cathw/reddit_climate_comment

Dataset Card for Reddit Climate Comment

Dataset Description

The Reddit Climate Comment dataset is a collection of comments extracted from subreddits focused on discussions related to climate change, energy, and renewable energy. It includes comments from popular subreddits such as "Climate," "Energy," "RenewableEnergy”, “ClimateChange”, “ClimateActionPlan”, “Environment”, “Sustainability”, and “Zerowaste”. The dataset provides insights into user engagement, sentiment, and discussions surrounding environmental sustainability topics on Reddit. It was created using the Reddit API, with comments collected from the top posts in selected subreddits, totaling 80,400 comments. The dataset encompasses discussions in English language and serves as a comprehensive resource for text-based analyses in the domain of climate change and energy.

Dataset Details

The dataset is centered around discussions related to clean energy and climate change, obtained through the Reddit API by extracting information from the top ~1000 posts within specified subreddits and collected using a Python Library, Praw, on February 21st and 22nd, 2024. These subreddits include “Climate”, “Energy”, “RenewableEnergy”, and “ClimateChange”. The dataset collected comments and replies under each post. The selection of curated subreddit names is determined by assessing both the relevance of the subreddit to energy and climate change and the size of the subreddit community, measured by the number of Reddit users who have joined.

In the dataset, under the “Climate” subreddit category, there are 894 unique posts, 3,463 unique comments, and 7,913 unique replies (184k users in the community); under the “ClimateChange” subreddit category, there are 787 unique posts, 3,376 unique comments, and 7,657 unique replies (89k users in the community); under the “Energy” subreddit category, there are 958 unique posts, 6,919 unique comments, and 14,247 unique replies (181k users in the community); under the "Environment" subreddit category, there are 964 unique posts, 9,042 unique comments, and 28,063 unique replies (1,561k users in the community); under the “RenewableEnergy” subreddit category, there are 566 unique posts, 979 unique comments, and 1,754 unique replies (124k users in the community); under the “Sustainability” subreddit category, there are 749 unique posts, 2,365 unique comments, and 4,806 unique replies (571k users in the community); under the “ClimateActionPlan” subreddit category, there are 663 unique posts, 1,324 unique comments, and 2,613 unique replies (89k users in the community); under the “ZeroWaste” subreddit category, there are 969 unique posts, 5,259 unique comments, and 13,347 unique replies (1,082k users in the community);

In total, there are 6,650 unique posts across all subreddit. During the data collection process, timestamps were converted from Unix timestamps (seconds since the epoch) in the raw data into a UTC datetime object. The output is transformed into a CSV file and reorganized for users’ easy access.

• Curated by: Reddit users and the Reddit platform
• Language(s): English
• License: MIT

Dataset Sources

• API Documentation: Reddit API Documentation

Supported Tasks

The Reddit Climate Comment dataset is intended to be used for various natural text-based analyses related to discussions on climate change, energy, and renewable energy topics.

Sample Usage

Languages

The Reddit Climate Comment dataset primarily contains discussions in the English language.

Out-of-Scope Use

While the Reddit Climate Comment dataset offers valuable insights into discussions surrounding climate change, energy, and renewable energy topics on Reddit, there are certain out-of-scope uses to consider:

1. The dataset should not be used for identifying or targeting individual Reddit users based on their comments.
2. Researchers and analysts should adhere to ethical guidelines and respect Reddit's terms of service when using the dataset. Any research or analysis conducted using the dataset should prioritize user privacy, respect community guidelines, and avoid harmful or malicious actions.

Dataset Structure

This JSON example represents an example portion of the dataset. This nested structure allows for efficient navigation and analysis of posts, comments, and replies within specific subreddit communities and individual posts.

