Threading and conversation in co-located chats

• We observe that co-located chats can support conversations.
• In these cases, 65% of messages were part of a thread, i.e. focused on a topic.
• We identify patterns of interaction in chats, and conclude those are conversations.
• Messages are followed more by a similar type of responses, showing state robustness.
• Moderation of the messages should take into account these patterns.

Events create a new kind of setting for the computer-mediated chat, characterized by physically co-located participants. We set out to investigate the features of chat messages in this particular kind of environment, assessing the amount of threading, defined in terms of message content contributing to one topic, and conversation, based on patterns in informational and emotional functions of subsequent messages. We observe that our cases are characterized with a high level of threading, even while the application did not technically support it. Furthermore, we observe patterns that demonstrate these threads were conversations, based on the types of responses in each thread. Based on our findings, we propose that technical tools for public event-based chats can support conversations and suggest that better tools for this should be developed.