Dear Rebecca, I recommend you to check CMDA approach (Computer-mediated discourse analysis). It's more sociolinguistic approach but could be helpful in other fields as well. Especially, I recommend you the following article, which present more qualitative but still rigorous approach to online sampling: Herring, S. C. (2004). Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis: An Approach to Researching Online Behavior Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. S. A. Barab, R. Kling and J. H. Gray. New York, Cambridge University Press: 338-376. The article is available here: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/cmda.pdf Best, Lukasz Lukasz Szulc PhD Candidate University of Antwerp Department of Communication Studies Media, Culture & Policy research group www.ua.ac.be/lukasz.szulc<http://www.ua.ac.be/lukasz.szulc>