The Hidden Costs of Requiring Accounts: Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Peer Production
This research addresses a practical problem for online community managers by revealing an undertheorized tradeoff in public goods production, though it is incremental as it builds on prior divergent predictions with causal evidence.
The study examined the impact of requiring accounts on participation in online communities like wikis, finding that while it slightly increased account creation, it significantly reduced both high- and low-quality contributions, with most deterred contributions being of higher quality.
Online communities, like Wikipedia, produce valuable public information goods. Whereas some of these communities require would-be contributors to create accounts, many do not. Does this requirement catalyze cooperation or inhibit participation? Prior research provides divergent predictions but little causal evidence. We conduct an empirical test using longitudinal data from 136 natural experiments where would-be contributors to wikis were suddenly required to log in to contribute. Requiring accounts leads to a small increase in account creation, but reduces both high- and low-quality contributions from registered and unregistered participants. Although the change deters a large portion of low-quality participation, the vast majority of deterred contributions are of higher quality. We conclude that requiring accounts introduces an undertheorized tradeoff for public goods production in interactive communication systems.