Humans need a sense of community (SOC), and social media platforms afford opportunities to address this need by providing users with a sense of virtual community (SOVC). This paper explores SOVC on Reddit and is motivated by two goals: (1) providing researchers with an excellent resource for methodological decisions in studies of Reddit communities; and (2) creating the foundation for a new class of research methods and community support tools that reflect users' experiences of SOVC. To ensure that methods are respectfully and ethically designed in service and accountability to impacted communities, our work takes a qualitative, community-centered approach by engaging with two key stakeholder groups. First, we interviewed 21 researchers to understand how they study "community" on Reddit. Second, we surveyed 12 subreddits to gain insight into user experiences of SOVC. Results show that some research methods can broadly reflect users' SOVC regardless of the topic or type of subreddit. However, user responses also evidenced the existence of five distinct Community Archetypes: Topical Q&A, Learning & Perspective Broadening, Social Support, Content Generation, and Affiliation with an Entity. We offer the Community Archetypes framework to support future work in designing methods that align more closely with user experiences of SOVC and to create community support tools that can meaningfully nourish the human need for SOC/SOVC in our modern world.

翻译：人类需要社区感（SOC），社交媒体平台通过为用户提供虚拟社区感（SOVC）提供了满足这一需求的机会。本文以Reddit平台上的SOVC为研究对象，基于两个目标展开：（1）为研究者在Reddit社区的方法选择中提供优质参考资源；（2）为能够反映用户SOVC体验的新型研究方法与社区支持工具奠定基础。为确保方法的伦理性与尊重性设计以服务并问责受影响社区，我们采用定性、以社区为中心的研究方法，与两个关键利益相关群体开展合作。首先，我们访谈了21位研究者以了解他们在Reddit上研究"社区"的方式；其次，我们对12个子版块开展调查以洞察用户的SOVC体验。结果表明，部分研究方法能普遍反映用户的SOVC体验，不受子版块主题或类型影响。但用户反馈也证实存在五种不同的社区原型：主题问答型、学习与视野拓展型、社会支持型、内容生成型以及实体归属型。我们提出社区原型框架，以支持未来工作中设计更贴合用户SOVC体验的研究方法，并创建能够切实滋养现代人类对SOC/SOVC需求的社区支持工具。