AI 中文总结
本研究利用Reddit子版块规则数据，识别七种治理制度，发现官僚化通过棘轮效应和队列转变扩散，社区规模是主要预测因素，扩散经版主网络和主题相似性渠道，但模仿具有选择性，最终导致不可逆的形式化。
AI 中文摘要
随着在线平台的规模化，分布式社区必须发展复杂的治理结构以维持秩序。Reddit代表了这一过程中的独特实验：数百万个子版块管理着自己的数字公共资源，然而它们共同构成了一个相互关联的平台治理生态系统。利用2011年至2023年的子版块规则历史数据集，我们应用计算方法来刻画该生态系统并识别驱动变化的机制。我们识别出七种不同的治理制度，并记录了平台范围内向不可逆官僚化的漂移，这种漂移通过两种相互强化的动力运作：现有社区中的棘轮效应和队列转变，即新社区越来越多地以预包装的监管框架启动。使用二元事件史分析，我们发现社区规模是规则采纳的主导性和普遍性预测因素，且独立于网络暴露。扩散通过两个互补渠道流动：通过共享版主网络的规范性传播和主题相似社区之间的模仿性传播。然而，模仿性复制是有选择性的：它驱动了解决共享主题挑战的内容规则的采纳，而社区则抵制复制操作性和行为性规则。此外，具有重叠用户基础的社区趋于分化而非趋同，这与生态学中的生态位竞争解释一致，并且基于声望的传染被坚决拒绝。总之，这些发现揭示了去中心化的平台治理作为一个分层生态系统，其中横向协调、规模压力、结构惯性、队列效应和偶发性平台强制共同产生了不可逆的形式化，这对平台管理具有直接影响。
英文摘要
As online platforms scale, distributed communities must develop complex governance structures to maintain order. Reddit represents a unique experiment in this process: millions of subreddits manage their own digital commons, yet together they form an interconnected ecosystem of platform governance. Using a historical dataset of subreddit rules from 2011 to 2023, we apply computational methods to characterize that ecosystem and identify mechanisms driving change. We identify seven distinct governance regimes and document a platform-wide drift toward irreversible bureaucratization operating through two reinforcing dynamics: a ratchet effect among existing communities and a cohort shift in which new communities increasingly launch with pre-packaged regulatory frameworks. Using Dyadic Event History Analysis, we find that community scale is the dominant and universal predictor of rule adoption, independent of network exposure. Diffusion flows through two complementary channels: normative transmission via shared moderator networks and mimetic transmission among topically similar communities. However, mimetic copying is selective: it drives adoption of content rules addressing shared topical challenges while communities resist copying operational and behavioral rules. Additionally, communities with overlapping user bases differentiate rather than converge, consistent with ecological accounts of niche competition, and prestige-based contagion is firmly rejected. Together, these findings reveal decentralized platform governance as a stratified ecosystem in which lateral coordination, scale pressure, structural inertia, cohort effects, and episodic platform coercion jointly produce irreversible formalization with direct implications for platform management.
