Addressivity and Sociability in “Celtic Men”

This paper is part of a larger project which examines the sociable dimensions of computer-mediated communication in local newsgroups on the Internet. This paper, however, takes as its primary data a complete thread of eighty five messages posted to RumCom’s largest ISP specific newsgroup,
rumcom.local. The messages share the subject header “Celtic Men” and play off contributors ideas about regional aspects of masculinity and male sexuality. As a whole they provide a good example of both a specific culturally located example of developing communication and a more general example of newsgroup CMC. Using this case as our exemplar we shall hold up for examination three matters: how the technology and software supplied by RumCom influence the form of interaction within the newsgroup; how different types of addressivity are used by posters to manage their communication; and how the notion of sociability figures as a useful device to characterise the specific traits of newsgroup interaction.