All posts by Amanda Cullen

Publication! Practicing moderation: Community moderation as reflective practice

Amazon Science has released a pre-print of the forthcoming publication I wrote with my Twitch mentor, Sanjay Kairam, about the research project I led during my Twitch internship. Part of this research on Twitch moderators has resulted in new tools on Twitch like Suspicious User Detection. Check out the abstract below and access the paper here —> https://www.amazon.science/publications/practicing-moderation-community-moderation-as-reflective-practice

Abstract:

Many types of online communities rely on volunteer moderators to manage the community and maintain behavioral standards. While prior work has shown that community moderators often develop a deep understanding of the goals of their moderation context and sophisticated processes for managing disruptions, less is known about the processes through which moderators develop this knowledge. In this paper, we leverage Donald Schön’s concept of reflective practice as a lens for exploring how community moderators develop the ‘knowledge-in-action’ that they use to perform their work. Drawing on interviews with 18 Twitch moderators, we conceptualize moderators as reflective practitioners, iteratively encountering novel situations and adjusting their practices and mental models. Our findings provide detailed insight into how community moderators reflect-in-action, re-evaluating in real-time their mental models of viewer intent and community goals, and reflect-on-action, conducting post hoc assessments of individual incidents and long-term changes to adjust their practice over time. Moderators working in teams reveal specific aspects of reflection facilitated by cooperative discussion, which we call ‘groupwise reflective practice’. By identifying community moderation as a form of reflective practice, we can leverage insights gained from studying practitioners in other fields, providing theoretical and practical implications for the study and support of community moderation.

Amazon Science profile about my Twitch internship

Amazon Science recently wrote a piece profiling me and the research that I did as a Twitch intern during Summer 2020. In collaboration with Twitch data scientist Sanjay Kairam, we launched a project to survey and assess the needs and experiences of Twitch moderators. Below is an excerpt from the article, as well as a link to the full piece.

“Cullen started with the basics: how moderators came to the role, and how streamers would find them (every Twitch channel has the opportunity to select its own moderators). Then she got into how they worked with the channel creators, how they helped develop norms and standards for behavior within their channels, and how they actively worked to guide the community around those ideas.

Cullen was also interested in what tools moderators wanted or needed, and how they responded to both positive and negative behavior within their channels.

“That led us to think about new resources that could be created to help moderators think about their roles and feel a greater sense of community — not just within their channel, but throughout Twitch as a whole,” says Cullen.

Cullen’s findings were put to direct use at Twitch: “Amanda’s work shed a lot of really detailed light on moderator needs, which has propelled us to build better tools for our moderators,” Kairam said.

This support potentially had some very positive knock-on effects for moderators.

“A lot of what Amanda’s work helped to unpack was that moderators are playing different roles within a channel. It really got the team thinking about how we could fine tune the experience for different types of roles that moderators play — so that they can work more effectively in each of those roles,” Kairam said.”

How one intern’s research had real-world impact for Twitch moderators.

#gamesUR 2021 Summit

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The IGDA Games User Research Summit is moving to the virtual world! I have stayed on as a Logistics Assistant from the cancelled 2020 summit. Please join me, the rest of the planning committee, and games user researchers from throughout the industry on May 20th and 21st to discuss games user research and user experience, including but not limited to topics in user testing, game analytics, and user experience (UX) design and processes. There will also be opportunities for networking, mentoring, and playing games!

While the virtual event makes it possible for more people to get involved, capacity is still limited so get your FREE ticket ASAP: #gamesUR 2021 tickets

And if you’re interested in learning more about the planning committee, please visit the main conference website: Games UR Summit 2021 Committee

Million Stem Profile

I’ve been profiled by Million Stem. The mission of Million Stem is to celebrate the experiences of women in STEM by profiling one million women who do work or research in STEM fields to increase accessibility, celebrate diversity, and show girls in future generations that their aspirations are achievable.

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I spoke about my research of gender in games and live streaming technologies. Check out my profile here: https://www.1mwis.com/profiles/Amanda-Cullen

Women Techmakers Scholar

I’ve been selected as a Women Techmakers Scholar in Gaming by Google and Stadia.

This recognition and support for my work is humbling and I’m very grateful to be connected with an amazing global network of other women in tech industries.  With funding provided by this scholarship I can pay streamers and viewers for participating in my dissertation project and purchases services that will make things like interview transcription easier. And in the future when we all can travel again, hopefully I can travel to a few conferences and present my work to a broad audience.

Thank you Google and Stadia.

For more information the mission of the Women Techmakers Program, please visit their website!

Women Techmakers International Women's Day Goa: Call for Speakers ...

ARCS Foundation Scholar

I have been selected as an ARCS Foundation Scholar for the 2019-2020 academic year!

The ARCS Foundation is a nonprofit run entirely by women that seeks to boost American leadership and aid advancement in science and technology. As part of their mission, ARCS awards funding to graduate and undergradute students who are creating new knowledge and innovative technologies. Find out more about ARCS here: ARCS Foundation

I was interviewed about receiving this fellowship by my university, available here: Informatics PhD Candidate Amanda Cullen Selected as ARCS Scholar

I am very pleased and honored to have won this recognition for my work.

Article: Inclusive Streaming Initiative

The UCI Donald Bren School of INformation and Computer Sciences media team has put together a post-event write-up on the ISI symposium, with quotes from my advisor Dr. Bonnie Ruberg and myself on the success and impact of the event.

Check it out here: Inclusive Streaming Workshop Builds Community to Advance Research

The panel discussion at the Inclusive Streaming Workshop: (from left) Amanda Cullen, Mia Consalvo, Samantha Blackmon, Alexandra Orlando and T.L. Taylor.
The panel discussion at the Inclusive Streaming Workshop: (from left) Amanda Cullen, Mia Consalvo, Samantha Blackmon, Alexandra Orlando and T.L. Taylor.

Video: Inclusive Streaming Initiative Panel

The video from the Inclusive Streaming Initiative Panel on video game live streaming is now available at the UCI Donald Bren School YouTube page. The panelists were amazing and being the panel moderator was an incredible opportunity for me. We discussed several meaningful topics in live streaming such as the experiences of players at the margins of game culture, aspirational culture, labor precarity, and possibilities for creativity and change that exist in streaming. Check it out at the link below!