spreads a message of tolerance and open-mindedness or has lyrics that deal with mental health issues, it does not necessarily mean fans of that band will automatically engage in the same conversations as the participants in the AF Gang do. For instance, a lot of the interviewees are also a member of a Facebook group dedicated to The Murder Capital, an Irish post- punk band that has supported IDLES at various concerts, which is one of the reasons why the Irish band has a lot of IDLES fans in their fan base. Much like IDLES, mental healthcare is a strong theme in the lyrics of The Murder Capital (Hutchinson, 2020; Hot Press Newsdesk, 2019). Yet, the discussions in the Murder Capital group mainly evolve around the band itself such as concert reports, discussions concerning new single releases, or analysing song lyrics, the more common characteristics of an online music fan group. The participants who are also a member of the Murder Capital Facebook group have all indicated that while

they enjoy the group as a useful platform to stay informed on updates about the band, they feel that a sense of community in that group is either not present, or very different from the AF Gang. Even though seven out of eleven participants identified ‘IDLES’ music and lyrics’, the topic, as one of the two most instrumental forces shaping the sense of community, none of the interviewees could really explain this difference. However, three possible explanations can be found in various accounts on how specific elements of IDLES’ music and lyrics play a role in shaping a sense of the community in the AF Gang Facebook group: the straightforwardness of the lyrics, the experience of inclusivity during IDLES’ concerts, and the discourse of the band itself.

A first explanation can be found in the straightforward nature of the lyrics. As Luka points out:

The lyrics are very important. They are easy to understand, the message is clear and obvious, but still very strong. They are full of simple little quotes with which you can really say something. That makes it easier for me to associate with, and for a group as well, I guess.

Jason (“Joe is very good at fronting an idea”) and Gotho (“the songs work like anthems”) hold similar points of view. Examples of these quotable lines in their lyrics that operate as mantras which are representative for the band’s message include the aforementioned repetitions of “love yourself!” in the song ‘Television’, the “I wanna be vulnerable!”-outcry in ‘Love Song’, and the “UNITY!”-exclamations throughout ‘Danny Nedelko’. In this way, these elements indicate that IDLES’s lyrics are reminiscent of the way punk lyrics work, even though the band does not want to be labelled as punk. According to Talbot, using the punk label is an insult “to blues, to calypso, to reggae, to everything that came before punk that was the epitome of what subversive art in the face of adversity truly is. […] this didn’t start in 1975” (List, 2020). Yet, whether the band self-identifies as punk or not, it cannot be argued that the straightforward element which characterises their lyrics, is also very characteristic for punk lyrics, as Bennick (2018) explains:

Punk lyrics are written for impact and interpretation. They are written to incite and inspire. […] Often they are direct and brutally honest. This might be because of the lack of the writer’s lyrical ability. I mention this not as a condemnation of the lyricists, but rather quite the opposite: Punk lyricists don’t wait for artistic style to befall them after years of artistic refinement. They have something to say now and they get it done. Taking action takes precedent over waiting. (p.11)

This straightforwardness results in punk lyrics operating as “words that you can carry with you and see everywhere you go” (Bennick cited in Ambrosch, 2018, p. 142), or, as Ambrosch (2018) puts it: mantras.

This is in line with the accounts of Jason, Gotho and Luka. It thus seems that because IDLES’ songs are both easy to understand and containing a powerful message, it is easier to develop clear values to build a supportive community upon.

Luka, Brecht, Scum, Patrick, Emma, Gotho and IDLER 1049 indicated that the messages put forward by IDLES are amplified through their concerts. Patrick mentioned that the passion of frontman Joe Talbot, and how he aggressively stamps on the stage during performances, plays a big part in the delivery of the message, and shows how serious they take it. This echoes what Trevor Thomas, drummer of punk bands Active Slaughter and Anthrax, says about punk performances: “the message is the most important thing, but the delivery of that message is very important as well […] it adds to the message” (Thomas cited in Ambrosch, 2018, p. 73). A second way in which IDLES’ messages are amplified through the concerts is also linked to an aspect that is seen as typical for punk concerts. Ambrosch (2018) explains that during punk concerts:

It is not at all uncommon for the singer to hand the microphone to the audience, giving them a chance to sing as well, which, reflecting the community’s broadly egalitarian attitude, is intended to break down the hierarchical barrier between the artist and the audience. (p.106)

Drawing on Bernhart (2015), Ambrosch concludes that this is “likely to establish a community feeling, a sense of solidarity” (Bernhart, 2015, p. 271). Rather than breaking down the hierarchical barrier by handing the microphone to the audience, IDLES do so by letting audience members play their instruments. Gotho, for instance, spoke fondly of the first time she saw the band in concert:

It was really amazing that the band let everybody take their instruments. I remember this older lady with long white hair who was playing the drums. It was not very good, but she did it and I thought it was fucking amazing. It was the best experience ever during a gig.

By doing this, IDLES are reinforcing their message of inclusivity, but also of self-love, because the audience members’ ability to play the instrument, or lack of ability, does not matter. As Rohrer (2013) states, during such practices, the active participation and sense of belonging is more important than the musical aspect. The fans feel that they are loved by the band. After seeing a live performance, IDLER 1049’s wife, who is not particularly a fan of IDLES, summarised the experience to him as: “I can see why you love this band, because you can see that they love you.” It can thus be said that the messages of the band that are expressed in the lyrics, are reinforced during the concerts. This makes these messages more clear, and even harder to ignore or misunderstand. This then, once again, makes it easier to develop the values for a supportive community.

The interviews are an important aspect as well. As explained by Jason:

Together with the lyrics, Joe’s further explanations of where they stand as a band when it comes to social politics and issues close to the heart of everyone in the AF Gang, define the band’s philosophy.

Interviews with IDLES are usually an open affair. The themes of inclusivity, vulnerability, and self-love are regularly tackled and often expressed through Talbot’s own mental health issues and his personal growth. In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian (Hann, 2018), for example, the frontman explains he was a “horrible beast” when alcohol, drugs, and violence played a big part in his life. When in 2017 his daughter Agatha was a stillborn, Talbot came to realise that:

To progress as a person I need to rely on people more, to share more and be vulnerable. It was a new kind of grief, and I had to learn to love myself and rely on my friends to take some of the weight because it was too big to take on my own.

