Thesis Defence: The Open Platform – A Case Study of Folksonomy and Community on Archive of Our Own (AO3)

Carol Zhang, supervised by Dr. Jonathan Cinnamon, will defend their thesis titled “The Open Platform: A Case Study of Folksonomy and Community on Archive of Our Own (AO3)” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Digital Arts and Humanities theme.

An abstract for Carol Zhang’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. This defence will be offered in hybrid format.  Registration is not required to attend in person, but please email jonathan.cinnamon@ubc.ca to receive the Zoom link for this defence.

Abstract

This thesis focused on how members of Archive of Our Own (AO3) used a community-based tagging system (also known as a folksonomy) to manage content on the platform. My three research questions focused on information management, how the community uses AO3’s folksonomy for information discovery, and the potential to integrate a folksonomy system with recommendation algorithms. AO3 hosts over 17 million fanfictions and 11 million users. Despite how many people are on the platform, AO3 is praised for its information management system, which is attributed to its curated folksonomy. Recommendation algorithms are generally used to manage the large amount of content on the internet; however, recommendation algorithms have been shown to have bias, be addictive, and lead users to more extremist content. This research was conducted through interviews with the volunteers at AO3 and a survey of AO3 users. The interviews focused on whether or not behaviours from the wider internet impacted AO3 such as requests for a recommendation algorithm or usage of algospeak. The surveys focused on how users used AO3’s folksonomy system. The results were that users of AO3 do not like recommendation algorithms and displayed a strong aversion to them. Age was also analyzed in relation to how it impacted user behaviour in relation to the concept of the digital native. AO3 volunteers reiterated AO3’s stance on recommendation algorithms explaining that there would be no benefits to implementing one on AO3. The platform design of AO3 allows users to manage the fanfiction they interact with on their own terms. Users were essentially creating their own personal ‘recommendation algorithm’ tailored to their specific desires. AO3’s curated folksonomy gives fandoms on the platform flexibility when deciding how to organize fanfiction in relation to themselves, fandom, and media. However, the open nature of AO3 also comes with potential drawbacks, including misuse of AO3’s folksonomy. My study adds to the knowledge base of how AO3’s platform design is maintained by AO3’s philosophies, how users on AO3 utilize AO3’s folksonomy, and the limitations of AO3’s platform design.