Session 3: Answerbag

This week we were instructed to join the site Answerbag.com (AB) and challenged to fulfill at least 2 of 4 goals. I did complete two of these goals, I had a question rate over 40 points and I had another question which received 8 answers. My profile is here: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=867962 I crafted the majority of my strategy to reach these goals by lurking and observing what was popular on the site. There were a few points from the readings which were influential in crafting my strategy and helped me to understand the AB community.

The article by Catherine Ridings and David Gefen found that most people “hang out” in virtual communities to seek information. Of course when reading this article I thought to myself how important the purpose of the site is to the reason why people join and participate. Ridings states that, yes, there was a difference in motivation for communities that are “centered on an individual’s freely chosen interest” versus “serious, and sometimes not so voluntary, life matters.” To understand AB and it’s purpose a little better I visited the about page. From the AB about page: “We're here to help you connect with others and to find and share knowledge about topics ranging from celebrity trivia and home cleaning tips to Russian name origins and particle physics.” I found it interesting that it says ‘share knowledge’, yes, knowledge was shared but more often than not opinion was shared. And opinion in particular I solicited to accomplish the goals set out for me. Though I should say it’s true that you can get answers on topics such as celebrity trivia, home cleaning, and particle physics. I asked questions on these topics and received helpful answers, the physics question took a little longer to get an answer but eventually it happened. Just out of curiosity, I did ask the question “Why are you on Answerbag.” Many said for fun while others mention knowledge sharing, you can see the question here: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1285003.

I was much more successful when asking opinion questions than simple straightforward questions. When I did answer a simple straightforward question no answers followed mine and I was awarded some points but not nearly 40. It seemed to me that people were on AB more for fun and laughs then to get real answers to serious questions. Given my experiences on AB I was surprised the Ridings and Gefen study found entertainment to be a relatively low motivator.

One of the readings which shed a bit of light on AB and helped in reaching the goal of a question with 8 or more answers or 40 or more points was the article “Using Social Psychology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities.” The authors found that people will contribute more to online communities when they believe that their contributions will be unique. I tried to ask questions that could receive unique answers as well as give respondents an opportunity to express their individuality and personality.

Also interesting from this reading was the finding that: “individuals contributed when… they were given specific and challenging goals.” The use of levels and rank in AB capitalizes on this finding in a way. The more points you get the higher the level you are placed and your level and rank is there for everyone to see. (This also goes along with Proposition 6 and 7 from the Tedjalmulia article-

6-As group identity within a community increases, participation and contributions will increase. And

7-The more visible a person’s actions are to other community members, the more he or she will contribute and participate.)

I did not pay much attention to my level but I can see how some people can become obsessed. AB places a concrete and challenging goal in front of you by having different levels. I believe this use of levels and rank encourages people to keep coming back and contributing.

The article by Tedjalmulia and others discusses feedback and its positive effect on contributions. I tried to use this idea to help reach my goals but my results were mixed. AB allows feedback in the form of points as well as comments. I gave points away relatively freely as I hoped people would do the same for me. I also commented often on answers to my questions. I was hoping that this would help me gain points and get more answers. This was not always the case. In one particular instance I think my comments may have led the inflow of answers to come to a screeching halt. I had gotten a lot of responses, 11, quickly and I decided to thank everyone. Once I did this I did not receive any more answers. I can only speculate as to why and it may be coincidence but perhaps people who may have answered saw that I had commented and assumed I had received what I wanted and the topic was over. In some instances it seemed comments got me more points but I can’t be sure.

The paper by Schrock was interesting but not specifically helpful in reaching my goals on AB. Most of the findings described, including these:

"Extroversion and self–disclosure were positively correlated with the many–to–many and one–to–one clusters, and self–disclosure was correlated only with the many–to–many cluster. MySpace users were specifically more likely to be users of one–to–one as well as many–to–many technology clusters."

I did not find surprising. What was surprising was the gender differences found in the study. I guess I, and I believe others, still see the internet as dominated by white males.

A few of my own insights into AB:

There is a community there. There are a number of people who are what you could call heavy users. I found one comment thread that seemed to involve some of these heavy users. It is here: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5452121 I don’t know what they are talking about but they seem to have some familiarity with each other, I’m sure they see the same people over and over again.

I think a questioner’s level and ranking make a difference in the number of answers. I tried to mirror other questions that had received a lot of answers and points but I was not as highly successful. I also found an example of the same question asked with very different results. The question was: do you want to know the exact time of your death. Someone of high rank asked on Sept 26, 2006 (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/77598); now I don’t know what their level was exactly at the time but looking at their points history it was sizable. Their question received 118 answers and got 43 points. Now someone else asked a similar question, “Would you want to know the date of your death, and how it happened?” (http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/603775) This was asked by someone at level 1 on Feb 17, 2008. It received 19 answers and 14 points. Perhaps people need to pay their dues and become more recognizable and trustworthy to gain the most responses and points.

While I am not likely to visit AB again, this was a fun exercise and helpful to gain an understanding of the motivations of people joining and contributing to online communities. These insights can be useful in my future professional life as a librarian.

Update Wednesday 2/18: This morning I had this message in my inbox "Good news, we have an answer to your question." No, not good news, not for me at least. A question I got 49 points on was rejected as a duplicate. Arggg. I understand why AB does this, the questions are always open, and this sets them apart from Yahoo Answers. (which was started after AB) Also, I'd like to note that I did not realize at the time that duplicate questions were rejected, I was not attempting to be unique only to get answers and points. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned I still accomplished this goal, I mean I had over 40 points as of 11:59 HST Sunday Feb. 15, ;).