Similarly to Cavicchi’s observation that Bruce Springsteen stories “serve as models for acting in specific situations in which fans might find themselves” (Cavicchi, 1998, p. 169), Watermelon Carrier points out that these instances in which Talbot is talking about his own battles encourage the members of the AF Gang to “stop, reflect, and learn” in order to become a better person.

Next to Jason and Watermelon Carrier, the importance of the interviews was also pointed out by Luka, Emma, and Patrick, but they also mentioned the tone of social media posts, in which phrases like “all is love” or “unity” come back a lot, and the work they do with Samaritans, the charity that provides emotional support to people in emotional distress (cf. supra). They feel that the messages they want to spread are incorporated in everything they do and say. The discourse of the band – which, based on our interviews, consists of all of the aforementioned things combined: the prosocial lyrics, the openness in interviews, the tone of social media posts, the work with the charity organisation – leads Ellie to conclude that “IDLES are real people, not celebrities, there is a massive amount of respect for what they do”. Because of this, the messages are regarded as authentic, which makes it easier for fans to associate themselves with these messages, that can then potentially “serve as models for acting in specific situations in which fans might find themselves” (Cavicchi, 1998, p. 169). This, once again, facilitates identifying the norms and values to build a supportive community.

To conclude this subchapter, it can be said that because of our observation that what members of the AF Gang essentially do when opening up about personal struggles, is moving beyond the topic, it was expected that other things than the topic are at play in the establishment of a sense of community and supportive environment. However, seven out of eleven participants mentioning the topic as playing an instrumental role in this has confirmed why it plays such a central role in Baym’s framework. According to that framework, the topic comes with a purpose, interpretation, and the fulfilment of this purpose ideally needs a particular environment. Baym’s topic is soaps and they are interpreted as relational, emotional, and talk-oriented, which leads into a supportive and welcoming environment. Similarly, the topic of this case study is also connected to such prosocial themes (e.g. inclusivity and self-love) which would then ideally lead into an equally supportive environment. However, this is an ideal situation, and not something that happens automatically, as seen in other fan groups dedicated to objects of fandom with similar messages and interpretations. In the interviews we observed three possible explanations as to why the fulfilment of Baym’s ‘ideal’, a welcoming and supportive environment, is facilitated in this case study. Firstly, there is the straightforward way in which the prosocial messages of unity/inclusivity, self-love, and vulnerability are put forward in the lyrics. Secondly, how these messages are reinforced through their concerts, and, thirdly, in the general discourse of the band in interviews, social media posts and other instances. These specific elements of the topic all make the messages more authentic, powerful and, most importantly, clear. They make it harder to misinterpret IDLES’ messages, hence why all participants interpreted the message by mentioning prosocial themes in the lyrics. This is conform Jenkins’ (2006) argument that fan communities ensure uniformity of reading the fan text. In the AF Gang, this uniformity is implied, because the members rarely actively discuss IDLES’ lyrics. This implication of uniformity in the readings of the text means that there is an assumption all members share the same values as they do. Because the members feel eager to reach out to what they assume are like-minded people, this then leads into a supportive community.

5.3. The role of the Members-force The last three forces in Baym’s framework are the members, the more influential members, and the offline contexts of the members. As explained in the literature study, the suggestions Baym offers to identify the role these forces in shaping the online community are less specific than those offered in the first two forces. We concluded that the role of these forces should be determined through the process of interviewing. Concerning the Members-force, we observed two ways in which the members play a role in either shaping or complicating the sense of community in the AF Gang.

A first way in which we see the role of the Members-force shine through was already mentioned in the first subchapter of this analysis. When discussing the role of emoji reaction buttons, it was observed that they generate a feeling of being heard, and showing a degree of support. This specific feature of the medium helps to shape the sense of community in the AF Gang. However, to various participants (Gotho, Craig, and Patrick), the emoji reactions are less important than the actual commenting, and the high quality of those comments. As commenting on posts is not just a Facebook-specific feature (Hawn, 2009; Baym, 2009), and something that is down to the input of the members, this is more connected to the Members- force in the framework and the role this force plays in shaping the online sense of community.

To Gotho, Patrick, and Craig, receiving emoji reactions when they put up a personal post in the group is thus far less important than “receiving advice when asking for it” (Craig). A prime example of such advice can be found in Patrick’s account:

The number of likes, hearts,… that doesn’t matter at all. When I put up a post written from the heart, the most important thing is the useful advice people give. When I suffered from panic attacks, one person advised me to keep breathing, that sounds very cliché, but it really helped me (…) even the smallest pieces of advice can be meaningful in those circumstances.

In order to receive these supportive and helpful comments, other members need to be willing to make them. Something that has been described as a relevant concept to explain individuals’ willingness to offer support in online communities is Tajfel’s (1972) concept of community identification, the knowledge that you belong to a group and the emotional significance connected to this membership. Lin et al. (2015) have used the concept to show that “those who identify with an online support community are more likely to provide support to other members” (p. 375). This is echoed in various accounts. Craig, for instance, states that offering substantial advice is his way to give his “help to the community”. This means that he recognises the community he belongs to as supportive, identifies with these supportive values, and considers offering support part of a role that stems from being a member of that supportive community. Similarly, IDLER 1049, says that:

IDLES is what brings everyone together, but quickly it becomes apparent that there is a culture of support, and if there's something I can offer, I will offer, whether that's advice or just a bit of support.

He too links his motives for offering support to recognizing the community he belongs to as supportive, and identifying with these supportive values. Community identification is thus a possible explanation, although it is very likely more phenomena than we managed to unearth are at play.

The second and biggest way in which the Members-force shined through in the interviews was linked to the number of members in the AF Gang. The group is continuously growing: it was created in June 2017, hit 10.000 members in October 2018, 20.000 in July 2019, and at the time of writing, has 29.644 members. IDLES’ official Facebook page currently has 96.883 likes, assuming that every member of the AF Gang has also liked the IDLES page (something which we cannot confirm), this means that roughly 30% of the IDLES-fans active on Facebook are a member of the AF Gang. This ‘members of the fan group compared to likers of the official page’-ratio is high. The same simple calculation applied to the official Facebook page of Fontaines D.C. (an Irish band that is heavily connected to IDLES, they are on the same record label as IDLES and have been IDLES’ support act on numerous occasions) and their fan group (What's Really Going On - Fontaines D.C. fan page) results into a ratio of just 3.59% (47.947 likes versus 3.547 members).

