Compared to interpersonal social interaction in online communities, the dynamics between individuals and groups has received much less attention. This study seeks to address this gap by examining how ecological factors drive the dissolution of individual-group ties. Guided by the ecology theory, the logic of “jack of all trades”, which argues diversification lowers success, can be applied to understand how individuals access group resources and how group boundaries are collectively constructed. Moreover, interpersonal networks, including within-group and cross-group ties, also affect individual-group interaction. Within the research context of an online gaming community, this study examines the relational dynamics of 8631 persistently active players and their affiliated 2292 groups over thirty-two months. The results show that ecological factors including individual niche width, group category contrast, interpersonal networks, tie age and group age affect the individual-group tie decay hazard.

与在线社区中的人际社交互动相比，个人和群体之间的动态受到的关注要少得多。这项研究试图通过研究生态因素如何推动个体之间联系的瓦解来解决这一差距。在生态学理论的指导下，“千篇一律”的逻辑主张多元化会降低成功率，可以用来理解个人如何访问群体资源以及如何共同构建群体边界。此外，人际网络，包括组内和跨组的联系，也会影响个人间的互动。在一个在线游戏社区的研究背景下，这项研究检查了32个月以来8631名持续活跃的玩家及其所属2292组玩家之间的关系动态。