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text/0_abstract.tex

@@ -1,23 +1,25 @@
 \chapter*{Abstract}
 \label{cha:abstract}
 
-
+StackExchange is a question and answer platform and like other social platforms, StackExchange is eager provide a good first impression to users. StackExchange made many decitions to attract new users. One of these decitions was to introduce the \emph{new contributor} indicator which is shown users that may answer a question from a new user. This thesis investigates whether this change improved the impression new users experience. To measure whether the change achieved its intended target, this thesis uses VADER to quantify the sentiment of the answers to questions of new contributors which are then used in an interupted time series. The results indicate that in some of the communities the change did indeed achieve its intented purpose.
-This is a place-holder for the abstract. 
+
-It summarizes the whole work to give a very short overview. 
+
-Usually, this the abstract is written when the whole work text is finished.
+%This is a place-holder for the abstract. 
-Alternatively, write an initial abstract in the beginning (wish how it should look like in the end), and then rewrite it at the end of the work.
+%It summarizes the whole work to give a very short overview. 
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+%Usually, this the abstract is written when the whole work text is finished.
-The abstract consists of four parts, plus an optional beginning.
+%Alternatively, write an initial abstract in the beginning (wish how it should look like in the end), and then rewrite it at the end of the work.
-0., optionally start the abstract with 1-2 sentences about the background of the work.
+
-1., describe the topic, or problem of the work.
+%The abstract consists of four parts, plus an optional beginning.
-It should be clear what the aim of the work is.
+%0., optionally start the abstract with 1-2 sentences about the background of the work.
-2., describe how you solved the problem.
+%1., describe the topic, or problem of the work.
-It should be clear what steps were necessary to solve the problem.
+%It should be clear what the aim of the work is.
-3., give a short overview of the results.
+%2., describe how you solved the problem.
-Should be clear how well the problem is solved.
+%It should be clear what steps were necessary to solve the problem.
-4., give an outlook of what is now possible, since the problem has been solved.
+%3., give a short overview of the results.
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+%Should be clear how well the problem is solved.
-The abstract is typically written in the past tense. 
+%4., give an outlook of what is now possible, since the problem has been solved.
-It is uncommon to put references directly into the abstract.
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+%The abstract is typically written in the past tense. 
+%It is uncommon to put references directly into the abstract.
 
 

text/2_relwork.tex

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ All these criteria are heavily intertwined. Attracting new users often depends o
 Keeping users commited to the platform depends on the engagement with the community and how well the system design supports this. For the purpose of this thesis, the criteria layed out by \citeauthor{kraut2012building} can be grouped into two main categories: 1) onboarding of new users, 2) keeping users engaged, contributing, and well behaved.
 
 \subsection{Onboarding of new users}
-The onboarding process is a permanent challenge for online communities and differs from one platform to another. 
+The onboarding process is a permanent challenge for online communities and differs from one platform to another. New users should be welcomed by the community and helped to integrate themselves into the community. This is a countiuous process. It is not enough for a user to make one contribution and then revert to a non-contributing state. The StackExchange team took efforts to onboard new users better by making several changes to the site. However, there are still problems where further actions are required.
 %TODO short intro into folling paragraphs
 %on day flies, on multiple platforms, solutions on other platforms
 %bad comment section
@@ -148,6 +148,9 @@ Unwelcomeness is a large problem on StackExchange \cite{hanlon2018stack, friend2
 %reputation
 %badge system
 %quality
+
+StackExchange employes serveral features to engage users with the platform, for instance, the reputation system and the badge system. These systems reward contributing users with achievements and encourages further contribution to the community. Both systems try to keep and increase the quality of the posts on the platform.
+
 Reputation plays a important role on StackExchange and indicates the credibility of a user as well as a primary source of answers of high quality \cite{movshovitz2013analysis}. Although the largest chunk of all questions is posted by low-reputated users, high-reputated users post more questions on average. To earn a high reputation a user has to invest a lot of effort and time into the community, for instance, asking good questions or providing useful answers to questions of others. Reputation is earned when a question or answer is upvoted by other users, or if an answer is accepted as the solution to a question by the question creator. \citeauthor{mamykina2011design} found that the reputation system of StackOverflow encourages users to compete productively \cite{mamykina2011design}. But not every user participates equally, and participation depends on the personality of the user \cite{bazelli2013personality}. \citeauthor{bazelli2013personality} showed that the top-reputated users on StackOverflow are more extroverted compared to users with less reputation. \citeauthor{movshovitz2013analysis} found that by analyzing the StackOverflow community network, experts can be reliably identified by their contribution within the first few months after their registeration. Graph analysis also allowed the authors to find spamming users or users with other extreme behavior. 
 Although gaining reputation takes time and effort, users can take certain advantages to gain reputation faster by gaming the system \cite{bosu2013building}. \citeauthor{bosu2013building} analyzed the reputation system and found five strategies to increase the reputation in a fast way: Firstly, answering questions with tags that have a small expertise density. This reduces competitiveness against other users and increases the chance of upvotes and answer acceptance. Secondly, questions should be answered promptly. The question asker will most likely accept the first arriving answer that solves the question. This is also supported by \cite{anderson2012discovering}. Thirdly, answering first also gives the user an advantage over other answerers. Fourthly, activity during off-peak hours reduces the competition from other users. Finally, contributing to diverse areas will also help in developing a higher reputation.
 

text/7_conclusion.tex

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 \chapter{Conclusion}
 
+The change introduced by the StackExchange team produced desired results in half of the investigated communities. The results of the StackOverflow community most closely resembles the expectation of improving the welcomingness. AskUbuntu, stats.stackexchange.com, tex.stackexchange.com, and unix.stackexchange also profit from this change. ServerFault is mostly unaffected by the change. MathOverflow, SuperUser, math.stackexchange.com, and electronics.stackexchange.com do not profit from the change and show not an increase but decrease or continuation in decrease of sentiment.
+
 %sum up findings 
 % change did something?
 %...