The number of members is the reason why Jason has named the Members-force as one of the two forces most responsible for shaping the sense of community. He is the only one out of eleven participants who has done so. His explanation is as follows:

To quote IDLES themselves: there is strength in numbers. To be a part of 29.000 people, that is really, really powerful. (…) I mean, 29.000 members, that’s the size of a town. And there are very, very few assholes among those 29.000. You know, for a town not to have any assholes at all? I wanna go and live there.

His reasoning is connected to the concept of community identification: the knowledge that you belong to a big and supportive group (one without any ‘assholes’) is something that gives you strength and leads, following Lin et al. (2015), to a willingness to offer social support. However, it is telling that Jason is the only participant that has chosen this force. Only three other participants (Scum, IDLER 1049 and Watermelon Carrier) regarded the fast-rising number of members as exclusively positive, mainly pointing at how having more members enriches the conversation. The majority (Gotho, Patrick, Emma, Craig, Luka, Brecht, and Ellie) indicated that they are worried about the number of new people joining the group.

Usually, an influx of members happens whenever an article on the AF Gang and its unique sense of community gets published in the press. For example: on June 28, 2020, just 3 days after the BBC had published an article on the AF Gang (Clarkson, 2020), admin Brian Mimpress reported that 1.472 new

members had joined the group in just one week. The ‘worried’ participants fear that these newcomers would not have a good understanding of the way the AF Gang, and its specific sense of community works. This influx of new members could result in complicating that sense of community, as described by Ellie:

It made me wonder whether the people who have come in from, for example, the BBC article (cf. supra) would be more like: "I really like that song called ‘I'm Scum’ and I'm probably going to listen to their new album, let's join this Facebook group, because it's just a Facebook group. We'll see what happens!" But for me, the AF Gang is a very emotional place. I was worried a little bit about whether that sense of community would be tarnished in any way or would be become weaker if there were more people who just join on a whim.

This is more or less in line with Duffett (2013), who observes that defensive feelings towards the fandom community are not uncommon for the more experienced members:

‘n00bs,’ are newbies (novices) who – in the eyes of their more experienced peers – have yet to fully grasp the concerns and protocols of the fan community. Seasoned community members can be critical of new updates to the franchise and new ways of interpreting what they see as their text. (p. 248)

In the AF Gang, however, it never gets as heated between seasoned and novice members as described by Duffett (2013), and terms with derogatory connotations, such as ‘n00bs’, were not mentioned in any of the interviews. The defensive feelings are present, but the ‘worried’ participants also indicate that they try to suppress them because they realise that this line of thought goes against the whole idea of the AF Gang being a supportive and welcoming community. Coming back on her previous statement, Ellie explains that:

I came to realise that when I first joined, I also didn’t know just how emotional and supportive this group would be. Maybe those people who have joined because they are an IDLES fan will learn how emotional it is, and the AF Gang could end up helping them. (...) Who am I to say to someone that they're not allowed to be in the group? That goes against what the whole idea of the group is.

Interestingly, what the ‘worried’ participants are scared for is something that has been mentioned before: trolling, hate speech and cyberbullying. These are some of the negative elements of Facebook which come forward in the more recent studies on the platform (Singer and Brooking, 2018; Nagle, 2017; Del Vigna et al., 2017). The participants regard those hateful practices as unavoidable on any Facebook group apart from

the AF Gang, as can be seen in the following statement by Gotho on her amazement as to why the AF Gang is as supportive for a community with 29.000 members:

Everyone acts in a respectful manner that nowhere else on Facebook exists. This weirds me out because it's the internet, it’s Facebook, it's so many people. I mean, statistically there must be some racist dickheads in there somewhere.

The higher the number of members, the higher the risk that the group could be infiltrated with people performing these practices of trolling, cyberbullying and hate speech. However, this is mainly something that they worry about, rather than something that they already see happening. In the interviews, two reasons were observed why they think it is not already the case and why, despite their worries, they do not think it will happen in the near future. The first reason is connected to the Topic-force in this framework, whilst the second is related to the Influential Members-force, the force that will be discussed in more detail in the next subchapter.

Both Gotho and Brecht, for instance, describe the main message IDLES put forward in their lyrics using traditionally left-wing terminology such as ‘inclusivity’ and ‘solidarity’. Similarly, they describe a typical AF Ganger as open-minded and situated on the political left. They can understand that the AF Gang becomes bigger because IDLES are getting more media coverage and attracting larger crowds at their concerts, but reason that as long as the band sticks to these left-wing principles, they will continue to attract likeminded fans, and, similarly, the AF Gang will continue to attract likeminded members:

IDLES are getting bigger… But I don’t think they will ever be as big as mainstream acts like Coldplay. It will always be limited in size, which is why I think they will always attract people who more or less identify with their message. (Brecht)

I think the message of the band is important. If the band, in a weird and dystopian world, would start saying “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter”, the AF Gang could suddenly start having members that have… questionable views about humanity. And then it would separate very easily. So the fact that they are entwined so much is important. (Gotho)

Even though both participants are worried about the influx of new members, they believe that because of the inclusive message put forward by the band, the connection will always remain, regardless of how many members there are in the AF Gang. Once again, this indicates the central role the topic plays in this case study.

A second reason why the participants feel like the sense of community is maintained even with the influx of new members can be found in the work the admins Brian Mimpress, Lindsay Melbourne, and Louise Hughes do. The admins are strict on posts and comments that include personal attacks, or violate the safe space that the AF Gang is. In the group’s rules, it is indicated that:

In the spirt of Unity this group WILL remain a safe place for us all regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability. Make sure everyone feels safe, this is vital. Any personal attacks will not be tolerated. No warnings will be given, if you behave like a knobhead you will be removed by Admin.

The moderation work by the admins is thus based on the principles of the band (“the spirit of Unity”), which shows how they use these principles as “models for acting in specific situations in which fans might find themselves” (Cavicchi, 1998, p. 169), once again, this points at the important role of the topic.

