Admins, mods, and benevolent dictators for life: The implicit feudalism of online communities

Online platforms train users to interact with each other through certain widespread interface designs. This article argues that an “implicit feudalism” informs the available options for community management on the dominant platforms for online communities. It is a pattern that grants user-administra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New media & society Vol. 24; no. 9; pp. 1965 - 1985
Main Author: Schneider, Nathan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2022
Subjects:
Media archeology
online communities
software studies
online governance
social media
ISSN:1461-4448, 1461-7315
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Online platforms train users to interact with each other through certain widespread interface designs. This article argues that an “implicit feudalism” informs the available options for community management on the dominant platforms for online communities. It is a pattern that grants user-administrators absolutist reign over their fiefdoms, with competition among them as the primary mechanism for quality control, typically under rules set by platform companies. Implicit feudalism emerged from technical conditions dating to early online networks. In light of alternative management mechanisms with more democratic features, it becomes all the more clear that implicit feudalism is not a necessary condition.
ISSN:1461-4448
1461-7315
DOI:10.1177/1461444820986553