Social Computing Session 3: Motivating content contributions

See AnswerBag profile: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/?id=866449

Assignment Results:
I found this session’s readings and exercise to be enlightening, and highly enjoyable. I think I lurked a little too long on Answerbag before jumping in, as I didn’t quite meet two of the four elements of our assignment. I did receive 14 answers to my first question, “How many years between siblings do you think is ideal?” and the question earned 29 points as of this writing. I also received 6 comments, though not on any one answer. The most on one answer was 3 comments, received due to the conversational nature of the comments between myself and the asker, Designer4theking. My second highest question rating was 25 for “How long did you know your s/o before you held hands? hugged? kissed?” Overall, I found the experience to be fun and engaging. One experienced member, keithold is cooler now, welcomed me to the community when I answered his question, “What is the herb belladonna also known as?”

Strategy:
In the beginning I lurked for awhile. I found it very difficult to get started until I decided to just be myself…the pseudonym, Limetree, is simply what my first name means. I just couldn’t seem to get involved unless the questions I asked and/or responded to were meaningful to me, or to someone I had developed a connection with like Designer4theking. At first I had a hard time coming up with a question that I thought might be considered interesting for myself and also to others. I think in retrospect I might have started by answering questions, before formulating my own. Unfortunately I fell into a consumer mentality, both because of the drive to complete the assignment as well as the need to consume content that was relevant and interesting to me personally, so my initial actions were to ask questions, to make people come to me. My initial question was fairly successful in a short period of time, a circumstance that drove me to become more participatory as I rated answers and responded to answers that were particularly interesting.

After asking and responding to several types of questions, my next step was to lower my guard a bit…okay, actually a lot. I found a question from Designer4theking, who had previously responded well to my question “How long did you know your s/o before you held hands? hugged? kissed?” She asked, “Can you describe your childhood? Any great experiences?” To answer, I posted a poem I wrote a few years ago about my childhood. To do so was a huge risk for me, as I consider myself a closet poet and rarely share my work openly. This answer provoked a conversation between myself and Designer4theking via comments. As with the welcome from keithold is cooler now, I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the encounter.

In relation to the readings:
I find the question “Why?” to be very interesting…why do people want to hang out online? What is it about the online experience that is so attractive to so many? Until this class and moving very far from home, my online presence was minimal. I know the answer to my “why?” I joined Facebook to maintain relationships with friends and family at home, Skype to talk to them via webcam, and everything else as prompted by this class. A couple of the readings, and Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online in particular, address one of the reasons it is so important to understand the motivation to engage socially online. Virtual communities have “enormous information and revenue increasing potential.” (Ridings & Gefen, 2004) My participation on MyB&N has a lot of potential for the company, so much so that B&N just sent out a notice to prompt me to rate and review some items I recently purchased in an effort to make me feel that my contribution will be unique and will benefit the community. (See Hypotheses 1 & 4 in Using Social Pyschology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities)

I found the paper, Motivating Content Contributions to Online Communities particularly intriguing. By dividing users into four groups, 2 types of lurkers and 2 types of contributors, I was better able to place myself and my own use in the general scheme of things. The discussion of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was important to me as I used AnswerBag. Once I found the experience “inherently interesting or enjoyable,” I was much more willing and eager to be involved and to contribute actively. Trust was important, especially when I posted my poem. The accountability factor also impacted my use, knowing that questions and answers are monitored and the monitoring enforced was important throughout all stages of the assignment. The goals concept was harder for me, as I got caught up in the novelty of the experience and the social experience, rather than remaining focused on the external goals imposed by the assignment. Consider the findings in the article Using Social Pyschology to Motivate Contributions to Online Communities for Hypothesis 6, “Members who are assigned challenging specific numeric goals will rate more than members assigned non-specific do-your-best goals.” I found that the specific numeric goals of the assignment were an initial driving factor for me, but that the social connection and feeling positive about my interactions with the community became much more important for me, so much so that I lost sight of those initial challenges.