Will Too Many Editors Spoil The Tag? Conflicts and Alignment in Q&A Categorization

Q&A websites compile useful knowledge through user-generated questions and responses. Many Q&As use collaborative tagging systems to improve search and discovery while distributing the work of categorizing and organization throughout the community. Although early work on collaborative tagging questioned whether consistent categorization schemes could emerge from large groups with little to no coordination, empirical studies have found surprising coherence among users’ tags. We build on this research by testing whether coherence emerges in tag usage on Q&As, a more challenging context, focusing in particular on mismatches in the specificity of tags (basic level disagreement). We found that some users shifted toward more specific tag usage over time slightly increasing conflict, but that moderators were instrumental in helping to resolve some of this conflict. This study highlights the importance of learning and moderation in the development of coherence in collaborative tagging systems.