Redesign as an Act of Violence: Disrupted Interaction Patterns and the Fragmenting of a Social Q&A Community

Abstract

The worst-case scenario for the redesign of an established online community is a subsequent mass migration of its core members to other sites. Using data from transaction logs, content analysis and participant observation, this paper presents a descriptive analysis of the fragmentation of a social question answering (Q&A) community in the immediate aftermath of a fundamental redesign, where site- based communication mechanisms no longer functioned. The ways in which the community and its diaspora reacted, reconnected and resettled on other sites provides empirical data to support recent research on the life cycle of online communities. The results suggest that many of the same processes that help social Q&A sites generate content and motivate participation can work to dismantle an established community if communications between members are even temporarily disrupted. Modeling a redesign as an attack on a community can help future designers anticipate alternative paths of communication and information flows.