The document summarizes a study that explored the motivations for using the social news site Reddit.com. The researchers developed a framework of 26 motivational factors organized into 4 top-level categories: personal, social, informational, and website characteristics. They conducted a survey of Reddit users to validate the framework. The results showed the top motivating factors were related to entertainment, curiosity, and passing time. Comments from users indicated they use Reddit for fun, procrastination, and the positive feelings it provides. The framework was largely validated by the empirical survey results.

1. How ‘Social’ are Social News Sites?
Exploring the Motivations for Using Reddit.com
Toine Bogers1,2 & Rasmus Nordenhoff Wernersen3
1 Aalborg
University Copenhagen
2
Royal School of Library & Information Science, University of Copenhagen
3
The Administrative Library, Copenhagen
iConference 2014, Berlin
March 6, 2014

2. Bibliotek.dk
Social news site, where people submit, discuss, and vote for stories

3. Bibliotek.dk
Active discussions on nearly any topic imaginable news site
Social

4. Bibliotek.dk
Subreddits are communities focused on a specific topic

5. Bibliotek.dk
Requesting favors from other redditors (= Reddit users)

6. Bibliotek.dk
Celebrities & politicians answer questions on Ask Me Anything

7. Bibliotek.dk
Explaining complex issues like one would to a five-year-old

8. Outline
• Introduction
• Related work
• Methodology
- Framework of motivational factors
- Survey creation & deployment
• Results
• Discussion & conclusions
8

9. Introduction
• Social news sites allow users to submit, discuss, and vote on
news stories and websites
- Popular alternative to online newspapers →
was 68th most
popular website in the world in January 2014 according to Alexa
• But what motivates users to participate on social news sites?
- Is it the power to help determine which stories make it to the front page?
- Or the possibility to contribute news stories?
- Or perhaps the social aspect of connecting and discussing with like-minded
users?
9

10. Contributions of this work
1. Comprehensive literature review of motivations for online user
participation
2. Organization of motivational factors into coherent framework
3. Empirical validation of framework through survey deployed on
Reddit.com
10

11. Related work
• Motivations for participating on social news sites
- Lerman (2007) and Halavais (2009) analyzed posting dynamics on Digg.com
- Found that positive feedback and recognition was important for continued
participation; weak ties were more valuable for this than friendship relations
• Other relevant fields of study
- Social media (e.g., social networks like Facebook)
- Online communities (e.g., mailing lists)
- Online collaboration (e.g., Wikipedia)
- Social psychology & sociology (e.g., Milgram)
- Behavioral economics (e.g., Maslow)
11

12. Motivational framework
• We constructed our motivation framework as follows
- Collected a set of 55 snippets and quotes from the reviewed literature
- Paired card-sorting to group snippets into 26 motivational factors
- Further grouping identified seven mid-level categories
- Final grouping produced four top-level categories
‣ Personal (P)
‣ Social (S)
‣ Informational (I)
‣ Website characteristics (W)
12

13. Motivational framework
Social
Personal
Website
characteristics
Informational
Self-promotion
& reputation
Recreation
Friendship
Community
Consumption
Exchange
Self-promotion
Curiosity
Social filtering
Trust
Information
consumption
Information
quantity
P.1
Social exchange
P.2
Reputation
P.6
Entertainment
P.7
Procrastination
P.3
Status
P.4
P.8
S.1
Presence of
friends
Following
friends
Making new
friends
S.5
Socializing
S.2
S.6
Group identity
S.3
S.7
Group size
S.4
Information
quality
I.1
Functionality
I.4
Debating
I.2
Shopping
I.3
W.1
Chatting
I.5
Information
sharing
W.2
Credibility
I.6
W.3
Usability
S.8
W.4
Personal growth
P.5
13

14. Survey development
• Empirical validation of motivation framework through a survey
• Survey consisted of six parts
- Activity level
‣ Reddit user profile, active voting/commenting/posting behavior?
- Four parts, corresponding to each of the four top-level categories
‣ Questions corresponding to each of the 26 factors
‣ Open comment fields were included after each of these five parts
- Demographics
‣ Gender, age, country of origin
14

15. Survey deployment
• Survey deployed on Reddit.com
- Most popular social news site → 3.4 billion page views in August 2012
• Request for survey participation posted to relevant subreddits
- Very active removal of off-topic posts from subreddits
- Posted to five subreddits with ~120,000 subscribers
‣ Assistance, Favors, SampleSize, Self, and SocialMedia
- 282 responses in a two-week period
‣ 97% of respondents answered within 5 days
15

16. Results: Demographics
Country of origin!
Australia!
2%!
UK!
6%!
Other!
15%!
Canada!
12%!
US!
65%!
> 45 yrs!
3%!
yrs
35-44 yrs!
6%
6%!
25-34 yrs!
32%!
Age!
< 24 yrs!
59%!
N = 279
• Distribution very similar to 2011 survey of 32,756 Reddit users
16

17. Results: Activity levels
Posting!
Commenting!
Lurker!
8%!
Lurker! Active!
15%! 12%!
Casual!
73%!
Voting!
Lurker!
14%!
Active!
37%!
Casual!
49%!
Casual!
22%!
Active!
70%!
N = 282
• Based on work by Nonnecke & Preece (2000), Reddit users in our
survey are more active than expected → still good generalizabilty
17

