Posted by Honore on February 4, 2007, at 11:01:03
In reply to Re: what research to work on, posted by Dr. Bob on January 12, 2007, at 2:09:25
I would have put the question of the administrator's role (and the blocking system, which has evolved into one of the main componenet of the Admin's role now) under the heading of group dynamics.
What's most interesting to me here is group dynamics in an online community.
I'm not sure how to capture other questions about it.
You could look at the role of those who post frequently and what types of frequent posters there are-- ie those who have issues or concerns, those who primarily use the board to give support, those who are attracted to moments of crisis, etc (I'm not sure how to characterize types, that would really take more thought); or how they do or don't sequester themselves or show interest in one or several different boards.
How or why people started posting after lurking, or withdrew to luring is also sort of an interesting question. The role of lurkers overall is a confusing one, worth study, but hard to capture. They almost seem not to exist-- yet their presence is known-, but they're really pretty much ignored-
They constitute the pool of future posters-- yet no one tries, for example, to engage their interest or to reach out to them.
There are lots and lots of topics re: group dynamics that I find very interesting. Eg why are there periods of very few posts, and other times of many posts? Is the board beginning to decline in attracting interest by posters? if so, why? if so, are there experiments we want to try to reverse this? or is there something in the natural life of groups that they may wax and wane or go out of existence?
I could go on.
Honore
poster:Honore
thread:709392
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20070123/msgs/729607.html