Practicum 3- Erica

I've made a lot of effort to fit in with the crowd at the UOG (Unofficial Online Guide) Forums. However, despite my best efforts, I still feel like a newbie. I sent a message to a girl that I was actually a little interested to hear from, because she is currently working in Disney World with the College Program- which is exactly what I did. I was looking forward to hearing from her and hoping to make some sort of actual connection on the message board, but she never messaged me back. And I can see her activity on the forum so I know that she has been otherwise online. Part of feeling like an outsider also has to do with the fact that a lot of the members planned a trip to Disney World all together. It is actually very cool having the virtual community all meet up in the place that they spend all their time talking about. However, days before they were leaving they all started commenting about their excitement and whatnot, and when I added something they really didn't address what I said. This all sounds very whiney of me, but I find it interesting that this community that was so welcoming to me when I first joined does not really care to respond to me since they do not really know me. A lot of people have been in the forums for a long time. Maybe I need to establish myself more. I still only respond to posts rather than start any threads of my own, so that is something I will have to do. Also, since all those members are now getting back from their group trip to WDW, I plan on reading all about how great it was and hopefully I'll have something to say about that later.