[Ramon.Jimenez08]

1) The discourse community I will approach is a streamer’s community called SlyFoxHound (Community name: N/A)

2) My motivation is derived from the interest and interactions that I’ve had within this community.

3) My research question may consist of asking “How does a community this small, still keep its viewers around?”

4) Some basic research that I’ve come across, so far, is that this community is very social, kind, and the kind where everyone is very compassionate with each other and the streamer.

5) For challenges that I may run into is how I can compare this community toward others, and how this community treats its people compared with other communities.

[justinsteele]

1. The discourse community that i chose to write about is Red Cross in NYC. The issue that I will address is the numerous people in need that red cross help.
2. My motivation for writing about this discourse community is seeing and hearing about many homeless or poverty stricken residents in our city not get the help they need.
3. How can the residents of NYC Red Cross help more of those in need in the city.
4. Some basic research that I’ve done so far is finding out the main responsibilities of Red Cross and its History.
5. The Kinds of challenges I might run into is finding Articles and Documents to support my evidence.

[Pema Choesang]

The discourse community that I will be writing about is the karmarong community which is made up of people of the same caste and tradition living in New York. The problem that I will address within this community is fewer people involvement, limited budgets, less participation and so on. My motivation for wanting to write on this discourse community is being a part of this community. My research question may consist of the following;
why do we have fewer people in the community?
why don’t people want to participate in activities held by the community?
what can we do within the community to raise our funds?
The basic research that I have done so far is just asking elders people about the issues prevailing in the community followed by solutions. They say, “People tend to think that the community is of no use and does not bring any benefits and opportunities for them before even getting involved as a member of the community.” so I feel like the root of the problems seems to be distrust towards the community.

[Edward]

1. The discourse community i will be talking about is the community I am in at work. I work at the nomad hotel but I work in the nomad restaurant. But more specifically the community I will be talking about is the position I am in, I am a senior kitchen server there are a dozen of us at the restaurant but they are consider as just kitchen servers. So the issue I will be talking about is that i feel that the kitchen servers don’t get treated as equals with the other people we work with. like yes we are the ones that are running the food but that’s what we should be doing not these other side jobs that people there give you just because they thing they have more power.
2. The reason why i want to talk about this discourse community is because I’m with this community almost everyday this is the place I work at. So i have to get along with these people, this place is like my second house.
3. I feel that my research question should be how to make my work a stable environment for kitchen server like me, because when you work there you will feel the way people in the kitchen treat you, they treat you like you are there slaves.
4. some basic research I’ve done is that there are other people just like me that feel the same way. there are others that feel that people in the kitchen cross a line that should not be crossed. Work is a place that should be a place you go to work with one another not a place to hang and chill with people there.
5. i feel like there are people are not going to stand up and talk about the issues they face because they really need the work.

[C Pichardo]

