Social media sites, or online communities, depend on user
participation and contribution in order to be viable. Users
contribute comments, articles, pictures and more to flesh out the
architectures these sites provide. Some users take on leadership
roles in user-generated content communities, becoming mentors and
administrators of the sites. There's a debate about whether these
contributors are socialized in some way to become valuable
participants in the site, or whether they come to the sites already
primed for the role they will eventually take. Using data from
Everything2.com, a user generated encyclopedia started by the same
team that started Slashdot, we'll discuss this debate, and show how
motivation and external events can shape this lifecycle of users in
these sites.
