The web can deliver out the very best but in addition the worst in folks. Being nameless and distant from others makes it simpler to be impolite or hostile on-line — a phenomenon known as the “on-line disinhibition impact.” This impact, mixed with the truth that content material loaded with robust feelings spreads quicker, creates a setting the place folks usually be happy to precise outrage with out restraint. On-line, there’s much less motivation to be civil and extra reward for stirring the pot.
In different phrases, being constantly good on-line is difficult and deserves recognition. We at Preply, a language lessons and programs platform, know a factor or two about how necessary phrases are when establishing connections. So, after discovering the rudest U.S. cities, we determined to show our consideration to behaviors on-line. By discovering the 90,000 Redditors with probably the most karma since 2005 and making use of pure language processing to thousands and thousands of their posts and feedback, we discovered probably the most constantly optimistic people on Reddit.
We didn’t cease there. Our evaluation additionally uncovers the Redditors with probably the most karma per contribution and the subreddits the place the nicest and meanest folks contribute probably the most. Discover the examine to study who these shining examples are!
Key takeaways
- u/SchnoodleDoodleDo, a well-known Reddit poet, is the nicest particular person on Reddit.
- u/GovSchwarzenegger, the true Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the #4 nicest particular person.
- u/St0pX has probably the most karma per contribution, averaging 3,200 per contribution.
- The meanest folks on Reddit contribute most within the r/dankmemes subreddit.
- There may be completely no hyperlink between being good or imply and karma earned on Reddit.
Meet the nicest folks on Reddit
Like a lot of the web, Reddit will not be often called a spot for day by day doses of heat and fuzzy emotions. But, sure Redditors are identified for simply that. Our pure language processing evaluation of the final 1,000+ posts and feedback for the 900+ Redditors with probably the most accumulative karma reveals the customers who’re proving kindness can pierce by means of even on-line.
Amongst these digital do-gooders is u/SchnoodleDoodleDo, a Reddit poet whose uplifting and optimistic poems about folks’s pets have made them well-known and beloved in lots of on-line communities. u/SchnoodleDoodleDo now holds the title of Reddit’s nicest particular person. With over 11,000 whole contributions, u/SchnoodleDoodleDo manages to remain optimistic in 75.4% of each contribution — the very best positivity charge of all Redditors analyzed.
The #2 nicest particular person on Reddit can be a big-time animal lover. u/b12ftw provides knowledgeable and heartfelt recommendation, notably within the r/Animal_Sanctuary and r/Ornithology subreddits. Even whereas moderating and tackling extra severe points like how one can assist harm birds, u/b12ftw holds a 73.4% positivity charge throughout their 9,600 whole contributions.
Nonetheless, among the nicest Redditors aren’t simply well-known or notorious of their subreddits and different on-line communities. u/GovSchwarzenegger, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s official Reddit account, is the #4 nicest particular person on Reddit. With a 65.6% positivity charge throughout 2,268 contributions, the Austrian-born former governor of California can now add the title of #4 nicest particular person on Reddit to his checklist of accomplishments.
Redditors with probably the most karma per contribution
For these much less conversant in Reddit, a pure assumption might be made that incomes karma (upvotes) correlates with being useful and good — this isn’t the case. By working a correlation evaluation on over 2.2 million contributions and the positivity frequency of these contributions, we discovered a .03 correlation coefficient between karma earned and optimistic posts and feedback. This end result means there’s completely no hyperlink between being good (or imply) and karma earned on Reddit.
Subsequently, it comes as no shock that the Redditors with probably the most karma per contribution (KPC) are a blended bag of naughty and good. On the prime, with an astonishing 3,200 karma factors per contribution, u/St0pX emerges because the Redditor with probably the most KPC in all of Reddit. Though they’re removed from the highest 10 Redditors with probably the most karma, their 2,351 contributions rake within the karma factors, even when they solely have a 30.6% optimistic contribution charge and pan out because the 616th nicest particular person on Reddit.
Nonetheless, the #2 Redditor with probably the most karma per contribution additionally holds the present title of #5 Redditor with probably the most whole karma. u/My_Memes_Will_Cure_U, who contributes most within the r/youngsters subreddit, has 3,141 KPC throughout 9,123 posts and feedback as of this evaluation. The #3 Redditor with probably the most KPC additionally holds the #8 spot for many whole karma — u/Master1718, who contributes most within the r/Animemes subreddit, averages 2,865 KPC.
Subreddits the place the naughty and good hang around
Not all subreddits are created equal; totally different matter communities appeal to vibes from each ends of the naughty and good spectrum. To determine the subreddits the place the nicest and meanest Redditors contribute probably the most, we averaged the unfavorable and optimistic proportion of contributions for the highest subreddits that the 900+ Redditors with probably the most accumulative karma since 2005 put up most to determine every subreddits optimistic and unfavorable contribution charges.
On the pleasant facet, the r/Animal_Sanctuary subreddit emerges because the #1 subreddit the place the nicest Redditors contribute. That’s the identical subreddit the place u/b12ftw, our #2 nicest particular person on Reddit, contributes. Collectively, the r/Animal_Sanctuary subreddit boasts a 67.6% optimistic contribution charge amongst these excessive karma contributors.
The r/bodybuilding neighborhood the place u/GovSchwarzenegger, the #4 nicest particular person on Reddit, contributes probably the most, lands the #2 spot the place the nicest Redditors contribute by holding a 65.6% optimistic contribution charge. The #3 subreddit with the nicest contributors is r/DeepThoughts, which is the place the #5 nicest Redditor, u/Butterflies_Books, contributes probably the most.