The discourse community I will be writing about is the animal rights discourse community. The animal rights discourse community believes that non-human animals have the right to be free of human use and exploitation. The animal rights discourse community encompasses many communities that believe the same thing to one extent or another; some of which I am apart of include veganism lifestyle, no-kill animal shelters, and animal activism itself. Is it ethical/moral to keep animals as pets? That is the issue I will be addressing within my discourse community, as many individuals within the animal rights community have mixed feelings about the topic;especially those that specialize in pet rescue and pet adoption. I’ve always shared my life with animals; from small ones like birds, fish and hamsters, to larger ones like dogs and cats. After a recent incident, I’ve been questioning the ethics of owning a pet; I’ve been questioning if it is moral on a daily basis. I’ve had three Budgerigar Parakeets since the beginning of the year; I named them, Kahlo (named after Frida Kahlo – my favorite artist), Kiwi and Coconut (their color pattern look like their said fruits). Recently, in the middle of the night, Coconut escaped after biting through a window screen in my bedroom while I was in school, taking my night classes. I’ve taken good care of my birds; spending hundreds to create playgrounds and toys for them from scratch, trying my best to provide an adequate nut/seed, fruit and vegetable diet with treats, and giving them free roam of my bedroom 24/7 for the most part; as keeping birds caged seems abusive and immoral. She never came back despite my efforts. I’d play my other birds calls over a loudspeaker, play the species calls over the loudspeaker, made a DIY bird feeder to attract native birds to my window in hopes it will attract her, as she might’ve decided to join a House Sparrow flock since there are no Budgerigar Parakeet flocks in the wild in this country, and played house sparrow calls over the loudspeaker as well. No luck. I didn’t put up fliers or ads anywhere, or ask my neighbors for help or if they’ve seen her because the chances were extremely slim, being that that she’s a bird capable of flight – and a tiny one at that – she could be anywhere. Budgerigar parakeets are tropical birds, found in Australia. Then, I started doing some basic research on the topic, and on the species of bird itself. The following is what I have found. I learned recently that they travel in gigantic flocks numbering hundreds, thousands, and at times, millions. They travel up to 250 miles a day in search of food. This shocked me as we tend to keep birds in small cages, or let them fly in our small rooms. They aren’t allowed the space they truly are meant for. I looked into whether or not Coconut will survive on her own. Budgie Parakeets are not adapted to survive in areas such as ours, as their feathers are not adapt to handle cold temperatures; especially those brought on during the winter months. In the wild, Budgies are yellow and green only, but because of our breeding practices, we’ve created color mutations not naturally found in the wild; which makes birds like Coconut (she is white and blue) easy prey for NYC predatory birds like Hawks. Their diet is also hard to come by in this environment. Starvation is absolutely possible, especially when you take into account pet Parakeets never learn to provide for themselves; we give them everything. Coconuts’ situation made me start questioning the morality of pet keeping; how we take away their freedom, do not condone their desire for freedom, take away their complete independence including learning survival techniques, such as how to get their own food, simply for our own entertainment or other selfish desires. I’ve witnessed my birds getting excited over seeing the sun, sky, and seeing native birds to the point where it seemed as if they wanted to leave (but of course weren’t granted the opportunity to). Imagine being of a species that is meant to be in the wild, but your ancestors were kidnapped and forced to breed in captivity; joining the pet trade. Most little animals never get to see the light of day, experiences the breeze outside, know what grass is like etc. Instead, they stay trapped indoors, and live their life in its entirety never knowing what those basic experiences truly feel like or look like. Is it slavery? I’ve felt a ton of shame and began questioning what society deems socially acceptable in general, but in this specific context, what society deems socially acceptable when it comes to animals. We were raised this way. It’s hard to break out of what’s right and what’s wrong. My research question is the same as the issue question I stated near the beginning of this writing piece; Is it ethical/moral to keep animals as pets? This might prove to be a challenging topic for me to write about for many reasons. I love animals, and enjoy being in their company. My opinion of animals seems to be that they are fun, mostly friendly, and simple. They are simple because they focus on socializing and survival. They don’t over complicate their lives the way humans do. As an individual with generalized anxiety disorder, being in their company helps me get back to the basics when I am extremely stressed. I’m afraid of the viewpoints I will find against keeping animals as pets because of my love for them, and my desire to keep them as companions. That is a challenge for me. Another challenge presents itself when I think of animal shelters. Animal shelters are meant to do good, and I’ve volunteered in no-kill shelters. However, with my research question, it will drive me to rethink animal shelters services; and if that is ethical. Is the pet trade ethical? This topic goes against what I’ve known to accept as normal in society, and I am very passionate sharing our lives with animals. That, on its own makes this challenging for me. There also seems to be plenty of arguments on both sides that I agree with, which makes it more challenging for me; these things I will cover in the paper.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by C Pichardo.

[haroodg]

The discourse community I’m writing about is Rocket League. Rocket League is an online multiplayer video game that combines the appeal of cars and soccer into a single sport. Rocket League is played by thousands of people every day with the ultimate goal of having a chance to play in the competitive Rocket League scene. This ultimate goal has brought a major problem to the community with its level of toxicity. The competitive nature of Rocket League has created a hostile environment for new and experienced users of the game. With the rising popularity of Rocket League and ever-expanding user base, people all over the world are having a bad first experience when playing the game.

My motivation for wanting to write about this discourse community is because of my involvement in the game. I have more than 700+ hours in this game and I have seen many people come and go because of other toxic players. I believe a better experience can be achieved if the current situation was different.

Why are other people hostile/toxic to others in-game?

Information I’ve gathered is reviews of the Rocket League left online and Reddit posts of users encountering toxic players.

I don’t think I will find any challenges due to this problem being addressed by notable figures in the Rocket League community.