The moderation work is rated very highly by the participants. Scum, for instance, states that “I think they do a very good job moderating”, and Watermelon Carrier says that it is “a testament to the admins that a group that has become this large is still such a nice place”. The time-consuming task of moderating the AF Gang is something that the admins do in their spare time, as they all have day jobs. Although very rarely, this can cause friction. When the interviewees were asked whether had ever come across posts in the AF Gang that felt odd or out of character for the group, a lot of participant in the interviews mentioned a debate concerning the Black Lives Matter Movement, an incident that took place in June 2020. In a post on the Black Lives Matter protests (that were happening all around the world in the wake of George Floyd, a black US citizen who was killed by the police during an arrest in May 2020), the debate in the comments got very heated, and personal insults were thrown around. Admin Brian Mimpress, who states he was at work during this debate, acted according to standard AF Gang-policies: he turned off the ability to post comments on that particular post (something they rarely have to do), and the admins decided to not allow any other posts on the matter through (all posts in the AF Gang are pre-approved by the admins). This then lead into people thinking the admins were silencing the voices of people speaking out on racism, which offended a lot of AF Gangers because it goes against the idea of the AF Gang as a safe space regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability. Eventually, Mimpress posted an apology in his Good Morning AFG-update on June 3rd, in which he admitted that he had not handled the situation well, will learn from this, and that the admin team will strive to do better in the future. Since then, posts on the matter have been allowed through again. Despite being uncomfortable with the initial debate, the

participants indicated that they were very satisfied with the way Brian and the other admins dealt with the criticisms. Watermelon explains that:

It was a very important moment. If they had handled that differently, it could have torn that community apart, I think. But they stopped, reflected, did some reading and came to the right conclusion. I think they did the right thing by eventually allowing this debate to happen, and engaging with people.

As this rare incident of disagreement was considered to be handled well, it can thus, once again, be concluded that the participants have a great amount of respect of the work the admins do. Interestingly, Watermelon Carrier thinks the way the admins handled this situation (stop, reflect, read, form a conclusion) is reminiscent of how in interviews IDLES-frontman Joe Talbot openly talks about his aspiration to become a better person (cf. supra). Once again, this indicates that, following Cavicchi (1998), IDLES’ messages “serve as models for acting in specific situations in which fans might find themselves” (p. 169).

In conclusion, the elements related to the Members-force pointed out by the interviewees can be seen as either shaping or complicating the sense of community in the AF Gang. It was observed that the members’ willingness to offer supportive comments, enabled through the concept of community identification (i.e. identifying with the community’s discourse and values), is shaping the sense of community. The complication of the establishment of the sense of community was linked to the fast-rising number of members. The participants fear that new members will not have a good understanding of the emotional place that the AF Gang is, and that the risk of trolling behaviour will increase because of these fast-rising numbers. However, this is something that they have not noticed so far, and there are two reasons why despite being worried about it, they do not expect it to happen in the near future. Both reasons are connected to the Topic-force. It was indicated that as long as IDLES’ message of inclusivity and solidarity does not change, the band will attract likeminded people, and the AF Gang will therefore continue to attract likeminded members. A second reason was found in the great amount of respect they have for the admins and their moderation work, which is protecting the way AF Gang works as a safe space. This moderation work is carried out based on the principles of the band and their “spirit of Unity”, which highlights the importance of the topic. As the admins are considered to be influential members, it is also something that is connected to the force which will be discussed in more detail in the next subchapter. Rather paradoxically, an instance that is seen as potentially damaging the sense of community has thus shown us how important the Topic-force and Influential Members-force are in maintaining, and shaping the sense of community.

5.4. The role of the Influential Members-force In her framework, Baym (2000) links the role the more influential members play in shaping online communities to two aspects. The first one is rather obvious: the idea that certain members can have a big influence on a community because of a particular style in which they write their posts or particular manners in which they behave towards others in the community. Baym (2000) points out the role of the r.a.t.s.- contributor Anne, whose “extremely sociable and welcoming style has helped to set the interpersonal tone for the group and has single-handedly welcomed countless new participants” (p. 200). In the context of the AF Gang, the participants mainly mentioned the admins – Lindsay Melbourne, Brian Mimpress and Louise Hughes – as having an influential role. Other members were named, such as IDLES’ drummer Jon Beavis’ mother who frequently posts in the group, as well as people who have been there since the early days, but there was no particular pattern recognized in the names that were brought up. The second aspect is less obvious and has to do with traditions set up by individuals in the community, an example Baym names from her case study is the weekly polls. The AF Gang-counterpart of the weekly polls in Baym’s r.a.t.s. case study can be found in the ‘Good Morning AFG’-posts, posted daily by Brian Mimpress on his bus ride on the way to work. These posts are mainly a stream of consciousness from the author about his personal life and AF Gang experiences, and are more often than not they are non-IDLES related. Another traditional element is the way in which the slogan ‘all is love’ regularly returns: it is part of the full title of the Facebook group (ALL IS LOVE: AF GANG (IDLES Community)), it can be found on enamel badges sold by the AF Gang, and a lot of posts in the group are signed with those words, or the abbreviated form AIL.

Because this first aspect is less obvious than the second, we decided to present the Influential Members- force as two separate forces (‘Influential Members’ and ‘AF Gang traditions and taglines’) on the PowerPoint slide used in the interviews. This decision was made for clarity reasons, and because we expected it was possible that someone would not regard certain individuals as more influential, but could still attach great importance to the role of the regularly returning slogan ‘all is love’ in shaping the sense of community. In reality, it was observed that one participant (IDLER 1049, a heavy poster) chose both ‘Influential Members’ and ‘AF Gang traditions and taglines’ as the two forces most instrumental in shaping the sense of community. Apart from IDLER 1049, the ‘Influential Members’-force on the PowerPoint slide was not chosen by anyone else in the interviews. Luka and Brecht chose ‘AF Gang traditions and taglines’, but also indicated that they attach great importance to the posts of the admins. Luka confesses that if she sees a post by one of the moderators, she will most certainly read it, whereas she is more likely to scroll past posts by people whose name she does not immediately recognize. This is also the case for Brecht, who explains that this is an unconscious act fuelled by the knowledge that these people live for the AF Gang and

IDLES. The two examples confirm the observation that the moderators “become particularly responsible for personalizing an otherwise anonymous environment and for setting the tone of the group” (Baym, 2000, p. 144).

