Web Based Communities:

A Feasibility Study for the Natural Bodybuilding Community

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Introduction

 This chapter discusses methods used during research. These include the method of gathering data, the data base selected for analysis, as well as the means of determining validity, originality, and limitations of the data. The chapter concludes with a summary of the data.

Approach

 The author of this study is a webmaster who manages a bodybuilding and fitness web site that caters to the natural bodybuilding community. The web site is titled: “Lift for Life.com – Natural Bodybuilding at its Finest”. The term “natural” in this sense, implies that the bodybuilder has not engaged in the use of any illicit or illegal performance enhancing drugs. On the other end of the spectrum is the “enhanced athlete”. An enhanced athlete is one who presently uses, or has engaged in the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. As will be shown statistically, the vast majority of bodybuilding sites, including message boards, chat rooms and other forms of online community are fundamentally neutral on the drug issue, or focused on the enhanced athlete. Therefore, due to what will be shown to be an overwhelming imbalance in community representation, the writer will consider the pros and cons of establishing a natural bodybuilding community at the Lift for Life.com site with consideration of the following.

1.     What would be the purpose of this community?

2.     Is there a need for this community?

3.     What type of community exchange would best serve the targeted population?

4.     How would the community be managed?

5.     How would the responsibility of maintaining the community be shared?

6.     Would there be a financial cost to create and maintain the community?

7.     How would results be measured?

 Due to the writer’s personal experience as a bodybuilding competitor, fitness author, consultant and web master, it will be impossible to eliminate the possibility of bias in interpretation of the data. It should be stated however that an honest attempt to review the data both scientifically and statistically without regard to prior knowledge will be made.

Data Gathering Method

 While those in the bodybuilding community consider competitive bodybuilding to be a sport, it is far from the mainstream of public acceptance. Attendance in an average competitive bodybuilding event would be dwarfed by the attendance at most high school football games. National media coverage of bodybuilding events is carried only at the highest levels of competition. It is an unfortunate fact however; that the highest levels of competition are not drug tested events. Due to legal ramifications, documentation of the previous statement would be difficult, if not impossible to come by. The highest levels of competitive bodybuilding events are strictly capitalistic ventures on the part of the promoters and sponsors and elimination of their top athletes due to failed drug test would not serve their purpose. Nevertheless, it is the exposure of bodybuilders at this level, coupled with denial of steroid use, that has shaped public perception of bodybuilding and bodybuilders in general. In response to this perception, a proliferation of web sites and corresponding community presence has evolved in recognition of the enhanced athlete. The data gathering method of this study therefore was an internet search for bodybuilding communities that target natural bodybuilders.

Database of Study

 A search on the internet was done using the search engine Google to determine the presence of online communities which focused primarily on the interest of natural bodybuilders. Google was chosen for this purpose because it is currently the most commonly used search engine, and one of the top five internet sites in the world (Google Statistics, www.derebote.com). Due to the fact that millions of links, sorted by relevancy, can be returned during a search, it is not possible to explore every returned link in a search. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, ten combinations of search terms were used with the first 100 returned links of each search being evaluated. It is not likely that any bodybuilding candidate in search of community would go this far.

  Search terms used in this study are given below along with the number of returned links.

 While following the first 100 links returned for each search phrase, multiple duplicate sites were found. This is because multiple combinations of key words are often used on a web site in order to gain prominence in search engine recognition. All bodybuilding communities thus identified were then further searched for use of the keyword “natural”. This was done with a simple ctrl-F keyboard function. If the search function within the page failed to return a reference to the keyword, a visual search of header and body section of the page was done. The visual search was required because keywords can occasionally be found embedded in a graphic. To be considered relevant, the keyword must have been used positively in the page header or a forum title. Using the search word combinations as noted above, a total of 26 bodybuilding communities were thus identified. While the majority of online communities were open to view without membership, the writer had to join two of the listed communities prior to viewing data. Of the 26 communities noted above, two were considered topically to be subcategories and were excluded from the list. These included a community for the interest of vegan bodybuilders and another for gay bodybuilders. The end result totaled 24 bodybuilding communities with a combined membership of 640,210 members. These 24 communities are listed below, sorted alphabetically.

  It should be noted that among the bodybuilding communities reviewed, multiple subscription newsletter services were found. For the purpose of this study however, the writer has chosen to consider only community types which allow for two directional exchange of information. Of the 24 noted bodybuilding communities, only 4 were found to have met the keyword criteria and can thus be identified as communities that focus on the interest of natural bodybuilders. These are noted in the “Natural?” column with a yes or a no.

 Summarizing the data, it was noted that membership in communities that did not specifically target the interest of natural bodybuilders totaled 638,235 members. Membership in online communities that did specifically target natural bodybuilders totaled only 1,975 members. This startling disparity may indicate that the natural bodybuilding community is vastly underrepresented in online community services, or that there simply is not enough interest. Viewed as a percentage, online membership in natural bodybuilding communities represent less than one percent of the total online bodybuilding community population. This disparity can be seen in the chart below.

Validity of Data

 Google was chosen as the search engine for this study based on its current dominance as well as returned link relevancy. This increases the likelihood that any online community carrying combinations of the targeted keywords will appear toward the top of the search engine ranking based on relevancy. Regarding web site statistics, It is a rare thing for webmasters to publish the number of visitors or page views that a site receives. The number of hits, page views, unique and repeat visitors for a particular web site are typically held in confidence and reveled to potential advertisers only. Site meters which occasionally appear at the bottom of web pages are becoming a fading relic of the past and are often artificially inflated to create the appearance of popularity.

 Similarly, legal ramifications as regards the issue of steroids, and public condemnation of steroid abuse coupled with tacit approval at competitive events on the part of sponsor’s compound the difficulty of generating meaningful statistics. Adding to the statistical dilemma is the fact that some communities use free message boards which are funded by pop up advertising. These so called “free” forums often do not publish site statistics or forum member statistics. Frequency of visits and number of forum members must be determined by counting post on each page. This is not a difficult task considering that this type of message board is not well received.

Originality and Limitation of Data

 With the exception of referenced literature, all data presented in this document is original with the writer. Additionally, data interpretation, summary and conclusions are those of the writer as well. The writers’ background, exposure and experience in the bodybuilding community and the culture of bodybuilding are both a source of originality and limiting factor. Due to a compelling interest in the subject, the writer cannot claim a position of neutrality concerning the use of steroids.  Because the word “bodybuilder” implies muscular definition and development in excess of the general population, many bodybuilders resort to the use of performance enhancing drugs in order to gain a competitive advantage. Due to legal ramifications, potential for public condemnation and loss of sponsorship, steroid use is always accompanied by denial. Therefore, limiting factors of the data lie in the enormous disincentive for competitive athletes to be open and honest regarding their “Enhanced” status. When identified only by the relative anonymity of member profiles and avatars, athletes are more likely to be open about their use of performance enhancing drugs.

Summary

  In summation of this chapter, we have seen that multiple keyword variations when used in the search engine Google returned the presence of 24 bodybuilding communities within the first 100 returned results of each keyword combination. Of these 24 online communities, only 4 were found whose main interest was that of Natural Bodybuilding. As the data which follows will show, the above statistics do not so much indicate a lack of online community representation for the interest of Natural Bodybuilding; as much as it exposes the extent to which steroids have infiltrated the bodybuilding community in general.

To Chapter 4 - Data Analysis

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