On the unfriendly facet, with a whopping 99.5% unfavorable contribution charge, the r/dankmemes subreddit is the #1 neighborhood the place the meanest Redditors contribute. This ten-year-old subreddit, with 5.9 million members, is devoted to “dank memes,” which refers to deliberately eccentric, bizarre memes with coarse humor.
In a distant second place, the r/TrueAnon subreddit has solely a 61.2% unfavorable contribution charge among the many excessive karma contributors analyzed. This subreddit is devoted to the TrueAnon podcast, which purports to be “a podcast about your enemies made by your mates.” Shut behind in third place is the r/CFB subreddit, with a 59.5% unfavorable contribution charge. This neighborhood claims to be the web’s tailgate – the house of school soccer on Reddit.
How naughty or good are Reddit’s most influential contributors?
To place all this conduct in perspective, our evaluation of the Redditors with probably the most karma over an almost two-decade interval reveals how usually persons are good and imply on Reddit. Maybe surprisingly, niceness wins out over negativity. Roughly 1 out of each 3 contributions lean optimistic, and just one out of 5 contributions lean unfavorable. Neutrality pans out on prime, with virtually half of all contributions leaning neither optimistic nor unfavorable.
Curiously, there’s additionally no hyperlink between how lengthy a Redditor has been contributing and being good on Reddit. Our correlation evaluation of the optimistic frequencies of over 2.2 million posts and feedback mixed with the age of Redditors’ accounts churned out a correlation coefficient of .07, which means there isn’t a correlation. Maybe it’s a silver lining that spending extra time on Reddit doesn’t seem to snuff out the nicety of Reddit’s most optimistic contributors.
Foster your positivity by means of language studying
Preply’s evaluation highlights those that are probably the most optimistic, encouraging, useful, and uplifting on-line, which proves that optimistic communication is a strong drive even in an nameless digital house. Being good, whether or not in particular person, on-line, and even to AI, may help construct understanding and open-mindedness throughout cultures and languages – that is the place Preply may help.
Our platform provides tailor-made language lessons for anybody who needs to broaden their on-line communication abilities by studying a international language. Join extra meaningfully with folks in every single place by growing your conversational abilities in different languages. With Spanish lessons, Italian programs for newcomers, or Japanese lessons on-line, now we have professional tutors prepared that will help you foster cross-cultural positivity.
For anybody aspiring to be extra variety of their conversations—whether or not in English or one other language – discovering a tutor on Preply can open the doorways to extra impactful and respectful conversations. Discover Preply in the present day and see how language studying can enhance the positivity of your interactions.
Methodology
In October 2024, we used the Arctic Shift venture’s API to seek out the 90,000 Redditors with probably the most karma (upvotes) since 2005. The Arctic Shift venture, by Arthur Heitmann, collects Reddit knowledge and makes it accessible to researchers.
All knowledge is retrieved by means of the official Reddit API and doesn’t embrace content material from personal or quarantined Subreddits. The Pushshift venture, created by the /r/datasets mod workforce, collected knowledge from June 2005 to December 2023. u/Watchful1 collected knowledge from January 2024 to April 2024, and Arthur Heitmann collected knowledge from April 2024 by means of October 2024.
Heitmann additionally compiled all this info and made it accessible for analysis after the Pushshift venture successfully ended on account of vital adjustments made by Reddit to their API.
We discovered the 90,000 Redditors with probably the most put up and remark karma to determine probably the most lively customers on Reddit. Because of the proprietary and secret approach that Reddit awards and takes away karma factors, Redditor karma for this venture consists of karma from archived and deleted content material. It’s also a easy summing of every Redditor’s karma since their cake day.
We filtered down the checklist of 90,000 Redditors by eradicating these with no put up or remark exercise in 2024. Then, we took the 1100 Redditors with probably the most accumulative karma and at the very least one put up or remark in 2024 and used the official Reddit API to collect as much as 2600 of the most recent posts and feedback for every of these Redditors, for a complete of two.5 million Reddit posts and feedback.
To make sure a good comparability with ample pattern dimension, we then eliminated any Redditors from the evaluation who had fewer than 1,000 posts and feedback since their cake day, along with suspended and deleted accounts.
Subsequent, we employed a pure language processing (NLP) evaluation through the use of a lexicon and rule-based sentiment analyzer, VADER (Valence Conscious Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning), a instrument exactly created to investigate sentiments in social media to individually analyze the optimistic and unfavorable emotions for the over 2.2 million remaining posts and feedback. VADER scores vary from -1 (extraordinarily unfavorable) to +1 (extraordinarily optimistic).
Then, we calculated the proportion of optimistic sentiments (> 0 scores) in posts and feedback for every Redditor to determine the Redditors with the very best frequency of optimistic contributions.
Earlier than we recognized the Redditors with the best frequency of positivity, we eliminated Redditors from the evaluation marked NSFW by Reddit, along with these with specific usernames and usually specific posts and feedback. We additionally eliminated all bots. We then sorted the ultimate set of 945 Redditors by their positivity proportion to determine the nicest folks on Reddit.
For the karma per contribution a part of the evaluation, we collected the true and present put up and remark karma per Redditor on 10/29. We calculated the karma per contribution based mostly on the full variety of posts and feedback for every person since their cake day.
For the subreddits the place the meanest folks contribute, we selected to not determine particular customers. As a substitute, we discovered the Subreddits the place every of the 945 Redditors contributed probably the most after which averaged the unfavorable proportion of every Redditor’s posts and feedback by Subreddit.
We then recognized the Subreddits with the very best unfavorable proportion of contributions from these 945 Redditors because the Subreddits the place the meanest folks contribute. We used the identical course of by averaging the proportion of optimistic contributions to find out the subreddits the place the nicest folks contribute.