  Online platforms host a diverse user base, which can be broadly categorized
into "specialist users" with focused interests and "generalist users" who
engage in a wide range of topics. This study explores the behavioral
differences between these two user types on the popular platform Reddit,
focusing on the level of toxicity in their posts and the associated sentiment
scores across 24 emotional categories and a neutral state. By employing
community embeddings to represent users in a high-dimensional space, we measure
activity diversity using the GS score. We analyze a dataset of 16,291,992 posts
from 4,926,237 users spanning the period from 2019 to 2021, assessing the
degree of toxicity and sentiment scores for each post. Our findings indicate
that specialist users exhibit higher levels of toxic behavior compared to
generalist users. Furthermore, specialist users demonstrate elevated scores for
annoyance, sadness, and fear, while generalist users show higher scores for
curiosity, admiration, and love. These insights contribute to a better
understanding of user behavior on online platforms and can inform strategies
for fostering healthier online communities.
