Who is Authoritative? Understanding Reputation Mechanisms in Quora

TL;DR

This study analyzes how users on Quora determine authority and reputation, highlighting the role of primary sources, past contributions, and social voting, and suggests combining voting with algorithms for improved content quality.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of user behavior and reputation mechanisms on Quora, combining data analysis and user interviews to understand authority and content quality.

Findings

Primary sources are deemed authoritative.

Reputation is based on past contributions.

Social voting aids content promotion but is biased.

Abstract

As social Q&A sites gain popularity, it is important to understand how users judge the authoritativeness of users and content, build reputation, and identify and promote high quality content. We conducted a study of emerging social Q&A site Quora. First, we describe user activity on Quora by analyzing data across 60 question topics and 3917 users. Then we provide a rich understanding of issues of authority, reputation, and quality from in-depth interviews with ten Quora users. Our results show that primary sources of information on Quora are judged authoritative. Also, users judge the reputation of other users based on their past contributions. Social voting helps users identify and promote good content but is prone to preferential attachment. Combining social voting with sophisticated algorithms for ranking content might enable users to better judge others' reputation and promote high quality content.