One of the discussion forums I participate on recently passed its 12th birthday, and we remarked how enduring discussion forums and online communities have been, even in the face of significant growth in social media in that time.  No community has endured quite as persistently as social news community Reddit, which perhaps makes it a perfect Petri dish to explore just how communities change as they mature.

That’s exactly what researchers from the University of Alabama did in a recently published study, which found that as communities age, they tend to concentrate activity among fewer contributors, and it becomes harder for new members to integrate.

“Online communities are easy enough to create, but the question is, ‘Are they going to be here in six months?’ For the vast majority, the answer is no,” the authors say.  “Our research suggests that the creators of online communities need to be more proactive in incentivizing and encouraging widespread participation to motivate group members to stick around and be more active in the conversation.”

Changing communities

The researchers analyzed a few million comments posted on Reddit to try and understand why some communities thrive whilst others flounder.  In total, they trawled through six years worth of data from 30 of the most popular communities on the site.  They looked for both the breadth of discussions in terms of the number of contributors, and the turnover of active members per month, both of which are key metrics for any online community.

“Some people dabble in online communities just to get a question answered,” the researchers explain. “For other people, online communities are central to their lives. What we’re trying to understand is when online community life becomes central to people.”

Online communities have flourished with the advent of social media, so any attempts to understand how they grow and evolve has to be welcomed.  The researchers believe their work adds to the body of literature attempting to do just that.