Formulating the dynamics of an online community and identifying the influential members using the animal flocking model

作者：

Highlights：

• The concept of animal flock movement is used to formulate the community’s dynamics.

• We propose a ratio-based method to describe the movement trajectory of a community.

• We propose a novel influencer identification procedure, RemovalTest.

• The identified influencers have concrete impact on changes of discussion direction.

摘要

•The concept of animal flock movement is used to formulate the community’s dynamics.•We propose a ratio-based method to describe the movement trajectory of a community.•We propose a novel influencer identification procedure, RemovalTest.•The identified influencers have concrete impact on changes of discussion direction.

论文关键词：Animal flocking model,Influential members,Community dynamics,Community management,Online communities

论文评审过程：Received 24 January 2020, Revised 24 July 2021, Accepted 2 August 2021, Available online 4 August 2021, Version of Record 14 August 2021.

论文官网地址：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2021.101085