One feature that caught my eye while lurking was “Leaderboard.” It shows the most recent ranking of top-rated answerbag members who have accumulated most points in both questions and answers. So, this competitive environment likely serves as a motivating factor for some AB members. In other words, some AB members stick around and perhaps enjoy being in competition to earn points and get recognized. (This echoes what Albrecht et al called “extrinsic reinforcement” – that some users are drawn to those online communities that offer “rewards like gifts, social recognition, and feedback.”)
Because our assignment was to actively participate in answerbag and meet certain goals by the deadline, I observed what types of questions and answers have been posted and have received high ratings/points (i.e. “Greatest Q&A”). I also randomly picked categories and observed their conversations and noticed that a number of interactions were built around topics related to “favorite” things. I tried this format (i.e. What/Who/Where is your favorite ---?) in several of my questions and had some success.
In crafting my strategy, I also remembered from one of the readings from session 2 (i.e. Weeks), suggesting that people are more responsive, online or off, to people “who sound they are in trouble.” So I tested this hypothesis in my interactions and posted a few questions asking for help and advice (both in somewhat real and hypothetical situations) in the areas of “cooking and recipes,” “health and fitness,” and “computers.” I used such phrases like: “I need help for a relative who has such and such disease...”; “I want to learn how to cook---.”; “I’m looking for---.” Most of my questions were returned immediately but did not accumulate enough points/answers to reach the target.
On a different note, it was amazing to see how quickly people responded to some of my questions. To a certain extent, some AB contributors (esp. regulars) perhaps share the “extroverted” personality discussed in the Schrock piece? – that they “desire for socialization with others . . . Extroverts are described as sociable, lively, active, assertive, care-free, dominant, venturesome and sensation-seeking.” This type of spontaneous and somewhat synchronous communication almost resembles aspects of user intentions in Twitter (i.e. daily chatter, conversations, sharing information) as Java and Finin et al highlight in their study even though AB and Twitter operate within quite different frameworks, i.e. openly accessible site versus personalized network of “friends.”
In a nutshell, I was able to meet one of the four benchmarks: One of your questions must draw 8 or more answers. Out of 44 questions I posted, 5 of them met this goal. My most successful questions were:
1) What goes best pie? (Dessert; 20 answers; 30 points)
2) Do you have to have coffee every morning? Why? Why not? (Food and Dining; 9 answers; 15 points)
3) What do you NOT like to add to your coffee? (Drinks; 8 answers; 23 points)
4) What would you do if you won the billion dollar lottery? (Finance; 8 answers; 17 points)
5) Which Asian food do you prefer: Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Indian? (Food and Dining; 8 answers; 7 points)
Why I succeeded: I found the following passage in Albrecht et al particularly relevant: “Proposition 10: Participants with high commitment to achieving a goal will likely work harder to achieve the goal than individuals with low commitment.” Having a goal to meet within a given timeline kept me going. I posted random questions persistently to complete the assignment.
Why I failed: How would I explain my underperformance then? Albrecht et al discuss in Proposition 5: “As ease of use and interesting content increase, more individuals will want to participate and contribute.” Here I am particularly looking at the “ease of use” part. Perhaps what happened was the opposite of what Proposition 5 suggests: I was not at ease with how answerbag operates and failed to, in some way, manipulate the system effectively to earn as many points as required: i.e. the complex and finely designed hierarchy in regards to the ranking and rating is still a puzzle to me; I haven’t quite understood what “Comments” and “Moderation” would do to my points.
Simply put, my questions and answers were not interesting enough, and in some cases I picked “wrong” categories. For instance, to test the water, I first picked a sub-category that I like talking about and know something about. But this category had a comparatively small readership (i.e. even the top-rated questions have accumulated about only 40 points, whereas “Greatest Q&A” in more popular categories I have visited has scored 100-200 points, or even more). Perhaps not the best (and most strategic) move if you are doing this exercise to reach the target point count by the deadline.
In addition, the site runs a thorough check on duplicates after questions were posted and automatically inactivates duplicates, when detected. This is how I lost four questions worthy of over 30 points a few days after they were posted. (I received e-mail notice, “Good news, we have an answer to your question.”)
