Please help!: patterns of personalization in an online tech support board

Abstract

We analyze help-seeking strategies in two large tech support boards and observe a number of previously unreported differences between tech support boards and other types of online communities. Tech support boards are organized around technical topics and consumer products, yet the types of help people seek online are often grounded in deeply personal experiences. Family, holidays, school, and other personal contexts influence the types of help people seek online. We examine the nature of these personal contexts and offer ways of inferring need-based communities in tech support boards in order to better support users seeking technical help online.