HUMAN INTERACTION IN INTERNET COMMUNITIES Jerry Chang April 2008

Studying Human Interaction: Why Should We Care?  As users?  Consider the kids growing up in the Internet age - it goes beyond just crime and predators  What about the less technically inclined around us?  As developers?  What will users do with the software we design?  Can we reasonably expect that all users will use our software as intended?

Studying Human Interaction: Why Should We Care?  What can we gain?  Data mining behavioral patterns  Clustering users (“like-actioned” rather than “like- minded”)  Big Brother and privacy issues

Online Social Networking and Behavior

Sites Designed for Social Networking  MySpace (over 100 million users)  Facebook (over 67 million users)  Many others

CU2 Study (2006)  Social self-esteem  Tone of feedback versus volume  “Adolescents who predominantly receive negative feedback on their profiles may especially be in need of mediation on how to optimize their online self- representation.”  What can we learn from this?  Can we think of ways to improve the user experience?

Facebook Study (2007)  Social capital  Real or virtual resources accumulated through the relationships among people  bonding, bridging, maintaining  What can we learn from this?  Real world benefits  Encouraging, perhaps sponsoring, use in college and companies

Online Forums  Usenet  Widespread Existence on the Web  Business  Education  Entertainment  There is most likely at least one dedicated forum for any topic of shared interest.

Types of Users in Forums  regular  troll  sock puppet  astroturfer  attention seeker  malicious users

The Effect of These Users  Stopping malicious users and trolls  Limitations on users via software  Education  “Law is order, and good law is good order.” – Aristotle  Moderators  Self-policing  Moderation in Usenet

IRC/Chat Rooms  Internet Relay Chat (IRC)  The oldest real-time Internet chat system (1988), still prominent today  Chat Rooms  Not as pervasive as forums, but still very widespread.  Human behavior:  Brandon Vedas (aka Ripper)

Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Games (MMORPGs)  Everquest  World of Warcraft (over 10 million subscribers)  Second Life (over 10 million claimed, more like 1 million active)  Dozens more, both commercial and free  End of 2008 estimate: 30 million subscribers across all MMORPGs

Human Behavior in MMORPGs  Addiction  Everquest paper: discusses player experiences  Not much research in this area: is it merely the result of an addictive personality? The social aspect ?  Some relation to Internet addiction  Griefing  Taking advantage of game dynamics to ruin the experience for other players

General Anti-Social Behavior  Why do people who behave in “real life” misbehave in an online medium?  Cyber-bullying (flaming, griefing)  Dunbar’s number (150)  “the supposed cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable social relationships…” (

Breakdown and Solutions  Taking away anonymity  Privacy? Free speech?  Rules and regulations  Education is key

References  Friend Networking Sites and Their Relationship to Adolescents' Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem. Friend Networking Sites and Their Relationship to Adolescents' Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem.  The benefits of Facebook 'friends:' Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. The benefits of Facebook 'friends:' Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites.  Wikipedia: Brandon Vedas Wikipedia: Brandon Vedas  EverQuest--It's Just a Computer Game Right? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Online Gaming Addiction EverQuest--It's Just a Computer Game Right? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Online Gaming Addiction  Anarchy on-line Anarchy on-line