One quick note on my behavioral pattern on answerbag.com: I kept going back to the same category, “Food and Dining.” By the second/third day, it became almost an automatic reflex to go straight to that category rather than taking different routes. What do I make of it other than just saying, “I like talking about food”? Ling and Beenen et al offer some insight from a social psychological point of view: “People will contribute more to online communities when they believe that they are similar rather than dissimilar to other in the group” (p 5). And this line of observation, linking the broadly termed “similarity” (i.e. common interest) and active participation, speaks for those online communities I have joined in the past few weeks. Perhaps the homogeneity (i.e. boyd and Ellison from Week 1), however it is defined, is one motivating factor behind the sustained and lively online conversations.
Looks like persistence really paid off for you. Picking the right category could also be important. In retrospect, I should have posted some questions in food category too.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I kept going back to the same category to ask questions (my category was the Relationship Advice section).
ReplyDeleteJust by observing our habits on Answerbag, Ling and Beenen were onto something: if a person feels that he or she shares the same love for the subject as do the rest of the members of the community (although they may disagree with that person on different aspects of it), then he or she will more than likely say what is on his or her mind about it, and this theory makes sense to me. For instance, I would more than likely comment on the Second Persian Gulf War if I see a question about the Battle of Fallujah because military operations are up my alley and also because I see that there are lots of pages of posts from many different people who share this same interest. Personally, I get excited whenever I hear/see people discuss something that I am passionate about, even on online communities such as this one.
Both you and BJ are right on with the theory of Ling and Beenen. I looked at lots and lots and lots of different types of questions to answer and ask on Answerbag but always was drawn to the ones that resonated with me. I was able to work up enthusiasm and feel that the assignment was fun and something that I might do on my own rather than being mandatory. In the end I didn't end up just sticking with one category but rather trolling around and trying to spread myself over a variety of subjects so that I could think of things that might interest others and get some conversations going that way. It didn't work as well as I thought though. Maybe I should have just stuck with one.
ReplyDeleteI didn't focus on a particular topic but while I was crafting questions I tried to include questions I had a sincere interest in. I thought perhaps people would be able to discern my earnestness from my choice of words or something. But in the end my most popular questions were just opinion questions that I really had no interest in, so my theory of AB responders have ESP was shot down, ;). But I agree with you about "homogeneity (i.e. boyd and Ellison from Week 1), however it is defined, is one motivating factor behind the sustained and lively online conversations." If my motive wasn't to complete an assignment, I would have asked much different questions; well actually I'd be at a different site in line with my particular tastes and passions. I didn't feel "similiar" to others on AB and therefore had to force myself to contribute and participate.
ReplyDeleteThe homogeneity thing didn't work too well for me either. I think the groups following the areas I was particularly interested and active in were too small, or not as active as others. The questions that did receive enough answers (though not quite enough points) were definitely of a more social variety and the responses were varied. I also noted the ease of use concept...Answerbag wasn't terribly difficult to use, but there were quirks like the organization of categories, that took a while to get used to. Also, I did notice that there is a control mechanism, down-rating, and I wonder if anyone else noticed how many questions there were attacking down-raters, implying that many users find their motivation in the points they generate, rather than in the satisfaction of meaningful questions, answers, and comments.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I preferred asking or answering questions in the areas that I found interesting. I wouldn’t know where to begin asking a question about the Second Persian Gulf War (no offense BJ, but that’s just not my area of interest or expertise). Although Ling and Beenen et al. hypothesized that people would contribute more if they were more similar than dissimilar to others in a group, their research indicated that people would contribute more when they feel their contributions are unique. Our experiences with Answerbag definitely proved that unique contributions were rewarded more than similar ones. First, you lose any points gained if you have a duplicate question. Second, more unique questions and answers appear to receive more points. I guess the best strategy would be to ask unique questions in the areas of your interest. Food and Dining is a great category!
ReplyDeleteI think you and BJ had a good thing going, sticking to an area...I bounced around a lot more that was likely effective for gaining points. And as other people pointed out, there are lots of quirks within the system that could have been exploited if we'd been more aware of them. Moderating is still elusive to me, too.
ReplyDelete