for what its worth
Sep. 29th, 2014 06:47 pmPicked up a study the effect of online feedback from O'Reilly.com today (that's O'Reilly Books, Tim O'Reilly's place, not Bill O'Reilly).
The subset is news sites, so the behavior may be significantly skewed by tribalism that may not be as bad in other communities.
I do find it interesting that negative feedback has an effect (although perhaps not the desired effect), but positive feedback doesn't seem to change behavior much at all. My off the hip explanation is that people who post to news sites and get a negative response start frothing at the mouth and spewing pure vitriol after the 1st negative feedback. But it certainly goes with my rule: "Don't argue with people on the Internet."
The subset is news sites, so the behavior may be significantly skewed by tribalism that may not be as bad in other communities.
I do find it interesting that negative feedback has an effect (although perhaps not the desired effect), but positive feedback doesn't seem to change behavior much at all. My off the hip explanation is that people who post to news sites and get a negative response start frothing at the mouth and spewing pure vitriol after the 1st negative feedback. But it certainly goes with my rule: "Don't argue with people on the Internet."