Rhyme and punishment: the creation and enforcement of conventions in an on-line participatory limerick genre

Computers don't support conversation well, particularly asynchronous conversations among groups. Such conversations often lack coherence, tending towards drift, dissolution or chaos. The object of this study-a conversation that repeatedly succeeds in producing coherent results-is a counterexample. Two features seem important: it is structured by the conventions of a well-known genre, and as it proceeds it develops new conventions. This paper analyzes the emergence and enforcement of the conversation's conventions over the course of a year, and examines the interplay between the conventions and the user interface, concluding with suggestions on how to design systems which support more coherent conversation.