Structural phase transition in a growing network model with tunable member intimacy

Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University - Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea

^(a) beomjun@skku.edu

Received: 1 February 2017
Accepted: 6 July 2017

Abstract

Users of online communities become more intimate in time by writing posts and exchanging comments to each other. Although a certain level of intimacy among a group of members can be beneficial for the activity of the whole community, too strong intimacy among existing members can make newcomers feel alienated, driving them to leave the community. In this letter, we introduce a growing network model in which we systematically study the effect of member intimacy on the formation of connected component of the network. We introduce a parameter called clinginess and control how the member intimacy affects the communication activity. We observe that cumulative number of users who leave the community exhibits a transition-like behavior, similarly to the discontinuous transition in statistical mechanics models. Implication of our result in constructing a sustainable online community is also discussed.