{
  "id": "1006cei",
  "post_title": "Amazing Water Filter Invention",
  "post_author": "User123",
  "post_body": "Check out this incredible water filter!",
  "post_url": "https://example.com/water_filter",
  "post_pic": "https://example.com/images/water_filter.jpg",
  "subreddit": "inventions",
  "post_timestamp": "2023-01-01T12:00:00Z",
  "post_upvotes": 123,
  "post_permalink": "/r/inventions/comments/1006cei/amazing_water_filter_invention/",
  "comments": {
    "CommentID": ["abc123", "def456"],
    "CommentAuthor": ["User456", "User789"],
    "CommentBody": ["This is awesome!", "How does it work?"],
    "CommentTimestamp": ["2023-01-01T12:30:00Z", "2023-01-01T13:00:00Z"],
    "CommentUpvotes": [5, 7],
    "CommentPermalink": ["/r/inventions/comments/1006cei/amazing_water_filter_invention/abc123/", "/r/inventions/comments/1006cei/amazing_water_filter_invention/def456/"],
    "replies": [
      {
        "ReplyID": ["xyz987", "pqr654"],
        "ReplyAuthor": ["User123", "User789"],
        "ReplyBody": ["Thank you!", "The filter uses a combination of activated carbon and ceramic membranes to remove impurities from water."],
        "ReplyTimestamp": ["2023-01-01T12:45:00Z", "2023-01-01T13:15:00Z"],
        "ReplyUpvotes": [10, 3],
        "ReplyPermalink": ["/r/inventions/comments/1006cei/amazing_water_filter_invention/abc123/xyz987/", "/r/inventions/comments/1006cei/amazing_water_filter_invention/def456/pqr654/"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

The dataset includes the following fields:

id: string - Unique identifier for the post.
post_title: string - Title of the post.
post_author: string - Username of the author who posted.
post_body: string - Body/content of the post.
post_url: string - URL of the post.
post_pic: Image - Image associated with the post.
subreddit: string - Subreddit where the post was made.
post_timestamp: string - Timestamp of when the post was made.
post_upvotes: int32 - Number of upvotes the post received.
post_permalink: string - Permanent link to the post.
comments: Sequence - Sequence of comments associated with the post.
- CommentID: string - Unique identifier for the comment.
- CommentAuthor: string - Username of the comment author.
- CommentBody: string - Content/body of the comment.
- CommentTimestamp: string - Timestamp of when the comment was made.
- CommentUpvotes: int32 - Number of upvotes the comment received.
- CommentPermalink: string - Permanent link to the comment.
  - replies: Sequence - Sequence of replies to the comment.
  - ReplyID: string - Unique identifier for the reply.
  - ReplyAuthor: string - Username of the reply author.
  - ReplyBody: string - Content/body of the reply.
  - ReplyTimestamp: string - Timestamp of when the reply was made.
  - ReplyUpvotes: int32 - Number of upvotes the reply received.
  - ReplyPermalink: string - Permanent link to the reply.

Dataset Creation

Data Collection and Processing

The data collection process involved extracting comments from the top posts in selected subreddits, including "Climate," "Energy," "RenewableEnergy”, “ClimateChange”, “ClimateActionPlan”, “Environment”, “Sustainability”, and “Zerowaste”, using the Reddit API. The PRAW Python library was utilized for interacting with the Reddit API. Specifically, the top ~1000 posts were considered in each subreddit, with comments and replies collected under each post. The data collection was performed on Feburary 21st and 22nd, 2024 with code in reddit_collect_data.py.

The dataset can be found at my Github Repository

The processing steps included:

1. Parsing Timestamps: convert timestamps to a standardized date-time format.
2. Empty Cell: convert empty cells to None ensure dataset integrity and cleaness.
3. Updated Data Organization: update data structure to enhance the organization of the dataset and improve users' assessibility.

Benefits of the New Structure

1. Each post is uniquely identified by an assigned post ID, facilitating easy referencing and retrieval of information for specific posts.
2. Structured Comment Grouping provides a coherent and organized representation of discussions under each post and each subreddit community.
3. The array-based structure enhances the dataset's readability and accessibility, streamlining the process of extracting and analyzing information for each post.
4. The standardized format ensures a consistent approach to retrieving relevant data elements, such as authors, comment bodies, timestamps, and upvotes, for analysis or visualization.

These steps aimed to prepare the data for analysis while maintaining and improving its quality and consistency.

Recommendations

Users should be made aware of the risks, biases, and limitations of the dataset. More information is needed for further recommendations.

Citation

BibTeX:

@InProceedings{huggingface:dataset,
title = {Reddit Climate Comment},
author={Yicheng (Catherine) Wang},
year={2024}
}

Contribution

We express gratitude to the Reddit community for their contributions to climate change and energy discussions. Special thanks to the PRAW library for enabling efficient Reddit API interactions, making this dataset possible.