Online Communities’ Sensitivity to Unexpected Information: The Roles of Governance and "Cross-talk"

Abstract

To stay on-topic, online communities exclude unexpected information, i.e., content they have no prior knowledge of, whose on-topicness is uncertain. However, unexpected information is valuable because it can enhance community members’ understanding of the information and drive online communities to explore novel topics that enrich their discussions. Of course, online communities vary in their sensitivity to unexpected information. Utilizing a dataset comprising discussions in 3,238 active communities on Reddit, this study investigates the effects of online communities’ formal and informal structures on communities’ sensitivity to unexpected information. The results indicate a negative association between formal structures represented by community governance and sensitivity to unexpected information, while showing a generally positive relationship between informal structures represented by "cross-talk" (i.e., conversations within a discussion that exclude the initiator of the discussion) and sensitivity. The findings uncover how cross-talk and community governance correlate with online communities' sensitivity to unexpected information, illuminating the effects of the informal and formal structures of online communities.