Incentives in the Wild: Leveraging Virtual Currency to Sustain Online Community

Abstract

The importance of incentive mechanisms has long been recognized in sustaining online communities. However, many existing community systems have rigid systemimposed incentive mechanisms that preclude user appropriations of the incentives. We draw upon recent investigations of the role of virtual currency (VC), a form of incentive, in a vibrant online community in order to highlight emergent practices that were enabled, facilitated and manifested through exchanges of virtual currency among users. Our study shows evidence that these user appropriations of VC help sustain the community and fulfill users’ broader needs on these systems.