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CHAPTER 6. ANALYZING THE TALK.ABORTION NEWSGROUP 92 Table 6.7: Message Reciprocity By Author Groups Author Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Group Messages Follow Messages Led Difference Followed Ratio Led Ratio Ratio Very Frequent 5831.93 4.86 5919.07 4.76 1.06 Frequent 1421.43 7.56 1377.23 7.41 1.06 Occassional 484.93 9.60 478.31 9.39 1.06 Infrequent 239.08 11.19 230.80 10.78 1.12 Very Infrequent 89.34 14.49 85.35 13.94 1.39 Two-time 32.21 16.12 29.27 14.66 2.02 One-time 14.92 14.92 14.39 14.39 2.19 All Authors 116.00 14.47 113.30 13.82 1.86 F =2:65 F =2:06 F =5:69 p =0:01 p = :05 p =0:00 bined total of 1,000 unique messages, and led a total of 1,200 unique messages. With this data, three additional measures can be calculated. The follow ratio is the ratio of followed messages to authored messages, in this case 1000 : 100 or 10:00. The led ratio is the ratio of led messages to authored messages, in this case 1200 : 100 or 12:00. Finally, the difference ratio is ratio of followed messages to led messages, in this case 1000 : 1200 or :83. Difference ratios less than one indicate that an individual author leads more messages than he follows. Difference ratios greater than one indicate the opposite effect. Table 6.7 illustrates trends in message reciprocity. As would be expected, the mean messages followed and mean messages led are strongly correlated with number of messages contributed. The very frequent authors averaged 5,831 followed messages, and 5,919 led messages. The mean follow and mean led ratios are lower for the more frequent author groups; an analysis of variance of the two ratios indicate significant differences across the groups. More frequent authors follow and lead, on a per message basis, fewer messages than less frequent authors. Additionally, a comparison of the mean difference ratios indicates that more frequent authors, on average, are about equally likely to lead messages and to follow messages. Less frequent authors, on the other hand, are, on average, much more likely to follow messages than to lead messages.
CHAPTER 6. ANALYZING THE TALK.ABORTION NEWSGROUP 93 Lists of followed and led messages also provide the basis for measures of author reciprocity. Author reciprocity is calculated on the basis of unique authors of followed and led messages. For example, continuing with the example from above, assume that the 1,000 followed messages were written by 400 different authors, and that the 1,200 led messages were written by 300 different authors. The author follow ratio would now be calculated as 400 : 100 or 4:00, the author led ratio as 300 : 100 or 3:00; and the author difference ratio is 4 : 3or 1:33. In addition, the lists of followed and led authors can be combined and then sorted into three categories: reciprocated authors are those appearing on both the list of followed and led authors; followed authors are those appearing only on the list of followed authors, and led authors appear only on the list of led authors. The relationships between these three measures provides additional estimates of an individual author’s reciprocity. Author reciprocity scores for groups of authors are provided in Table 6.8 on the following page. Not surprisingly, those authors writing more messages tend, on average, to follow, reciprocate and lead more authors than those writing fewer messages. However, when the ratios of authors followed, reciprocated and led are examined, the same pattern emerges as was found with message reciprocity. Authors in the groups of more frequent authors tend to follow, reciprocate and lead fewer authors per message contributed than those in the groups of less frequent authors. Message reciprocity and author reciprocity provide estimates of the amount of interaction between authors. Every message posted to the newsgroup may have followed other messages – either by citing the message ID number or adding to an existing thread. Every message posted to the newsgroup may have led other messages, indicated by having its message ID number cited in a subsequent message, or having subsequent messages added to the thread. Each author is then described in terms of message and author reciprocity. Message reciprocity measures the number of messages that that author’s contributions followed, and the number of messages that that author’s contributions led. The average message posted by very frequent, frequent and occasional authors – who account for almost 80% of the messages in the newsgroup (See Table 6.2 on page 85) – followed about six messages, and led about six messages. Authors in these groups tended to lead as many messages as they followed. The average message posted by infrequent, very infrequent, two-time and one-time authors, on the other hand, followed and led more than twice as many messages as those posted by the more frequent authors. These authors posted messages which were, on average, more likely to lead
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CHAPTER 1. COMPUTERS, CONVERSATION
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APPENDIX B. DENSITY SCORES 165 Tabl
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Appendix C Supplemental Analysis 16
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APPENDIX C. SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS 1
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 Best, Michael L. 1
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 179 Fisher, Bonnie, Mi
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 Hiltz, Starr Roxan
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 Mansbridge, Jane.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 Pateman, Carole. 1
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