The role of external stimuli and peer feedback in user-generated content production: Evidence from fanfiction

This paper stu­dies the deter­mi­nants of the volun­ta­ry pro­vi­sion of user-gene­ra­ted (onli­ne) con­tent. Using data from the lar­gest fan­fic­tion websi­te, we find that wri­ters respond dif­fe­ren­tly to the new ori­gi­nal mate­rial: con­di­tio­nal on text length, wri­ting times incre­ase for the ave­ra­ge wri­ter and even more for the eli­te of pro­li­fic wri­ters. We expla­in this fin­ding with quali­ty con­cerns. In addi­tion, we find sup­por­ti­ve evi­den­ce that com­mu­ni­ty feed­back enco­ura­ges first-time con­tri­bu­tors to con­ti­nue publi­shing. For more esta­bli­shed wri­ters, we find that com­mu­ni­ty feed­back has a rather dam­pe­ning effect on text leng­ths and wri­ting times. Ove­rall, the­se effects are more pro­no­un­ced for high-quali­ty com­mu­ni­ty feed­back («reviews») com­pa­red to low-quali­ty com­mu­ni­ty feed­back («fol­lo­wing», «favo­ri­ting»).