Table 2 The analogy between epidemics and topic diffusion in the web forum
Elements of SIR model | Epidemics | Topic diffusion in web forums |
|---|---|---|
What flows | Disease | Idea/topic (keywords) |
Susceptible: S(t) | People who can have contact with an infective and possibly will become infected | Possible authors (including commenters) who might read posts on a topic |
Infective: I(t) | People who have a disease and possibly will infect others | Current authors who write posts on a topic |
Recovered: R(t) | People who recover from a disease and lose the power to infect others | Past authors whose posts lose influence toward others |
Infection rate: α | The probability of transmission in a contact between an infective and a susceptible | The probability of writing a comment or thread after reading posts on the topic |
Recovery rate: β | The probability that the infective becomes recovered | The probability that posts lose infectivity |
Recruitment rate: μ | The proportional increase rate of the population | The proportional increase rate of author pools |
Carrying capacity: K | The maximum population that the environment can support | The highest value of the total authors that a topic can recruit |