Articles about Disclosure in Online Communities

Since presenting on the panel at Stanford Medicine X called Communicating the Experience of Illness in the Digital Age, I’ve been giving more thought on the importance and role of self-disclosure in building online health communities. I’d like to find literature on the topic and gather stories of experience from people who participate in online communities and/or manage them.

Here are a few papers that Jeana Frost, Meredith Gould and I found.

• Barak A1, Gluck-Ofri O. Degree and reciprocity of self-disclosure in online forums. Cyberpsychol Behav. 2007 Jun;10(3):407-17. Accessed Oct 16, 2014
• Posey C, Lowry PB, Roberts TL, and Ellis TS, Proposing the online community self-disclosure model: the case of working professionals in France and the U.K. who use online communities. European Journal of Information Systems (2010) 19, 181–195. doi:10.1057/ejis.2010.15; published online 9 March 2010 Accessed Oct 16, 2014
• Prosser, J, Gender Differences in Public vs Private Self-Disclosure. 2013  Accessed Oct 16, 2014
• Walrave, M., Vanwesenbeeck, I., & Heirman, W. Connecting and protecting? Comparing predictors of self-disclosure and privacy settings use between adolescents and adults. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 6(1), article 1. (2012). Accessed Oct 16, 2014
• Zlatolas L, Welzer T, Poster: Information Disclosure between Different Groups on Social Networking Sites. 2013. Accessed Oct 16, 2014

Of course, my go-to place to get practical information about building successful  online communities is Richard Millington‘s blog FeverBee. He states “... community managers … have a heavy influence over whether interactions between members turn into relationships.”  Here are a few of his key blog posts relevant to disclosure.

• The First Contribution
• The Art Of Forging Strong Friendships Between Members Of Your Community
• Building Strong Relationships Between Members: Some Practical Steps

Prepping for MedX, I also wrote this post, I want my sex life back! TMI? Or gold for online communities and their managers?, which grew in richness through the comments people posted.

Do you have additional articles or stories to share about disclosure and 1) how it functions in online communities or 2) the effect of disclosure on the quality of conversation?