Concerning the first aspect, how influential members can shape the conversation, it became apparent that the reason why the participants enjoy the ‘normal’ posts (i.e. those that are not part of the ‘AF Gang traditions’) by the admins is mainly because, as Gotho describes, the admins are seen as a part of the band in an extended way. IDLER 1049 explains how he looks out for posts by the admins because “they often have first news on new stuff. That's quite important to me, I like to hear about things like new songs and videos, or gig announcements.” And when Brecht first joined the group, he followed it mostly for the tour updates the admins provided by sharing their experiences as well as some inside information. This is more in line with the traditional views on how music fandom communities mainly evolve around the band the community is dedicated to (cf. supra). Therefore, it can be said that, based on our interviews, the admins’ ‘normal’ posts and why people enjoy reading them, not necessarily tell us a lot about how they set the tone for the group, or establish a sense of community.

Even in the cases that mentioned the importance of receiving first-hand information about the band through the admins’ posts, we observed that the ‘influential members setting the tone of the group’-force merged into the ‘AF Gang traditions’-part of the force we had added to the framework on the PowerPoint slide. When asked about the role of the posts by the admins, IDLER 1049, Brecht and Gotho mentioned the first-hand information, but also started talking about the daily ‘Good Morning AFG’ updates by admin Brian Mimpress on the bus on the way to work. This last thing happened in most interviews. This means that, more than the ‘normal’ posts by the admins, it is believed that it is the AF Gang traditions, such as the ‘Good Morning AFG’ update, that help to shape the sense of community. An explanation can be found in Scum’s account. Despite admitting he rarely reads the bus updates, he still thinks they are important in fostering the community and function as an introduction to the supportive tone and values of the AF Gang for new members:

It's building a tradition, and traditions become important to people. It's a ritual that makes you feel comfortable, you see the words ‘Good Morning AFG’ and you know what it is about. The common language bonds people together. It's like doctors or lawyers having their own professional language. That language could be used to exclude or include, and in the AF Gang it's used as an inclusive tool.

Reading the bus updates every morning is part of the daily routine of Watermelon Carrier, IDLER 1049, Ellie, Emma, Craig, and Patrick. Luka, too, reads them whenever she can, and explains how they are a good example of how the group works as a family:

It is a daily stream of consciousness which I really enjoy. Partly because of these posts everyone knows who Brian is, even if they have never met him in person and live in Brazil, for instance. I mean, he is called Uncle Brian by people who have never met him. To me, that is a good example of how the group works.

The mentioning of ‘Uncle Brian’ is not a coincidence. Mimpress is indeed often referred to as Uncle Brian, whereas the other two admins are known as ‘Mum’ (Louise Hughes) and ‘Boss’ (Lindsay Melbourne). Jason, too, describes that there is a parental element to the updates by Brian: “it's like sitting down at the dinner table and dad is going to have a little family meeting while we're all eating dinner”. The use of this type of terminology is in line with Duffett (2013), who states that ‘a family’ is a common term fans use to describe the fan community they belong to:

The notion of family signifies the role of the fan community as a close-knit network of people who look after each other on the basis of shared interest and values, taking each other’s fandom as a vouchsafe. (p. 246)

The family aspect that these participants recognise in the daily bus updates thus points at how the group functions as a close-knit network of people who are willing to support each other. Together with the fact that it is seen as a good way to introduce new members to the tone and values of the AF Gang, this confirms that the AF Gang tradition ‘Good Morning AFG’ plays a role in shaping the sense of community.

A second element of these AF Gang traditions is the slogan ‘all is love’, and the way in which it regularly returns: it is part of the full title of the Facebook group, it can be found on badges sold by the AF Gang, and a lot of posts in the group are signed with those words. It is a motto of just three words, but, as Scum explains, its simplicity is its power. In the interviews, it was observed that the participants’ understanding of the term can be traced back to IDLES’ message of self-love and treating fellow human beings in a loving and caring way, which, consequentially, seems to be the AF Gang-message as well. To Ellie, the words ‘all is love’ epitomise her AF Gang experience:

People post about going through the worst times of their life and it’s always met with love, support, and kindness. Like: "Here's a number to an organisation that could really help you", or

"You live two towns away from me, if you ever need a place to stay for a night, give me a shout!". There's no malice or anger towards anyone. (…) I have a lot of love for these people, because they've helped me through a lot and it's crazy the impact that this group has had on me in a year. All really is love because all I'm full of for everyone that is in the group is love.

More than a good summary of what the group is about, it is also seen as an implicit code of conduct happily adopted by all the members, especially because it comes back a lot:

As soon as you join the group, you’ll notice that it’s used everywhere. You immediately realise that ‘all is love’ says a lot about how they treat each other in the AF Gang. (Brecht)

It is a reminder that other people are human too and want the same things as you do: to be treated respectfully and be cared for. (Gotho)

‘All is love’ is a binding thing within the community, it says that we're all looking out for each other. It is a call to arms to be very definite and robust about being good to each other. (Jason)

According to Patrick, whenever someone he sees someone using the phrase, it signifies that they have a good understanding of the supportive and open place that the AF Gang is:

When you see someone signing off a post with ‘all is love’, you just know that that person understands how the group works. He or she knows it’s a safe space and we both feel safe enough to tell each other stories, and to open up about both positive and negative things that are on our minds.

There are thus three reasons identified in the interviews on why the ‘all is love’-tagline plays a role in shaping the sense of community. Firstly, ‘all is love’ is seen as a good phrase to summarise the AF Gang’s supportive ethos. Secondly, the fact that the slogan regularly returns results in ‘all is love’ functioning as an implicit code of conduct that consists of treating people in a respectful manner. And thirdly, the usage of the phrase is also seen as a signifier of a good understanding of both the AF Gang’s ethos and the implicit code of conduct.

