Who is Authoritative? Understanding Reputation Mechanisms in Quora
This addresses reputation mechanisms for users and content quality on social Q&A sites like Quora, but it is incremental as it builds on existing social media research.
The study investigated how users assess authoritativeness and reputation on Quora, finding that primary sources are judged authoritative and past contributions influence reputation, with social voting aiding content promotion but showing preferential attachment.
As social Q&A sites gain popularity, it is important to understand how users judge the authoritativeness of users and content, build reputation, and identify and promote high quality content. We conducted a study of emerging social Q&A site Quora. First, we describe user activity on Quora by analyzing data across 60 question topics and 3917 users. Then we provide a rich understanding of issues of authority, reputation, and quality from in-depth interviews with ten Quora users. Our results show that primary sources of information on Quora are judged authoritative. Also, users judge the reputation of other users based on their past contributions. Social voting helps users identify and promote good content but is prone to preferential attachment. Combining social voting with sophisticated algorithms for ranking content might enable users to better judge others' reputation and promote high quality content.