Corrective or critical? Commenting on bad questions in Q&A

Abstract

What kind of comments do Q&A community members prefer on bad questions? We studied this question on Stack Overflow, a large-scale community-run question-answer site with strong reputation and privilege systems and clear guidelines on commenting. Peer-production systems often employ feedback dialogue to engage with producers of low quality content. However, dialogue is only beneficial if it is constructive, as previous work has shown the adverse effects of negative feedback on quality and production. Previous studies indicate that feedback is likely critical, but the extent, orientation, and actors within this assumption are unknown. In this paper, we contribute a basic taxonomy of commenting and perform analysis on user types and community preferences. Results indicate that the most popular and frequent comments include criticism, and that different user types leave similar feedback. A better understanding of community feedback norms can inform the design of effective rules and incentives for peer-production systems.