Effective Voice: Beyond Exit and Affect in Online Communities

09/25/2020

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by   Seth Frey, et al.

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This paper sets out to identify a set of strategies and techniques through which the voices of participants in online communities might be better heard through defined institutional mechanisms. Drawing on Albert O. Hirschman's distinction between "exit" and "voice" in institutional life, it introduces a further distinction between two kinds of participation in self-governance: effective voice, as opposed to affective voice. Effective voice is comparatively rare on Internet platforms: a form of individual or collective speech that brings about a binding effect according to transparent processes. Platform developers and researchers might explore this neglected form of voice by introducing mechanisms for authority and accountability, collective action, and community evolution.