Manipulation in communities

In order to effectively discuss what manipulation means within communi- ties, it is useful to identify key differences between communities. There are a wide variety of different types of online community, ranging from dis- cussion forums to image boards, through to online question-and-answer forums (discussed in Section 2.3.4). These different types of community each present their own variants on user interaction, social networking

6.2. UNDERSTANDING MANIPULATION

structures, and the manner of content that is favoured by the users. In addition to these forms of social media site, there exist a multiplicity of other forms not listed here; a detailed classification of types of social me- dia sites is beyond the scope of this research, though it is reasonable to state that variety abounds.

It is not the intended purpose of this thesis to identify and categorise types of social media site; rather, this thesis deals in social media sites as a whole, using Reddit as a case study. As has been previously discussed, Reddit serves as a particularly good case study for the discussion of social media sites, due to the fact that it serves as a platform for users to create theirowncommunities.

Consequently, Reddit is a social media site comprised of a large variety of different kinds of communities, each with its own unique characteris- tics. While Reddit is not a question-and-answer site on its own, it contains question-and-answer communities (such as /r/AskReddit); while Reddit us not an image board, it contains image boards (such as /r/pics). This means that Reddit may be used to discuss differences between different types of communities, while still ensuring that the communities under dis- cussion have a great deal in common with each other, due to the fact that they operate within the framework and behaviours of Reddit as a whole.

6.2.1.1 Types of communities

We may begin our discussion of the manipulation framework by dividing social media communities into two broad categories:

1. communities in which content is chiefly sourced from members of the community themselves; and

6.2. UNDERSTANDING MANIPULATION

This classification is reasonably straightforward, and we shall briefly consider it, before proceeding onwards with a discussion on to how it re- lates to manipulation. For brevity, the remainder of this chapter refers to the former type of community as“created-content communities”, and to the latter as“discovered-content communities”.

6.2.1.2 Created-content communities

Some examples ofcreated-content communities, in which content is chiefly sourced from members of the community itself, include:

• Discussion forums, in which users pose questions to the community

for discussion. Examples include:

– /r/AskReddit: Users pose general questions to the community at large, in the hopes of creating a discussion. Examples of typical questions posted to/r/AskRedditinclude “What makes you really angry?”, and“What is your best purchase of 2013?”.

– /r/IAmA: Users with interesting professions or other character- istics participate in an open interview with the community.

– /r/ExplainLikeImFive: Users post requests for simple explanations of topics, such as“Explain like I’m Five: What is the global financial crisis?”

• Discussion communities for games that allow players to create their

own content. Examples include:

– /r/KerbalSpaceProgram: Kerbal Space Program (Squad Inc. 2014) is game in which players construct space vehicles, and send them to orbit; members of this community post pictures of their constructions, and discuss design techniques.

6.2. UNDERSTANDING MANIPULATION

– /r/TheSims: The Sims (Electronic Arts Inc. 2014) is a series of games in which players build a house, and play with a sim- ulated family; users of this community post pictures of their houses and family, often detailing their simulated exploits and adventures.

• Creative arts communities, such as:

– /r/drawing: A community in which members share illustrations with one another, offering feedback and advice

– /r/woodworking: A community of woodworkers, in which mem- bers share photographs of their projects, as well as links to ex- ternal resources.

6.2.1.3 Discovered-content communities

Discovered-content communitiesare those whose content is primarily sourced from external locations. Examples of these to be found on Reddit include:

• /r/news: A news community, in which members share and discuss

news stories published on other sites.

• /r/GameOfThronesA community based around the television adapta- tion of the fantasy novel seriesA Song of Ice and Fire (Martin 1996), in which members discuss the plot of the show, share pictures and video clips, and post links to external resources.

• /r/videos, a community for posting links to interesting videos hosted

on external sites.

The examples given above are by no means intended to be a complete taxonomy of social media communities; such a taxonomy does not cur- rently exist in the literature, and is an opportunity for further research.

6.2. UNDERSTANDING MANIPULATION

Additionally, the argument is not being made that communities are exclusively created-content or discovered-content. While several commu- nities on Reddit have community guidelines which specifically exclude posts that directly link to other sites (such as /r/GameDev, a game devel- oper’s discussion forum1_{), these are rarer.}

Having established this distinction between communities on Reddit, it becomes possible to evaluate the types of manipulation identified over the course of this reserach in the same terms. Given that the purpose of using manipulation techniques is to improve the ranking of content submitted to a social media community, an evaluation of how manipulation techniques relate to the content focus of communities is now warranted.