Past research has shown that internet users seek out anonymous or semi-anonymous online communities for support, encouragement, and empowerment or for entertainment or even employment, but that features of these communities may variably encourage or discourage harassment. The purpose of this study is to understand the use of moderation tools in pseudonymous environments online. Various websites integrate moderation tools whereby users or moderators can regulate, prevent, or punish malicious behavior. These tools may or may not be successful in addressing these behaviors, and this study aims to understand both the effects of these behaviors on users and what makes moderation (and more broadly, community management) tools useful and successful. Information gained from this study will help improve moderation tools, decreasing the frequency and severity of harassment and making the user experience more pleasant. In future projects, this information may inform the design of other moderation tools on other platforms.
In this study we will perform interviews with moderators on social media platforms including Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and reddit. We anticipate interviewing approximately 20 users per platform. Participants will be invited to participate in an interview via Skype or other audio chat service. Audio of this call will be recorded for the purpose of transcription, but recordings will be destroyed when transcription is complete. Researchers will ask participants a series of questions about their use of the platform and interaction with its moderation tools, and will be asked to explain the types of positive and negative social behaviors they encounter and how they deal with each type. Interviews will take roughly half an hour to 45 minutes.
Interviewees will be introduced to the study through private messages on twitch.tv, other private messaging systems associated with the related platforms, or messages to accounts related to users' usage of these platforms. This messaging system requires and collects no personal information; the only information required to contact a person is their username. These messages will be sent from a project account. The following are the project accounts associated with this study: MMond on Twitch; jinaCMU and jseering on reddit.
The following are researchers currently actively involved in this study: