Owens, Trevor. Designing online communities: How designers, developers, community managers, and software structure discourse and knowledge production on the web. George Mason University, 2014.

This dissertation delves into the intricate layers of software and protocols that mediate web discussions, emphasizing the role of site administrators, programmers, and designers in shaping online community interfaces and functionality. By analyzing decades of technical literature on community design, it uncovers a shift towards a logic of permission and control, challenging conventional notions of community and treating participants as "users" or commodities. The study suggests new approaches for researchers to analyze and understand online community dynamics.