Allison, Kimberley, and Kay Bussey. "Communal quirks and circlejerks: A taxonomy of processes contributing to insularity in online communities." Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. Vol. 14. 2020.

This paper explores the phenomenon of insularity in online communities, where environments become homogenous and resistant to outside perspectives. Through a combination of longitudinal interviews and literature review, the study identifies sixteen processes contributing to community insularity, organized into four stages: formation, propagation, reaction, and perpetuation. These stages include selective connections, network homophily, shared interests, audience segmentation, community standards enforcement, content tailoring, avoidance behaviors, mocking deviance, echo chambers, and gatekeeping, among others. The findings underscore the complexities behind online communities' tendency towards insularity and the significant role platform features play in either mitigating or exacerbating this process.