Structural differences between open and direct communication in an online community

Most research of online communication focuses on modes of communication that are either open (like forums, bulletin boards, Twitter, etc.) or direct (like e-mails). In this work, we study a dataset that has both types of communication channels. We relate our findings to theories of social organization and human dynamics. The data comprises 36,492 users of a movie discussion community. Our results show that there are differences in the way users communicate in the two channels that are reflected in the shape of degree- and interevent time distributions. The open communication that is designed to facilitate conversations with any member shows a broader degree distribution and more of the triangles in the network are primarily formed in this mode of communication. The direct channel is presumably preferred by closer communication and the response time in dialogs is shorter. On a more coarse-grained level, there are common patterns in the two networks. The differences and overlaps between communication networks, thus, provide a unique window into how social and structural aspects of communication establish and evolve. •We compare two communication channels in an online community—open and direct.•The open communication shows broader degree distributions.•The direct communication shows faster response times.•Open communication seems more important for the community as a social platform.