Concluding this subchapter, it can be said that the participants indicated that the influential members in the AF Gang are the admins. Whereas their ‘normal’ posts are mainly seen as a good way to stay informed on updates about the band, and thus not really contribute to the establishment of a sense of community, it was observed that it is their regularly returning traditional posts, and more specifically admin Brian Mimpress’ daily ‘Good Morning AFG’-posts, that set the tone for the group and play a role in shaping

the community. Apart from building a tradition, the ‘Good Morning AFG’-posts are also seen as having a family aspect to them, which signifies that, following Duffett (2013), the fan community functions as a close- knit network of people who are willing to support each other. Another traditional element that helps to shape the online community is the regularly returning tagline ‘all is love’, which is seen as (1) a good summary of the gang’s supportive ethos, (2) an implicit code of conduct, and, when used by a member, (3) a signifier of an understanding of both that supportive ethos and implicit code of conduct.

5.5. The role of the Offline Contexts of the Members-force The last force in the framework of Baym (2000) consists of how the offline contexts of the members shape the online community. She states that “people’s self-disclosures in r.a.t.s. indicate diverse full offline lives that are brought into the group. Their online identities are congruent with those that they stake out offline” (p. 204). People thus bring in their offline experiences to the conversations in the online community. This means that in the AF Gang, too, the members’ backgrounds shape the content of the posts. In order the understand the role this force plays in shaping the online community, it was thus decided to look at the members’ offline experiences related to the content of the more personal posts in which people open up about certain problems.

We observed that a lot of our participants have, to a certain degree, experiences with the mental health- related issues that other members open up about in the AF Gang. This ranged from suffering from panic attacks, over dealing with burn-out syndromes, to anxiety issues. Other personal issues, not necessarily mental health-related, were mentioned as well, examples of these include experiences with cancer and tough childhoods. These experiences shape their backgrounds and thus the content of the AF Gang, but this happens in many more ways than this research can portray. In the interviews, the aim was to gather a good idea of what these offline experiences are for each participant, and how they look at the AF Gang content and its sense of community based on the things they have experienced. In hindsight, we observed that the first part of our aim was something we could easily detect, most participants started talking openly about the way in which they struggle, or have struggled, with their mental health. The second part, however, proved to be harder (or even impossible) to detect. It is hard to tell whether that is due to the fact that this is a qualitative research with in-depth questions or inadequate questions on our part, but the participants found it difficult to specifically pinpoint how their offline experiences with mental health-related issues play a role in how they look at or engage with the AF Gang content. This does not mean that the participants believe that the members’ offline experiences do not play a role in establishing that sense of community in the AF Gang. None of the interviewees mentioned the force as their ‘odd one out’ in the framework they

were presented, and Ellie, Emma and Watermelon Carrier chose it as one of the two forces that, in their opinion, shape that sense of community the most. It is more an unconscious act than something they are fully aware of or can put into words.

Concerning the Members’ Offline Contexts-force it can thus be said that we observed that a lot of the participants mentioned experiences with mental health-related (and other personal) issues. They do believe that everyone bringing in these backgrounds and seemingly similar experiences plays a (big) role in shaping the sense of community in the AF Gang, but due to the context of this research, it proved to be difficult to exactly pinpoint how this force plays a role in this case study. Hence why further research (not necessarily qualitative) is needed to identify how this force plays a role in the AF Gang.

5.6. The role of the Meetups-force (additional force) One force we added to the framework was ‘AF Gang meetups and other offline encounters’. This decision was made because we had noticed that the AF Gang has a strong offline component as well. A big part that offline component consists of the so-called ‘AF Gang meetups’. These gatherings are held before IDLES concerts, usually taking place in a bar close to the concert hall, and organised by either the admins or other AF Gang members. Meetups are held before non-IDLES concerts too, usually when it is a band that is talked about a lot in the Facebook group, such as bands who have played as the support act on an IDLES tour. Sometimes, they can be non-concert related as well, in certain areas in the United Kingdom, meetups are often held because people feel like getting together with local AF Gang members. As this offline component is a part of people’s AF Gang experience, it is natural to assume that it may play a part on how people behave in the Facebook group, and in shaping, or at least maintaining, the sense of community in the Facebook group.

Not all participants in our sample have participated in meetups, although most who have not so far indicated that this is because they have not yet been able to go to a meetup , and will definitely participate as soon as there is one that they can go to. Of those that have participated (Ellie, IDLER 1049, Craig, Patrick, Gotho, and Watermelon Carrier) all but one spoke very fondly of them. Gotho was the exception, but she explained that anxiety-wise she has difficulties meeting new people in large groups. The remaining five participants thus had exclusively positive experiences. The way they talked about the meetups echoes Duffett (2013) who observes that “fans describe conventions as utopian spaces: welcoming, tolerant, accepting and enlightened” (p. 245) and that these conventions offer a sense of belonging. It must be said, however, that most of their stories had more to do with offline manifestations of a sense of community within the AF Gang. For example, something that came back in the accounts of Watermelon Carrier, IDLER

1049 and Patrick is that because of the meetups, they feel more comfortable going to (IDLES or AF Gang related) concerts on their own, because they know there will be likeminded people present that will welcome them with open arms:

I booked tickets for Primavera in Barcelona next year. At the moment I'm going by myself, but I know that there will be AF Gang people there. I wouldn't have done that a year ago, going to a festival in another country on my own. I wouldn't have done that without the AF Gang, for sure. One hundred percent. (Watermelon Carrier)

Thanks to the meet-ups I've started to go to gigs on my own. I'm comfortable enough now. I get a train, get off in London, walk into to a place where I might not necessarily know a lot of people, but very quickly, I get poured into a real nice community feeling. (IDLER 1049)

At concerts, I’m never on my own anymore. If there would be a concert on tomorrow, then I know for sure that there will be someone who I’ve met before. (Patrick)

While this is unmistakably a big part of these participants’ AF Gang experience, it is not something that is necessarily linked to the central focus point of our research, the sense of community in the online fan group. Yet, the ‘AF Gang meetups and other offline encounters’-force was still chosen by Ellie, Patrick, and Craig as one of the two forces that is most instrumental in shaping the sense of community in the online group. It seems that the reason why they chose this force lies in the fact that during these meetups, they find a confirmation of the sense of community they experience online:

Online is brilliant, if you want, you can edit out all the bad points about yourself. But through the meet-ups I noticed that the generosity and kindness people showed from their online persona on the AF Gang was met by their real persona. It was exactly the same. (Ellie)

Both Craig and Patrick needed that confirmation to feel more comfortable sharing personal things online:

After meeting some people in person and noticing they were really nice, I started to feel a lot more comfortable about sharing things, because I now knew that these are people I can trust, rather than some strangers on the internet. (Craig)

I had seen that a lot of people talked about their problems in the Facebook group, and that the feedback on these posts was amazing. But it was after meeting so many people who were just so very interested in hearing each other’s stories at the meetups that I felt safe enough to share my story as well. (Patrick)

These sentiments hint at the meetups being important in further increasing the sense of realness they experience in the Facebook group, offline confirmation that the fellow AF Gang members are “people I can trust rather than some strangers on the internet” can be considered to, as explained in the subchapter concerning the Medium-force, make the members more identifiable, which stimulates the eagerness to share personal stories.

