Liquefaction of sociality: Exploring ambient affiliation in danmu comments

Danmu is a time-anchored commenting system where comments are anonymous and displayed on screen as videos unfold. Unlike conventional comment sections, danmu organises participation through playback-time alignment, scrolling visibility, and weak addressivity, making it a distinct online communicative context where interaction takes a highly fluid form. Drawing on the framework of ambient affiliation, this study traces the dynamic enactment, clustering, and negotiation of bonds over time in a sample of 9555 danmu comments collected from a food vlog on Bilibili, with the aim of exploring the interactional formation of communities in danmu. In the case analysed, six recurrent bonds are identified across three targets—i.e., vlogger(s), food, and vlog characters. As the vlog unfolds, these bonds cluster as transient peaks or sustained low-intensity currents. When plurality arises, bonds are negotiated either by rejecting alternatives and sharpening oppositional stances, or by sustaining multiple orientations without polarisation. The findings are interpreted in the context of liquefied sociality with respect to a bond-centred mechanism of community building shaped by danmu 's particular affordances: fragmented and condensed evaluations become recognisable as bonds and then cluster and undergo negotiation in the comment flow.