The Hidden Costs of Requiring Accounts: Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Peer Production

TL;DR

Requiring accounts in online communities like Wikipedia slightly increases account creation but significantly reduces overall contributions, especially high-quality ones, highlighting a tradeoff in public goods production.

Contribution

This study provides causal evidence on how account requirements impact participation and contribution quality in online communities.

Findings

Account requirement slightly increases account creation

Requiring accounts reduces both high- and low-quality contributions

Most deterred contributions are of higher quality

Abstract

Online communities, like Wikipedia, produce valuable public information goods. Whereas some of these communities require would-be contributors to create accounts, many do not. Does this requirement catalyze cooperation or inhibit participation? Prior research provides divergent predictions but little causal evidence. We conduct an empirical test using longitudinal data from 136 natural experiments where would-be contributors to wikis were suddenly required to log in to contribute. Requiring accounts leads to a small increase in account creation, but reduces both high- and low-quality contributions from registered and unregistered participants. Although the change deters a large portion of low-quality participation, the vast majority of deterred contributions are of higher quality. We conclude that requiring accounts introduces an undertheorized tradeoff for public goods production in interactive communication systems.