Ecology of Online Communities/Community rules study/Fediverse recruitment

The Community Data Science Collective (a research group based at Northwestern University and the University of Washington) is seeking individuals involved in a number of different online communities to participate in a research study on rules in online communities across platforms (Northwestern IRB # STU00217080). The research is led by PhD student Carl Colglazier and supervised by Principal Investigators Dr. Aaron Shaw (aaronshaw@northwestern.edu), Dr. Benjamin Mako Hill (makohill@uw.edu), and Dr. Nathan TeBlunthuis (nathan.teblunthuis@northwestern.edu).

We would love to schedule a time to talk with you about your experience on your Fediverse instance and other related online communities. The overall purpose of this study is to examine and understand how online communities like yours make their rules and how the rules shape the experience of participants.

In order for us to interview you, you must be an adult who is familiar with online communities on Reddit and who is willing and able to record an interview in English with a researcher from our team. Interviews will be conducted remotely via voice or video chat depending on your preferences. While we may quote you in our study, we will not disclose any identifying information about you. We expect most interviews will be between 45 and 90 minutes.

If you are interested in taking part in this research study, please fill out this Google Form:. Participants will receive a $20 Amazon gift card.

More information on our research project is available on our website: https://wiki.communitydata.science/