Hello! My name is Jeff Giorgi 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.

I am also personally a fan of Harry Potter! 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: giorgij@uw.edu