18. Functionality (W.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Debating (I.5)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Information consumption (S.2)!
Presence of friends (I.1)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Information consumption (S.2)!
Presence of friends (I.1)!
Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Results: Framework validation
Group identity (S.7)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Group identity (S.7)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Entertainment (P.7)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Curiosity (P.1)!
Self-promotion (P.6)! Information
(I.6)!
Information consumption (P.3)!
Reputation (I.1)! Presence
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
of friends (S.2)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
MakingFunctionality (W.1)! Making
new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
new friends (S.4)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Status (P.4)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Status (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Group friends (S.3)!
Following identity (S.7)!
Following friends (S.3)!
10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90!
Socializing (S.6)! 0! Following friends (S.3)!100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Trust (S.5)! Strongly agree!
Information sharing
(I.6)!
(I.6)!
Group size (S.8)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Strongly disagree!
Trust (S.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Disagree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Information sharing
Procrastination (I.6)!
Information sharing (P.8)!
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
sharing
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Socializing (S.6)!
Group size (S.8)!
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
Trust disagree!
Strongly (S.5)!
Group identity (S.7)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly disagree!
Agree!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Disagree!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Neutral!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
18

19. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Strong motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Entertainment (P.7)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Top five factors all
have a median score
of 5 (‘Strongly agree’)
Curiosity (P.6)!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Procrastination (P.8)!
Information sharing(S.8)!
(I.6)!
Group size
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Information consumption (P.3)!
Reputation (I.1)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (S.4)!
Making new friends (W.1)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
Status (W.3)!
Credibility (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Group friends (S.3)!
Following identity (S.7)!
Following friends (S.3)!
Socializing (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
19

20. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Strong motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Entertainment (P.7)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
“It cures my boredom.”
Curiosity (P.6)!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
“I use Reddit to
procrastinate.”
Procrastination (P.8)!
Information sharing(S.8)!
(I.6)!
Group size
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
“I use reddit because it is
Information consumption (P.3)!
Reputation (I.1)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
fun.”
Personal growth (P.5)!
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (S.4)!
Making new friends (W.1)!
“I don't really use it
Chatting (W.2)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
for a social factor. It's
Status (W.3)!
Credibility (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
more entertainment.”
Group friends (S.3)!
Following identity (S.7)!
Following friends (S.3)!
“Reddit seems to trigger in my
brain the release of positive
chemicals. I seem to use it much
like a smoker would a cigarette.”
Socializing (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
20

21. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Strong motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Entertainment (P.7)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
“I like how simple it is
for a noob like me to
use. Seriously, that’s an
accomplishment.”
Curiosity (P.6)!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Procrastination (P.8)!
Information sharing(S.8)!
(I.6)!
Group size
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Information consumption (P.3)!
Reputation (I.1)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
“I enjoy the wide range of content,
it keeps me entertained for much
longer than a site dedicated to a
single type of content.”
Personal growth (P.5)!
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (S.4)!
Making new friends (W.1)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
Status (W.3)!
Credibility (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Group friends (S.3)!
Following identity (S.7)!
Following friends (S.3)!
Socializing (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
21

22. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Strong motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Entertainment (P.7)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Curiosity (P.6)!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Procrastination (P.8)!
Information sharing(S.8)!
(I.6)!
Group size
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Information consumption (P.3)!
Reputation (I.1)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Next seven factors
have a median
score of 4 (‘Agree’)
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (S.4)!
Making new friends (W.1)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
Status (W.3)!
Credibility (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Group friends (S.3)!
Following identity (S.7)!
Following friends (S.3)!
Socializing (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
22

23. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
“With 19 million users (I think)
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
there's almost no news story
Credibility (W.3)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Strong motivating factors sn't have an eyewitness
that doe
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
on reddit. The difference
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
“I agree! it Agree! Neutral!world news.” disagree! ween reading what a
use to get the Disagree! Strongly
bet
Strongly
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Entertainment (S.6)!
Socializing (P.7)!
reporter who showed up after
Curiosity (P.6)!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
the fact wrote and somebody
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Information sharing (I.6)!my newspaper.”
who can honestly say, ‘I was
“Reddit is
Procrastination (P.8)!
Information sharing(S.8)!
(I.6)!
Group size
there...’ is very powerful.”
Social exchange (P.2)!
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
“I use Reddit to follow
Presence of friends (S.2)!
niche news- news about
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
things that are important
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
to me but aren't
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (S.4)!
Making new friends (W.1)!
important enough to a
Chatting (W.2)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
wide enough audience
Status (W.3)!
Credibility (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
for the stories to end up
Group friends (S.7)!
Following identity (S.3)!
(S.3)!
Following friends
in mainstream channels.”
10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Socializing (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0!
Information consumption (P.3)!
Reputation (I.1)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
23

24. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Strong motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Entertainment (P.7)!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Curiosity (P.6)!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Information quantity (S.5)!
Trust (I.4)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Procrastination (P.8)!
Information sharing(S.8)!
(I.6)!
Group size
ation, specifically the
“The customiz
breddits and smaller
idea of su
s about specific topics, is
communitie
ason why I use Reddit.”
the largest re
Strongly disagree!
Usability (S.8)!
Group size (W.4)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Debating (I.5)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Information consumption (P.3)! t
Reputation (I.1)!
“A
Presence of friends (S.2)!
least it's not Fox News.”
Presence Shopping (S.2)!
of friends (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Information growth (P.5)!
Personal quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Functionality (S.4)!
Making new friends (W.1)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Social exchange (W.2)!
Chatting (P.2)!
Status (W.3)!
Credibility (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Group friends (S.3)!
Following identity (S.7)!
Following friends (S.3)!
“I am very glad I can
customize it so that
subreddits I find very
distasteful and offensive
never show up and are
in no way a part of my
online experience.”
Socializing (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Self-promotion (P.1)!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
24

25. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Results: Weak motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Trust (S.5)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Information sharing
(I.6)!
Group size (S.8)!
Group size (S.8)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Reputation (P.3)!
These factors have a
median score of 2 or
lower (‘Disagree’ or
‘Strongly disagree’)
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Status (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Following friends (S.3)!
Following friends (S.3)!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
25

26. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
“I use Reddit when I am
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Results: Weak motivating factorsvoiding thinking about
a
Group Credibility(S.7)!
identity (W.3)!
Following friends (S.3)!
things which I know need
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
addressing. It’s a terrible
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral! Disagree! Strongly disagree!
Socializing (S.6)!
coping mechanism and I
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
was a better person five
Trust (S.5)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
years ago before I ever
Information sharing (I.6)!
Group size (S.8)!
knew it existed.”
Credibility (W.3)!
Group size (S.8)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
“I don't post comments that
often nor do I post my views
on certain subjects. I'm
afraid of being downvoted,
it makes me feel bad. I'm
also afraid of people being
rude or belittling me.”
Reputation (P.3)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Status (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Following friends (S.3)!
Following friends (S.3)!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
26

27. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Results: Weak motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
(S.7)!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Trust (S.5)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Information sharing
(I.6)!
Group size (S.8)!
Group size (S.8)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Status (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
Following friends (S.3)!
Following friends (S.3)!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! 90! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
27

28. Shopping (I.3)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Functionality (W.1)!
Information quality (I.2)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Social exchange (P.2)!
Functionality (W.2)!
Chatting (W.1)!
Results: Weak motivating factors
Group identity (S.7)!
Credibility (W.3)!
Social exchange (P.4)!
Status (P.2)!
Credibility (S.3)!
Following friends (W.3)!
have any social
“Reddit fills holes that ddy . If
Strongly disagree!
ations for using Re m it
motiv li
real- fe friends can’t fill ith
anything my experience w
because they’re not interestedion
eddit regarding social interact
R in all
the same things I am.”
has been negative.”
Socializing
Group identity (S.6)! 0! 10! 20! 30! 40! 50! 60! 70! 80! “I 100! n’t
(S.7)!
90! do
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Self-promotion (P.1)!Neutral!
Socializing (S.6)!
Disagree!
Self-promotion(S.5)!
(P.1)!
Trust
Trust (S.5)!
Information sharing (I.6)!
Information sharing
(I.6)!
Group size (S.8)!
Group size (S.8)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
Social filtering (S.1)!
“Reddit is not welcoming, it
oes not feel like a group. It is
d
very judgmental and I rarely
feel comfortable.”
Reputation (P.3)!
Reputation (P.3)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Presence of friends (S.2)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Personal growth (P.5)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Making new friends (S.4)!
Chatting (W.2)!
Chatting (W.2)!
IfStatusfriends became active
“ my (P.4)!
Status (P.4)!
“I like Reddit specifically
Iw
Redfriendsrs(S.3)! ould become
Following dito (S.3)!
Following friends
becaus
to u 20! 30! si 50! 60!
less inclined 0!0! 10!se the 40! te.” 60!70! 80! 90!90! 100! e nobody I know uses it.”
10! 20! 30! 40! 50!
70! 80! 100!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Strongly agree!
Agree!
Neutral!
Disagree!
Disagree!
Strongly disagree!
Strongly disagree!
28

29. Discussion
• People use Reddit to be entertained!
- Recreational value combined with the customization possibilities and the
amount of information on Reddit are valued most by its users
• So how ‘social’ are social news sites? Answer: not very!
- Social motivators consistently valued as (relatively) unimportant
‣ Especially true for friendship-related factors
• Difference between online newspapers and social news sites due to
influence over reception and placement of news stories
- Massive effort put into all kinds of social features might be misguided...
29

30. Discussion
• Possible caveat
- Survey participants were more active than should be expected!
- Lurkers are most likely underrepresented in our survey
- However, social features require the most effort of all factors
‣ Lurkers are probably even less likely to be motivated by social factors!
• Future work
- Thorough content analysis of the comments collected
- Triangulation of our findings by crawling interaction data for 86
participants who allowed their Reddit activity to be crawled
30

31. Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
31