I am a fairly active member at Snark. And by fairly active, I mean that I have been a member for a little under 6 months now, and I have nearly 5500 posts. Okay, so, by fairly active, I mean, pretty much obsessed, and practically live on. But I guess it’s all perspective. Ha ha.

I joined fresh out of a 9 month program, which had left me very distant from the Internet, and not really too sure of what was going on in this big bloggy world we live in. I somehow came across Snark, and I guess we could say I did not look back. Almost immediately though, I noticed that Snark had a bit of a reputation  for getting involved in e-drama, and maybe being a bit too cliquey. Nevertheless, the Snarkers were all very nice and helpful, for the most part.

I suppose here is where you expect me to depict epic betrayal, or something. Sorry to be a disappointment (maybe), but I still like Snark, and all of its members! But here’s where the snobbery comes in!

To relate it back to my “real life,” (personally, the line between “real life,” and “e-life,” seems somewhat blurred with the likes of Facebook around, but whatever, let’s stick with the established terms!) when I first started Broadcasting in school, my teacher would  point out different angles, and effects, and shadows, and whatever else related to composition. He told us that in a matter of months, we would do the same thing, and it may become impossible to watch films, due to the constant analysis of compositional elements. And he was right! To this day, I will be watching a film, and my friends will make a comment about the main hunk, like “Wow, did you see that?” referring to the way the dream boat flipped his sandy hair, and I will respond with “YES! The way they used the Hitchcock effect, and the intensity of the background colours were amazing!”

Something similar happened to me upon joining Snark! Before, I was perfectly fine with iFrames and other crappy design practises I prefer not to mention in this blog, as to not provide evidence that I did them! But just being exposed to the different things you could improve your website, and all of the information on the use of copyright imagery, and everything just made me sit up and listen. Now, I pay attention to the subtleties of a design, that really make the entire effect, but are maybe not directly noticed by the typical audience. Where in film, I would check for mis-used angles, I now find my eyes darting to the little Firefox extension that tells me if a site is valid coding or not.

Ann recently penned a blog about online cliques, and said that she felt inferior (for lack of a better word, I suppose. Because I think inferior may be a bit strong. Perhaps it’s more suitable to say “not at home”?) to Snark members, because she is younger and less experienced than some other members. I must admit, I was a bit surprised reading that. Sure, Jem may have a reputation for being “ultimately better than you,” (or, a bitch, to some, ha ha) and Sarai may be blunt about the things she thinks need to be improved on your website (there are really too many examples to link them all), but at the same time, they always seem helpful. (As are all other Snark members. Jem and Sarai were just the first two to pop into my head. I could list all of them, but that could take ages, and I am sleepy. Besides, probably 99.9% of the people reading this are Snarkers. So, just… give yourself a pat on the back.)

I guess what I’m trying to say is that everyone is learning, we’re just all at different stages! And Snark is an excellent place to use your Internet Snobbery for good, and not evil. And nobody is going to… make you walk the plank, or anything, if you’re not a pro yet!