It can be seen as increasing the feelings of community identification as well. The offline confirmation of the sense of community they experience online results in recognising the AF Gang as a supportive community even more than they did before. As explained in the subchapter concerning the Members-force, research (Lin et al., 2015) has shown that strongly identifying with an online supportive community can lead to engaging in supportive conversations in that community. Rather than providing us new insights, the addition of this force thus mainly confirmed observations that were already made.

6. Conclusion 6.1. Main conclusion

This study aimed to provide an insight on the AF Gang, a fan group dedicated to the British rock band IDLES hosted on Facebook, and then more specifically on the establishment of a sense of community in the group that allows its members to move beyond their object of fandom and encourages them to open up about personal issues. In order to do so, we drew on five ‘online community-shaping forces’ – medium, topic, members, influential members, offline contexts of the members –, aiming to determine the members’ perspectives on the role of these forces in shaping that sense of community and supportive nature in the AF Gang.

In the interviews, one major aspect came up that was seen as potentially damaging the sense of community. Paradoxically, discussing this phenomenon seemingly told us the most about how the sense of community is shaped in the AF Gang. When discussing the Members-force, most participants indicated that they are worried about the high-rising number of members. They fear that the new participants will not have a good understanding of the group and its sense of community, and that the higher the number of members, the higher the risk the group could be infiltrated with trolling, cyberbullying and hate speech. However, despite their worries, two reasons were given why they do not expect this to happen in the near future. These reasons point at the central role of the topic and the influential members in maintaining, and, more importantly, shaping the sense of community in the AF Gang.

In the subchapter concerning the role of the topic, it was outlined how IDLES’ messages are uniformly interpreted with prosocial themes such as inclusivity and self-love. How the band presents these messages in a straightforward manner in their lyrics, and how the messages are reinforced through their concerts, interviews and social media posts, is considered to be making those messages more authentic, powerful, and clear. This then facilitates the identification of the values of the band. The participants reason that as long as these messages (and the way they are presented) do not change dramatically, both the band and the AF Gang will continue to attract likeminded people, hence why the topic plays a central role in shaping (as well as maintaining) the sense of community.

The first way in which the Influential Members-force is identified as playing a role in maintaining the sense of community despite the fast-rising number of members is the active moderation work carried out by the admins. The work Lindsay Melbourne, Louise Hughes, and Brian Mimpress do is rated highly by the participants in our sample. In the rules of the group, the admins explain that “in the spirit of Unity” they try their utmost best to protect the AF Gang as a safe space, which means they act upon the principles of the band, principles they thus use as “models for acting in specific situations” (Cavicchi, 1998, p.169). Once again, this points at the important role of the topic, i.e. IDLES’ messages. The second way in which these admins play a role is that they are believed to set the tone for the group through the use of traditions, such as the ‘Good Morning AFG’-posts (cf. supra) which serves as a good introduction for new members to the supportive values and tone of the group. Another traditional element that plays a similar part is the regularly returning slogan ‘all is love’, which is found in the Facebook group’s full title, written on badges sold by the AF Gang, and is a common way to sign off posts in the group. The slogan is seen as a good summary of the group’s ethos, an implicit code of conduct and, when used, a signifier of an understanding of the ethos and code of conduct.

This last aspect was confirmed by all members of our broad (in terms of different levels of activity) sample. The reason why our sample was assembled as a combination of ‘conversation starters’, ‘prominent members’, and ‘less active members/lurkers’, was to find out to what extent the experiences of the sense of community of the active and less active members relate to each other. We observed that all participants had a fairly similar understanding of how the group works, and all act according to this implicit code of conduct. The way in which this ethos and code of conduct are thus happily adopted by the various types of members of the AF Gang signifies the important role the admins play in shaping (as well as maintaining) that sense of community through the use of traditions.

Based on our findings, one could thus assume that the topic and influential members are the two forces most instrumental in shaping the only online community. Participants use aspects connected to these forces as explanations why they believe the sense of community will not disappear in the near future, and this could suggest that these two forces are the most important ones in shaping it in the first place. However, we do stress that this is an assumption, the context of our research does not allow us to form one all-encompassing answer, we can only point out that the participants in our sample have identified these two forces as playing a (vital) role in this case study.

Moreover, examining other forces provided valuable information as well. Concerning the Medium- force we observed that although a lot of participants hold grudges towards Facebook (cf. supra), two specific features of the platform were mentioned that help to shape the sense of community: firstly, the emoji reaction buttons which are seen as generating a feeling of being heard and possessing a certain degree of support, and secondly, the experience of a sense of realness that makes the fellow members more identifiable and stimulates an eagerness to share personal stories. A force that we added to the framework was the ‘AF Gang meetups’ because we had noticed that the fan group has a strong offline component as well, with gatherings that are often held. The addition of this force mainly showed us how at the meetups the participants found confirmation of the sense of community they experience online, which seemingly increases the aforementioned sense of realness in the Facebook group, and the eagerness to share personal stories. We also showed how this offline confirmation seemingly increases the feelings of community identification, a concept that could be best explained as recognising an online community (such as the AF Gang) as supportive and identifying with that. According to scholarly research (Lin et al., 2015), it is a relevant concept to explain the willingness to engage in supportive conversations in that online community.

We can thus conclude that in this research, we were able to gather a wide range of ways in which Baym’s (2000) ‘online community-shaping forces’ are at play in the AF Gang, meaning that it has provided us with an insight of how in an online music fan group a sense of community can be established that allows its members to move beyond their object of fandom and encourages them to engage in conversations in which they can seek out, offer, and receive support concerning personal issues.

