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distribution is still unknown and likely to shift, but various researchers and pundits have speculated on how to characterize the sum total of participation. Research in late 2012 suggested that only 23% of the population (rather than 90 percent) could properly be classified as lurkers, while 17% of the population could be classified as intense contributors of content. Several years prior, results were reported on a sample of students from
Chicago where 60 percent of the sample created content in some form.
138:
example, if a forum requires content submissions as a condition of entry, the percentage of people who participate will probably be significantly higher than one percent, but the content producers will still be a minority of users. This is validated in a study conducted by
Michael Wu, who uses economics techniques to analyze the participation inequality across hundreds of communities segmented by industry, audience type, and community focus.
27:
93:
According to the 1% rule, about 1% of
Internet users create content, while 99% are just consumers of that content. For example, for every person who posts on a forum, generally about 99 other people view that forum but do not post. The term was coined by authors and bloggers Ben McConnell and Jackie
141:
The 1% rule is often misunderstood to apply to the
Internet in general, but it applies more specifically to any given Internet community. It is for this reason that one can see evidence for the 1% principle on many websites, but aggregated together one can see a different distribution. This latter
125:
A 2014 peer-reviewed paper entitled "The 1% Rule in Four
Digital Health Social Networks: An Observational Study" empirically examined the 1% rule in health-oriented online forums. The paper concluded that the 1% rule was consistent across the four support groups, with a handful of "Superusers"
137:
The "90–9–1" version of this rule states that for websites where users can both create and edit content, 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing. However, the actual percentage is likely to vary depending upon the subject. For
126:
generating the vast majority of content. A study later that year, from a separate group of researchers, replicated the 2014 van Mierlo study in an online forum for depression. Results indicated that the distribution frequency of the 1% rule fit followed
117:
Internet forums found 87% of users had never posted on the forums, 13% had posted at least once, 5% had posted 50 or more times, and only 1% had posted 500 or more times. A 2013 study found that 91% of
168:" in an online context. The term regained public attention in 2006 when it was used in a strictly quantitative context within a blog entry on the topic of marketing.
337:
666:
728:
74:, 90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content.
254:
450:"Describing the distribution of engagement in an Internet support group by post frequency: A comparison of the 90–9–1 Principle and Zipf's Law"
587:
648:
161:
713:
571:
492:
723:
107:, in reference to online activity, are used to refer to online observation without engaging others in the Internet community.
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54:, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only
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20:
738:
654:
612:
232:
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states that 20 percent of a group will produce 80 percent of the activity, regardless of how the activity is defined.
187:
708:
698:
531:
Hargittai, E; Walejko, G. (2008). "The
Participation Divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age".
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151:
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were undiscovered on social media, 8.2% were developing or mid-sized, and 1.1% were mainstream or mega-sized.
718:
284:
212:
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Hill, William C.; Hollan, James D.; Wroblewski, Dave; McCandless, Tim (1992). "Edit wear and read wear".
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Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '92
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659:
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The 90-9-1 Rule for
Participation Inequality in Social Media and Online Communities
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379:
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Hypothesis that more people will lurk in a virtual community than will participate
466:
449:
682:
493:"The Economics of 90–9–1: The Gini Coefficient (with Cross Sectional Analyses)"
544:
356:
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Huba, although earlier references to the same concept did not use this name.
399:"The 1% Rule in Four Digital Health Social Networks: An Observational Study"
197:
131:
111:
620:
434:
579:
26:
338:"Virtual Jihadist media: Function, legitimacy, and radicalising efficacy"
119:
114:
476:
415:
99:
55:
31:
398:
25:
71:
613:"Community is Dead; Long Live Mega-Collaboration (Alertbox)"
518:"BBC Online Briefing Spring 2012: The Participation Choice"
70:), which states that in a collaborative website such as a
448:
Carron-Arthur, B; Cunningham, JA; Griffiths, KM (2014).
