Virtual communities? the middle east revolutions at the Guardian forum: Comment Is Free

TL;DR

This study examines whether virtual communities form in an online forum during a period of rapid activity increase, finding that core network properties remain stable despite user growth and community expansion.

Contribution

It demonstrates that significant user growth and community formation do not necessarily alter fundamental network characteristics in online social networks.

Findings

User activity tripled during the period.

A giant component formed in the network.

Network properties like degree distribution remained stable.

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of virtual community formation in an online social network under a rapid increase of activity of members and newcomers. The evolution is studied of the activity of online users at the Guardian - Comment Is Free forum - covering topics related to the Middle East turmoil during the period of 1st of January 2010 to the 28th of March 2011. Despite a threefold upsurge of forum users and the formation of a giant component, the main network characteristics, i.e. degree and weight distribution and clustering coefficient, remained almost unchanged.