Porn Architecture: User Tagging and Filtering in Two Online Pornography Communities

Abstract

This poster brief describes ongoing research on user taxonomies in free internet pornography, examining tagging and filtering systems in two digital porn bulletin boards on the social network Reddit. These two communities---r/PornVids, a board for mainstream porn, and r/ChickFlixxx, a board for woman-friendly or feminist porn---offer unique insight into not only porn consumption patterns, but also ways of sorting pornography according to distinctly gendered preferences. The researcher concludes by describing future directions for empirical inquiry into internet pornography, making a case for the importance of affective considerations in user research and interface design.