Visualizing "Answer People" In Online Discussions

Marc Smith writes "'Answer people,' the folks who contribute much of the value in the Internet, are a small minority of all online users. According to a recent paper my co-authors and I have published in the Journal of Social Structure, less than 2% of authors in Usenet newsgroups are likely to be the helpful 'answer person' type — authors who reply to many other people with brief replies. The paper Visualizing the Signatures of Social Roles in Online Discussion Groups contains social network visualizations of the ties created when authors reply to one another. These images highlight the difference between these helpful folks and other types of contributors. The findings may apply to other threaded discussions, maybe even here at Slashdot."

Comments

Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

authors who reply to many other people with brief replies
Me too!

is...

[cosmocain]

... RTFM a helpful answer? if so, i'm one of the 2%!

Re:is...

[Anonymous Coward]

> is RTFM a helpful answer?

RTFM!

Re:is...

[m0nkyman]

RTFA and find out for yourself.

threaded discussion

[gEvil (beta)]

The findings may apply to other threaded discussions, maybe even here at Slashdot.

Won't apply to me. I use the "nested" view for comments.

Re:Yahoo makes money off these people.

[Colin Smith]

And yet, Yahoo and other online corporations are (imho) exploiting these people by establishing "Answer" areas that reward people for answering questions with useless points. Do they get compensation or a cut of the advertising profits that yahoo is making on them? No. They get honor points. I'd mod you insightful if I had any points.

All you need to do

[antifoidulus]

is to imagine a guy in his late 20s sitting in his parents basement sucking down Mountain Dew and inhaling cheetos.....

Oh wait, thats not what you meant by "visualizing" them, is it?

Answer Guy speaks

[pr0nbot]

The findings may apply to other threaded discussions, maybe even here at Slashdot.

They don't.

Re:And yet ...

[Anonymous Coward]

You "answer people" exist for one purpose and one purpose only: to tell me what I want to know when I want to know it.

Of course I am not an "answer person." I have more important things to do.

I paid for my access to the Internet, which means I paid for my access to you. Dont expect any gratitude from me.

Re:Slashdot may be full of answer people.

[ozmanjusri]

If you want to make a dot point list in a Slashdot posting, you can use the

and
• tags. It looks cleaner and indents nicely.
  
  Your list, for example, would look like this:
  
  <ul>
  <li>Most don't initiate a topic. Simply reading the latest cool stories.</li>
  <li>Look at the social network diagram of an answer person. Few interconnections. It indicates introverted social behaviour, which is classic computer/science etc geek/nerd. It's not like we're short of those.</li>
  <li>Etc...</i>
  </ul>
  
  HTH....