Evaluating community question-answering websites using interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy DANP and TODIM methods

Abstract

As important knowledge-sharing platforms, community question-answering (CQA) websites have attracted the attention of many users. An evaluation of the quality of CQA websites can assist users in selecting high-quality CQA websites and can help the operators of CQA websites achieve the most beneficial improvements. An approach to the evaluation of CQA websites is proposed in this study. First, a CQA service quality model is constructed to evaluate the quality of CQA websites based on the E-SERVQUAL model. A novel multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) model is proposed to address the ratings. In the model, uncertainty and consistency are combined in an interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) environment to determine two kinds of expert weights. The DANP method, along with experts’ weights, is extended to the IVIF environment to derive the criteria weights. The IVIF TODIM method, along with experts’ weights, is used to rank the CQA websites in terms of quality. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to evaluate the quality of five CQA websites. The experimental results of the application, along with sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis, demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of the proposed approach.