Modeling opinion interactions in a BBS community

Abstract

This paper is devoted to apply agent based models to real opinion interactions in a bulletin board system (BBS) community. By analyzing a real BBS community, we reveal some empirical features of opinion interactions on the Web. Then, we propose a simple opinion model that bears both general characteristics of traditional opinion models, and some real interacting rules on the Web. The model simulates a group of agents representing Web users participating to a discussion. Simulation results show some dynamical regimes consistent with empirical facts, and offer some possible explanations for the emergence of some real features. Our work implies the possibility of building simple agent based models to simulate computer-mediated interactions on the Web.