Harvard referencing and online nicknames

Willeth

I'm currently writing my dissertation, and I want to reference a thread on a message board. Now, here's how I'm currently referencing a book I'm using in my bibliography:

BATEMAN, Chris and BOON, Richard (2006). 21st Century Game Design. Charles River Media.

This is exactly in accordance with my University's referencing scheme - I understand it's not quite the same as Harvard referencing itself (or is it), but I'm having trouble giving a reference for a poster on a message board. Here's how I have it right now:

“OUTUNDERTHESTARS”, et al. (2009) LTTP: Half Life 2 on 360. [online] Accessed 26 March 2009 at: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=354261

Apart from it being completely ridiculous that I'm referencing GAF in an academic context, is this how I should be doing it? I'm meeting with my supervisor for the project tomorrow, and will be asking him, but am I going about this the right way?

admanb

I think any complaints are going to be aimed at your choice of reference well before they attack the details of your reference.

Regardless, google has some rather official-looking information about citing forum posts.

Willeth

admanb wrote: »

I think any complaints are going to be aimed at your choice of reference well before they attack the details of your reference.

I'm only using these quotes for a tiny section of the project, and it's a piece about social interactions between hardcore gamers, so message boards are the order of the day.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it over. I seem to remember someone doing a thesis on H/A a while back, actually, I should look that up.

JHunz

It looks mostly okay, but it doesn't look at all right to me that you capitalized the username. I realize you're trying to treat it the same as your other references, but usernames don't follow the same capitalization conventions as actual names do.
You could also take a look at how Kate did things in her thesis: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=58344

Iceman.USAF

You should post your report when complete. That's something I'd actually like to read.

Grislo

Your school probably has a rule about quoting websites, and you may be required to print out a copy and attach it once you're all done and ready. Check that, just to make sure.

Willeth

JHunz wrote: »

It looks mostly okay, but it doesn't look at all right to me that you capitalized the username. I realize you're trying to treat it the same as your other references, but usernames don't follow the same capitalization conventions as actual names do.
You could also take a look at how Kate did things in her thesis: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=58344

That's what I was looking for, thanks. I'll definitely be posting it when done. If it's actually of worth, of course.

area

Not strictly on topic, but I'd encourage using a service like http://www.webcitation.org/ to make sure that people can still follow up the reference in the future, regardless of what happens to NeoGAF, their forums or that particular topic.