A Tale of Two Virtual Communities: A comparative analysis of culture and discourse in two online programming communities

Software programming is increasingly becoming a collaborative and community driven effort, with online discussions becoming vital resources for learning and knowledge sharing. This study explores the differences in the discourse patterns of two popular online programming communities and provides insights into the type of community practices and learning outcomes these collectives support and scaffold. A three step content analysis framework is presented that employs a mixture of automated text processing techniques and qualitative methods on a representative sample of 8639 and 6126 contributions from Stack Overflow and r/Askprogramming respectively. Results indicate differences between communities in the scope of topics and the nature of responses provided. While r/Askprogramming has a more community centric, interpersonal approach and provides a space for sharing and supporting needs beyond knowledge sharing and factual learning, Stack Overflow takes a more task focused, knowledge centric approach. These findings suggest key normative structures that regulate patterns of collaboration and deliberation, which may have long term design implications for structuring and sustaining informal learning initiatives that nurture and promote technical skill development and enhancement