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.