380:"91 Percent of All Artists Are Completely Undiscovered"
34:, contributors and creators under the 90–9–1 principle
164:; this was the earliest known reference to the term "
156:A similar concept was introduced by Will Hill of
313:"What is Lurking? – Definition from Techopedia"
255:"The 1% Rule: Charting citizen participation"
8:
253:McConnell, Ben; Huba, Jackie (May 3, 2006).
81:; for instance, the 80/20 rule known as the
475:
465:
424:
414:
248:
246:
533:Information, Communication & Society
285:"Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers"
283:Horowitz, Bradley (February 16, 2006).
223:
685:, July 2005, Video at 06:00 and 12:42
7:
403:Journal of Medical Internet Research
345:European Journal of Cultural Studies
30:Pie chart showing the proportion of
19:For the aviation medicine rule, see
729:Tails of probability distributions
50:pertaining to participation in an
14:
231:Arthur, Charles (20 July 2006).
679:Institutions vs. Collaboration
611:Nielsen, Jakob (15 Aug 1997).
130:, which is a specific type of
1:
491:Wu, Michael (April 1, 2010).
378:Ulloa, Nina (June 19, 2024).
467:10.1016/j.invent.2014.09.003
499:. Lithium Technologies, Inc
259:Church of the Customer Blog
77:Similar rules are known in
21:1% rule (aviation medicine)
755:
714:Internet forum terminology
188:List of Internet phenomena
149:
18:
545:10.1080/13691180801946150
357:10.1177/1367549407079713
166:participation inequality
152:Participation inequality
146:Participation inequality
397:van Mierlo, T. (2014).
58:. Variants include the
724:Statistical principles
454:Internet Interventions
233:"What is the 1% rule?"
213:User-generated content
35:
734:Technology neologisms
657:by Charles Arthur in
580:10.1145/142750.142751
497:Lithosphere Community
158:AT&T Laboratories
89:Definition and review
29:
669:by Heather Green in
655:What is the 1% rule?
336:Awan, A. N. (2007).
160:and later cited by
79:information science
739:Web 2.0 neologisms
651:, October 8, 2006.
384:Digital Music News
52:Internet community
36:
589:978-0-89791-513-7
416:10.2196/jmir.2966
746:
709:Internet culture
699:1990s neologisms
663:, July 20, 2006.
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619:. Archived from
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574:. pp. 3–9.
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261:. Archived from
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183:Internet culture
110:A 2007 study of
83:Pareto principle
64:90–9–1 principle
40:Internet culture
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203:Silent majority
178:Digital citizen
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719:Rules of thumb
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675:, May 10, 2006
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639:External links
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623:on 28 Jan 1998
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539:(2): 389–408.
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460:(4): 165–168.
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351:(3): 389–408.
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317:Techopedia.com
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265:on 11 May 2010
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208:Sturgeon's law
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68:89:10:1 ratio
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48:rule of thumb
46:is a general
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672:BusinessWeek
670:
660:The Guardian
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625:. Retrieved
621:the original
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683:Clay Shirky
667:The 1% Rule
193:Lotka's law
62:(sometimes
60:1–9–90 rule
693:Categories
503:2010-07-10
477:1885/22422
409:(2): e33.
322:2019-11-05
298:2010-07-10
269:2010-07-10
219:References
128:Zipf's Law
97:The terms
617:useit.com
365:140454270
198:Netocracy
132:power law
598:15416019
435:24496109
289:Elatable
172:See also
115:jihadist
553:4650775
426:3939180
293:Blogger
112:radical
105:lurking
66:or the
44:1% rule
32:lurkers
704:Adages
627:9 June
596:
586:
551:
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423:
363:
42:, the
594:S2CID
549:S2CID
361:S2CID
341:(PDF)
629:2022
584:ISBN
431:PMID
103:and
100:lurk
72:wiki
56:lurk
681:by
647:by
576:doi
572:ACM
541:doi
472:hdl
462:doi
421:PMC
411:doi
353:doi
38:In
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