In the paper titled "Legends: Folklore on Reddit," authors Caitrin Armstrong and Derek Ruths introduce the concept of Reddit legends, which are venerated old posts that have gained fame within the Reddit community. The authors aim to explore the utility of Reddit legends in both computational science/HCI and folkloristics by addressing two main questions. Firstly, they investigate whether these posts can be considered folklore, examining factors such as their consistent form, cultural significance, and spontaneous transmission. Secondly, they explore whether Reddit legends can be studied in a systematic manner. To answer these questions, the authors undertake several subtasks. They create a typology to categorize different types of Reddit legends and analyze references to these legends within the platform. Additionally, they examine textual characteristics related to referencing behavior. Through their analysis, they demonstrate that Reddit legends do indeed meet the criteria for being considered folklore and can be effectively studied using text-based approaches. The findings of this research have significant implications for future analyses of folklore on Reddit. The authors discuss how their results enable tracking of subreddit-wide and individual-user behavior related to folklore. Furthermore, they highlight the potential for exploring the relationship between this behavior and other cultural markers present within the platform. Overall, this paper provides valuable insights into the phenomenon of Reddit legends as a form of digital folklore. It establishes a foundation for further research in computational science/HCI and folkloristics by demonstrating the systematic studyability of these online cultural artifacts.
Reddit legends are famous old posts on the website Reddit that people really like. Some scientists and researchers want to see if these posts can be considered as folklore, which is like traditional stories or legends that get passed down through generations. They also want to study these posts in a systematic way, meaning they want to analyze them using specific methods. The scientists created different categories for the types of Reddit legends and looked at how often people mention them on the website. They found that Reddit legends meet the criteria for being considered folklore and can be studied using text-based approaches. This research could help us understand more about folklore on Reddit and how it relates to other cultural things on the website."
Definitions
- Venerated: highly respected or admired
- Utility: usefulness or practicality
- Computational science/HCI: fields of study that involve using computers and technology to solve problems or understand human-computer interaction
- Folkloristics: the study of folklore, which includes traditional stories, legends, customs, etc.
- Typology: a system for categorizing or classifying things based on their characteristics
- Textual characteristics: features or qualities related to written language
- Criteria: standards or requirements used to judge something
- Systematic: done in a planned and organized way
- Digital folklore: folklore that exists online
Exploring Reddit Legends as a Form of Digital Folklore
In recent years, the internet has become an increasingly important platform for the transmission and preservation of folklore. In their paper titled “Legends: Folklore on Reddit”, authors Caitrin Armstrong and Derek Ruths explore the concept of Reddit legends – venerated old posts that have gained fame within the Reddit community – in terms of both computational science/HCI and folkloristics. Through their analysis, they demonstrate that these posts meet the criteria for being considered folklore and can be effectively studied using text-based approaches. The findings of this research have significant implications for future analyses of digital folklore on Reddit.
What are Reddit Legends?
Reddit is an online discussion platform where users can post content to various subreddits (i.e., topic-specific forums). Over time, some posts gain notoriety within certain subreddits due to their popularity or relevance to a particular topic. These highly regarded posts are referred to as “legends” by members of the community, who often refer back to them when discussing similar topics in other threads or subreddits. As such, these legends become embedded in the culture of specific communities on Reddit and serve as a form of digital folklore.
The Research Questions
Armstrong and Ruths set out to answer two main questions regarding this phenomenon: Firstly, do these posts meet the criteria for being considered folklore? Secondly, can they be studied in a systematic manner? To answer these questions, they undertake several subtasks including creating a typology to categorize different types of legends; analyzing references made to them within each subreddit; and examining textual characteristics related to referencing behavior.
Analysis & Findings
Through their analysis, Armstrong and Ruths demonstrate that these posts indeed meet all three criteria necessary for being considered folklore: consistent form (i.e., stories with recurring characters or themes); cultural significance (i.e., importance attached by members of the community); spontaneous transmission (i.e., spread without conscious effort). Furthermore, they show that it is possible to study this phenomenon systematically using text-based approaches such as natural language processing techniques or sentiment analysis tools. This enables tracking not only at subreddit level but also at individual user level which could provide valuable insights into how people interact with digital folklore on social media platforms like Reddit .
Implications & Future Directions
The findings from this research have significant implications for future studies exploring digital folklore on social media platforms like Reddit . By demonstrating that it is possible to study this phenomenon systematically using text-based methods , researchers will now be able to track both subreddit - wide behavior related to legend use as well as individual user behavior . Additionally , further exploration could uncover potential relationships between legend use and other cultural markers present within each subreddit . All in all , this paper provides valuable insights into how we can better understand digital forms of traditional storytelling through computational science/HCI research .
In this paper we introduce Reddit legends, a collection of venerated old posts that have become famous on Reddit. To establish the utility of Reddit legends for both computational science/HCI and folkloristics, we investigate two main questions: (1) whether they can be considered folklore, i.e. if they have consistent form, cultural significance, and undergo spontaneous transmission, and (2) whether they can be studied in a systematic manner. Through several subtasks, including the creation of a typology, an analysis of references to Reddit legends, and an examination of some of the textual characteristics of referencing behaviour, we show that Reddit legends can indeed be considered as folklore and that they are amendable to systematic text-based approaches. We discuss how these results will enable future analyses of folklore on Reddit, including tracking subreddit-wide and individual-user behaviour, and the relationship of this behaviour to other cultural markers.
