Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust

Abstract Knowledge-sharing communities are fundamental elements of a knowledge-based society. Understanding how different factors influence their sustainability is of crucial importance. We explore the role of the social network structure and social trust in their sustainability. We analyze the earl...

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Main Authors: Ana Vranić, Aleksandar Tomašević, Aleksandra Alorić, Marija Mitrović Dankulov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2023-02-01
Series:EPJ Data Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00381-x
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author Ana Vranić
Aleksandar Tomašević
Aleksandra Alorić
Marija Mitrović Dankulov
author_facet Ana Vranić
Aleksandar Tomašević
Aleksandra Alorić
Marija Mitrović Dankulov
author_sort Ana Vranić
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Knowledge-sharing communities are fundamental elements of a knowledge-based society. Understanding how different factors influence their sustainability is of crucial importance. We explore the role of the social network structure and social trust in their sustainability. We analyze the early evolution of social networks in four pairs of active and closed Stack Exchange communities on topics of physics, astronomy, economics, and literature and use a dynamical reputation model to quantify the evolution of social trust in them. In addition, we study the evolution of two active communities on mathematics topics and two closed communities about startups and compare them with our main results. Active communities have higher local cohesiveness and develop stable, better-connected, trustworthy cores. The early emergence of a stable and trustworthy core may be crucial for sustainable knowledge-sharing communities.
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spelling doaj.art-345a06bcad6c4a1dbf526144a86682932023-03-22T10:41:39ZengSpringerOpenEPJ Data Science2193-11272023-02-0112112410.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00381-xSustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trustAna Vranić0Aleksandar Tomašević1Aleksandra Alorić2Marija Mitrović Dankulov3Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of BelgradeDepartment of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi SadInstitute of Physics Belgrade, University of BelgradeInstitute of Physics Belgrade, University of BelgradeAbstract Knowledge-sharing communities are fundamental elements of a knowledge-based society. Understanding how different factors influence their sustainability is of crucial importance. We explore the role of the social network structure and social trust in their sustainability. We analyze the early evolution of social networks in four pairs of active and closed Stack Exchange communities on topics of physics, astronomy, economics, and literature and use a dynamical reputation model to quantify the evolution of social trust in them. In addition, we study the evolution of two active communities on mathematics topics and two closed communities about startups and compare them with our main results. Active communities have higher local cohesiveness and develop stable, better-connected, trustworthy cores. The early emergence of a stable and trustworthy core may be crucial for sustainable knowledge-sharing communities.https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00381-xNetworks structureDynamic reputationKnowledge exchangeStack ExchangeSustainability of Q&A communities
spellingShingle Ana Vranić
Aleksandar Tomašević
Aleksandra Alorić
Marija Mitrović Dankulov
Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust
EPJ Data Science
Networks structure
Dynamic reputation
Knowledge exchange
Stack Exchange
Sustainability of Q&A communities
title Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust
title_full Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust
title_fullStr Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust
title_full_unstemmed Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust
title_short Sustainability of Stack Exchange Q&A communities: the role of trust
title_sort sustainability of stack exchange q a communities the role of trust
topic Networks structure
Dynamic reputation
Knowledge exchange
Stack Exchange
Sustainability of Q&A communities
url https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00381-x
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