[noura asad]

Discourse community: City Tech ASAP students
A major issue that is a challenge for this discourse community is the advantage taken by students.
I’m motivated to write about this discourse community because it has been a beneficial group for me since my first year at City Tech. Therefore, I’d like to share this program with others who don’t know about it already. ASAP is a motivation in a way for a student to maintain a high gpa, to benefit from what ASAP has to offer and to graduate with excellent grades.
Research question: What is ASAP and how does it help students efficiently?
I’ve made research on the ASAP program and it’s benefits for students. I found that ASAP is designed to help motivated students earn their Associate degree as quickly as possible. ASAP at City Tech, emphasizes enriched academic, financial and personal supports including comprehensive and personalized advisement, career counseling, tutoring, tuition waivers, MTA metro cards, and additional financial expenses to cover the cost of textbooks. Students willing to apply to the ASAP program must identify their eligibility to be accepted into the program. ASAP is also well supported by the City and the state of New York.
Some challenges I will stumble upon while working on this project are the different views each ASAP member holds, because not every student may feel benefited, but joining the ASAP program will definitely give each City Tech student a variety of opportunities.

[Arturo Rosales]

1.EA Sports Fifa community- this community hasn’t been doing good since last year when they released Fifa 19, the game play was broken and there were people who wasted a lot of money in the beginning of the game and didn’t get back players they should of received.This year it had the same problems,its much harder to play this game for streamers and youtubers, they wasted a lot of money and still didn’t get good players,but if a player who didn’t spend any money on the game would get a better player than the one who did.
2.My motivation for wanting to write about this community is all the wrong things the company has been doing to the players. Its not fair that they don’t listen to the people who want to change the game for a good thing like to have better servers, less disconnects, better rewards for those who reach top 100 in the world, don’t make the game a pay to win.
3. My research question is why can’t EA Sports Fifa listen to the community about fixing the game? They been having the same mistakes for over a year already.
4. I’ve found a little information so far, youtubers & streamers have been placing top 100 in the world and wasted over $500 dollars and haven’t been getting the best players in the game. They get players that almost anyone can get if they play the game long enough.
5. There’s a few challenges I think I may face like people not caring to much about making changes to the game. coming together to make a online protest to the owners of the game, won’t find enough evidence to answer my research question.

[Haifa Mahmoud]

Discourse Community: Palestinians
The problem I will address in this discourse community is the oppression of the people. I am motivated to write about this because I feel it is important to address issues faced by people from around the world, and I am well aware of the issues faced by the Palestinian people and what they go through in Palestine.
My research question will be “How has Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine impacted the Palestinian people?”
I will be researching the continued imprisonment, murdering, and seizing of homes of the Palestinians. I have done basic research for this topic, and with the knowledge I already have on it, I will be able to describe the situation that many people in the U.S. are not aware of.
Some challenges I think I might face when doing this research project are the lack of news outlets covering this issue, and many forms of propaganda on the internet.

[Hadassah]

A discourse community I’m writing about is Cancel Culture. The issue is that people who are in this community uses this type of platform to cancel celebrities, influencers, etc. because of what this particular person has said or done that made people upset, you may think it’s a good way to cancel a person’s career, however, depending on the situation it could be unnecessary to cancel this person because of their beliefs and opinions on certain things or what they did in the past. Even though, they’re entitled to say whatever they want, despite how dumb it may sound.

My motivation for writing about this community when I saw an article about this musician and why they should be cancelled. I was upset because the reason was stupid. They made tweets a few years ago about their classmates and called them a homophobic slur, when they defended themselves and said that doesn’t mean that they’re homophobic because of what they say. People had the assumption that they are homophobic.

Research questions: What is the problem with ‘cancel culture’?
What are the effects that cause today’s influencers and famous people?

[Seydina Niang]

1)The discourse community that I chose to write about is my job at fed ex. The issue or problem that we face is how we mix up the packages.
2) The reason I want to write about my job is because we go through these types of everyday challenges such as mixing the customers packages.
3) Why does fed ex mix up packages? Could it be the employees?
4) The basic info that I found out is that at times fed ex can be very busy especially during the holidays. Some of the time it is the employee who actually mix up the labels of the packages.
5) As I continue to work for fed ex I know that I will encounter a package being sent to the wrong place, but we will try to make this happen less often.