Hello! My name is Julie Campbell and I am a researcher at the University of Washington. I’m working with a research team to investigate people’s participation in online fan communities like this one. We’re interested in learning more about what people are doing in this online community.

The purpose of this research is to explore the learning opportunities experienced by participants in online fan fiction communities. Applying ethnographic methods, we will investigate the skills that participants develop through their fan-based activities; the roles that identity, motivation, and emotion play in their informal learning online; and the novice-to-expert trajectories made available in different online fan communities.

Guiding Research Questions
- Why do people participate in online fanfiction communities/write fanfiction?
- How and what do people learn through this involvement?
- How are mentoring relationships formed and what role do they play in participants' learning?

I am also personally a fan of My Little Pony. I particularly enjoy the infectious positivity of the show. I’m writing to let the members of the community know that we’ll be hanging out here for a few months observing various activities and interactions. We may also reach out to some of you and invite you to answer questions about your participation in this community, such as when and why you decided to join, what sorts of things you do here, and what you like about participating in the community.

We have no intention of being secretive about our presence here, so we’ll be sure to identify ourselves as University of Washington researchers whenever we’re online.

Even though this is a public forum, we intend to respect everyone’s privacy by not associating screen names with specific posts, comments, or actions.

If you have any questions about our study, please don’t hesitate to contact me offline at juliemu@uw.edu.