Who Drives Entrepreneurial Online Communities? Understanding Central Member Dynamics in Anonymous Networks

This study examines social connectivity and member influence in anonymous entrepreneurial Reddit communities through social network analysis. We model a network of 25,781 members and 26,149 commenting relationships (2022-2024), analyzing structural properties through path length and clustering coefficients. We investigate how commenting behavior (comment frequency, content quality, and relevance) impacts network centrality using multiple measures (in-degree, out-degree, betweenness, closeness, eigenvector). Our findings provide insights for platform designers, community members, and organizations seeking to leverage network data effectively. The research extends network theory by revealing how influential members build social connectivity on anonymous platforms.