The Paper: http://natematias.com/media/GoingDark-Matias-2016.pdf

Authored by J. Nathan Matias, /u/natematias, Microsoft Research

Abstract:

This paper describes how people who lead communities on online platforms join together in mass collective action to influence platform operators. I investigate this by analyzing a protest against the social news platform reddit by moderators of 2,278 subreddit communities in July 2015. These moderators collectively disabled their subreddits, preventing millions of readers from accessing major parts of reddit and convincing the company to negotiate over their demands. This paper offers a descriptive analysis of the protest, combining qualitative content analysis, interviews, and quantitative analysis with the population of 52,735 active subreddits. Through participatory hypotheses testing with moderators, this study reveals social factors including the grievances of moderators, relations with platform operators, relations among moderators, subreddit resources, subreddit isolation, and moderators' relations with their subreddits that can lead to participation in mass collective action against a platform.

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Random relevant links:

• The Tragedy of the Digital Commons - Nate Matias' article for The Atlantic regarding the ways that people organize to govern themselves online

• Recognizing the Work of Reddit’s Moderators: Summer Research Project - Blog post from before the blackout about Mr. Matias' intentions to learn about reddit moderation

• What Just Happened on Reddit? Understanding The Moderator Blackout - Blog post announcing beginning of the research project

• How Do Users Take Collective Action Against Online Platforms? CHI Honorable Mention - A blog post summarizing some of the research

• Reddit Moderators: Let's Test Theories of Moderation Together - Another research project by Nate Matias which reddit moderators can assist with

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Some background/context on my association with this author: During/after the blackout I noticed a reddit user /u/natematias mentioning he was doing a research project on the event. Via PM I sent him a link to the #modtalk IRC discussion which spurred the blackout (I had come across a leaked copy of it through chance). Mr. Matias mentioned he was seeking to interview reddit moderators and invited me to do one with him.

During the course of our interview I discovered that he and I share many values and beliefs in common about the significance of platforms like Reddit for the future of global human communication, and about the signicance and value of volunteer moderation (both are really important!).

Our discussion went over the blackout, and we also discussed the value of transparency, my /u/publicmodlogs project, moderator misconduct, and some of the frustration that reddit's non-moderator users feel about the site. At the conclusion of our interview, Mr. Matias mentioned that our talk had helped him to decide on the direction that his next reddit research project will take.

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If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them - and I recommend checking out some of the posts /u/natematias has made on /r/theoryofreddit