When a participant turns up for a traditional focus group it may be the case that they have invested
time and money in travelling to the venue, and therefore once at the venue there would be a "cost"
to them if they then decided not to take part. With online qualitative research, however, there is
no such "cost", and therefore prospective participants are relatively likely to simply not participate
if they decide that they do not like the look of the online bulletin board, whether in terms of the
subject matter or workload.

On a similar theme, whilst it could be embarrassing for a participant to leave a traditional focus
group mid way through, there is no such hindrance with an online bulletin board, and therefore
the participant is more likely to constantly assess whether what they are being asked to do in the
bulletin board is worth the incentive they are being offered.

All of this adds up to the suggestion that it is worth over-recruiting, and that it is very important that
the bulletin board itself is welcoming and friendly, that the research is as engaging as possible, and
that the participants’ workload is reasonable. In terms of how much to over-recruit, our standard
guidance would be at least 30%, although in some cases it might need to be well above this.