Discussion
As the scope of this study was limited, and the sample data relatively small, the quantitative results reported here should only be considered preliminary. The qualitative results, however, point to a direct relationship between perceptions of activity and participation levels. This confirms the research of Whittaker in relation to patterns of participation in online communities. Further, the results show that social proxies are used by participants to gauge how much time and effort should be invested in maintaining presence in an online community.
As Erickson correctly anticipated, and this study has confirmed, participants tend to find ways of artificially inflating the numbers of a quantitative social proxy, so that, as an example, the total number of messages posted by a participant can not be relied upon to be indicative of his or her real contribution in terms of knowledge capital. It may be argued that social proxies shift focus away from the quality of a participant's contributions and instead provide incentives and rewards for mere quantity. There are indeed certain online communities that may find it counter-productive to introduce quantitative social proxies to encourage participation, such as narrowly-focused networked communities of practice or those developed for research collaboration.
Social proxies may, however, be intentionally designed to focus on contribution quality and minimize the impact of hacking or 'gaming'. The feedback system on eBay is an excellent example of a well-intentioned social proxy. It harnesses the knowledge capital of the community to determine whether a participant is a valued member or not. While feedback 'scores' are quantitative, they are calculated on the basis of reported customer satisfaction over a twelve month period, which encourages 'good behaviour' as defined by eBay's conditions of use and ensures long-term membership and sustained participation. The social proxy developed for this study may benefit from similar modifications and enhancements. It is surmised that social proxies may be designed to encourage or discourage certain types of behaviour in online communities.
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