# Temporal Analysis of Reddit Networks via Role Embeddings

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using role embeddings to analyze how user roles evolve over time in Reddit communities, revealing insights into community dynamics and individual behaviors.

## Contribution

It applies the role embedding algorithm struc2vec to Reddit data to uncover temporal changes in user roles at both individual and community levels.

## Key findings

- Role embeddings reveal distinct temporal patterns in user behavior.
- Loyal and vagrant communities exhibit different role evolution trajectories.
- Temporal alignment of embeddings allows for comparative community analysis.

## Abstract

Inspired by diachronic word analysis from the field of natural language processing, we propose an approach for uncovering temporal insights regarding user roles from social networks using graph embedding methods. Specifically, we apply the role embedding algorithm, struc2vec, to a collection of social networks exhibiting either "loyal" or "vagrant" characteristics derived from the popular online social news aggregation website Reddit. For each subreddit, we extract nine months of data and create network role embeddings on consecutive time windows. We are then able to compare and contrast how user roles change over time by aligning the resulting temporal embeddings spaces. In particular, we analyse temporal role embeddings from an individual and a community-level perspective for both loyal and vagrant communities present on Reddit.