Reddit Recommender Analysis

Introduction

This document will be an analysis of the Reddit recommender system which recommends subreddits (topic/interest specific link aggregation pages) to users. This analysis will include a scenario design analysis, an attempt to reverse engineer, and recommendations for improvement.

Scenario Design Analysis

A scenario design analysis should include the following three points:

1. Who are you target users?

2. What are their key goals?

3. How can you help them accomplish their goals.

For the Reddit recommender system, the target users are Reddit users who engage with the site, as well as new users who are introduced to the site through site integration or links in other social media.

The key goals of users follow those of most social media sites – connect with like-minded individuals while sharing and finding content that is engaging. On Reddit, due to the “karma” system, some users may seek to gain more positive votes on their posts and comments.

The recommender system may help them accomplish their goals by recommending subreddits where they will thrive, where users will have similar sentiments, their posts will be appreciated, and their content will have suitable entertainment and informational value.

Reverse Engineer

The recommender system for subreddits on Reddit is relatively opaque compared to a system that has, for example, a star-rating and a certain number of votes. The main variables that would go into this system are:

• Subreddit subscriber count: the number of users who have subscribed to the subreddit

• Post engagement: the number of comments and up/downvotes that posts on the subreddit get. A subreddit with few subscribers can get a sudden burst of popularity if a post goes viral.

• User profile: if many users who frequent one subreddit are also subscribed to another, they may be recommended to users who are only subscribed to one.

• Conversion ratio: Subreddits that generate more revenue through ads and clicks through to affiliates might be more highly recommended.

Potential Improvements

Improvements would depend entirely on the goals of the company. As a long-time Reddit user, I’ve seen a gradual transition to more mainstream content, political content, and advertisement content. Assuming the goal is to make more money, Reddit should seek to recommend specialized hobby subreddits to their users.

While entertainment content subreddits may get high levels of engagement through the sharing of memes, monetizing that is more difficult. However, if a user shows even a fleeting interest in cycling, pointing them to the cycling subreddit will present the opportunity to sell them all the expensive cycling gear that’s praised by the userbase. Each hobby-specific subreddit usually has a beginner’s buying list