Categorizing Behavior in Online Communities: A Look Into the World of Cake Bakers

In this article, we examine the patterns of behavior of online community members. We develop a list of measurable markers of behavior, drawing on online behavior and social network literature, and show how to construct the markers from the hidden relationship data in online communities. We then conduct an exploratory analysis of an online community devoted to cake baking in the Netherlands. Our results indicate that online community behaviors can be clustered into four distinct categories: utility posters, team players, low profiles, and story tellers, and that these behavioral roles are related to the commitment users have to the website. We provide an account of a novel methodological approach to elucidating social network markers of implicit relationships, using not survey but behavioral data. Finally, we discuss the implications of this line of inquiry for future work into behavior in online communities, and how to use this knowledge optimally in practice.