6.2. Limitations

As seen in subchapter 5.5., the context of our research did not allow us to adequately detect the role of Baym’s (2000) fifth force, the offline contexts of the members. In relation to this force, the aim was to gather a good understanding of how the backgrounds of our members shape the online content, but we believe that this happens in many more ways than this research can portray. We could easily detect the experiences people had related to the AF Gang content (such as mental health-related issues or other personal struggles), but we were unable to pinpoint how these experiences influence how they look at the AF Gang content. This is probably due to a combination of the fact that this is a qualitative research with in-depth interviews and inadequate questions concerning this force on our part. This means that further (quantitative) research is required to identify how this force plays a role in the AF Gang.

We had hoped to unearth other forces other than those reported in Baym’s (2000) study. However, in hindsight, we realise we stuck too rigidly to these forces as a framework, which resulted in a fairly wide range of ways in which Baym’s five forces (as well as the force we had added) are at play in this case study, but not in any other factors instrumental in shaping the online community. Here too, further research is required to determine which possible other forces are at play.

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8. Appendices

Appendix I: Sample matrix

NAME AGE GENDER NATIONALITY AF GANG DEGREE OF CHOSEN (PSEUDONYM) MEMBER SINCE ACTIVITY FORCES IDLER 1049 50 Male UK August 2017 Conversation AF Gang starter traditions + influential members Scum 52 Male UK July 2019 Conversation Facebook + starter IDLES’ music & lyrics Ellie 20 Female UK June 2019 Conversation Own offline starter context + meetups Craig 42 Male Australian September Prominent Facebook + (UK resident) 2018 member meetups Watermelon 33 Male UK June 2019 Prominent IDLES’ music Carrier member & lyrics + own offline context Jason 53 Male UK December 2017 Prominent Members + member Facebook Gotho 33 Female Germany April 2018 Prominent IDLES’ music member & lyrics Patrick 24 Male Netherlands May 2017 Prominent IDLES’ music member & lyrics + meetups Emma 22 Female Netherlands January 2020 Less active IDLES’ music member/lurker & lyrics + own offline context Brecht 23 Male Belgium November Less active IDLES’ music 2018 member/lurker & lyrics + AF Gang traditions Luka 20 Female Belgium November Less active IDLES’ music 2019 member/lurker & lyrics + AF Gang traditions

Appendix II: interview questionnaire 1. How did you discover the group? 1.2What drew you to it?

2. How would you describe your role / activity?

2.1 How would you compare your presence in the AF Gang to other online fandom communities? Why is it bigger / smaller?

3. What kind of posts do you usually make?

4. A lot of magazines have pointed out how there is a sense of community present in the AF GANG. SHOW PRINTED ARTICLES

What are the first things you think about when you hear the term ‘sense of community’? (in general) (in context of AF Gang)

4.1 What’s one incident you remember of which you’d say: this is classic AF Gang?

5. Can you remember the first time you reached out to the AF GANG?

6.1 What made you do that?

6.2 What were the reactions to that post?

6. How would you compare ‘the sense of community’ in the AF GANG to other online fan communities? (for instance: The Murder Capital / Fontaines DC)

______7. On the screen you can see 5 forces of which it has been written that they influence ‘community in online groups’. A sixth and seventh force was added after conducting some test-interviews in which people kept bringing them up.

What would be your two most important forces in terms of contributing to ‘the sense of community?’ Is there an odd one out?

7.1 Why is X the most important to you? + questions that belong to this force

7.2 Why is Y the least important? + questions that belong to this force

7.4 questions relating to the other forces

ALWAYS: HOW DOES IT PLAY A ROLE?

FACEBOOK: THE MEDIUM Possible extra questions:

1. (Do you follow the AF Gang on other platforms? Instagram, twitter, website,…) How would you compare the experience of following the AF Gang on these platforms compared to the Facebook group?

2. Facebook groups are very open compared to the more traditional fora. People can see your name and profile picture, and other possible personal details. How does this influence the behaviour in the AF Gang? (for yourself & for others)

3. How important are emoji reactions to a personal post?

3.1 Do you do this often? 3.2 What does it do to you when you receive these ‘likes’?

IDLES MUSIC AND LYRICS: THE TOPIC Possible extra questions:

1. When and how did you become and IDLES fan?

2. What is the main message that you get from listening to IDLES?

How important is that message to your experience of being an IDLES fan?

2.2 Is that the same for other bands, is it something you look for?

3. How much of the AF Gang is connected to IDLES? (do you see it as very intertwined, or more separate?) MEMBERS Possible extra questions:

1. The group is continuously growing, how does that affect the conversations? How different is the conversation from when you joined?

2. According to you, what is the typical AF Ganger like?

3. (Have you ever came across messages or comments that felt ‘odd’?) If so, can you describe your reaction to that?

INFLUENTIAL MEMBERS: ADMINS & HEAVY POSTERS Possible extra questions:

1. How important are posts by people like Brian Mimpress, Lindsay Melbourne & Louise Hughes, the admins, to you? (when you scroll, and their names pop up: more important or not?)

1.2 And to the debate in the AF Gang?

2. Apart from the admins, can you name any other people whom you consider as influential?

2.2 How important are they to you/to the AF Gang? YOUR OWN OFFLINE EXPERIENCES – RELATED TO AF GANG CONTENT Possible extra questions:

1. The sense of community and supportive nature is mainly related to things like mental health issues, people battling cancer, the sudden loss of someone close, people struggling with alcoholism,… -> How do your possible experiences with these things in your offline life influence how you look at the content posted in the AF Gang? AF GANG MEET-UPS AND OTHER OFFLINE ENCOUNTERS Possible extra questions:

1. Have you participated in any meet-ups? 2. Did your experience of the online group change after the offline encounters? 3. How different are the meet-ups from the online conversations? 3.1 Do you find yourself talking about the same kind of things? AF GANG RITUALS & TAGLINES Possible extra questions:

1. How often do you engage with these kind of posts that regularly return? 2. Questions about ALL IS LOVE and DON’T GO GENTLE (AND OTHERS IF NEEDED)

How does being a member of The AF Gang effect your offline life?