Life of Norman

I’m about to get really far out on this social construct thing, but I’d like to examine the creation of a crowdsourced novel/linked short story anthology via the Reddit subreddit: “Life of Norman” (https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeofnorman/).  There’s an “about” section found on the lower right of the page link that details the basics of Norman’s character, the world he lives in, and the ways his story should be told (3rd-person omniscient; suggested 500-word limit per story). From this same section, I can see that the site was created three years ago by a user named MaximusLeonis. A search for the user’s comments on this subreddit show that they created “Life of Norman” on a whim and were surprised by its popularity (https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeofnorman/comments/1cm39f/meta_wow_what_an_immediate_and_awesome_response/?). As of today, there are over 54,000 subscribers, though it’s hard to say how many are active contributors.

It appears that the founding user no longer moderates this page, and there are three current moderators listed in the “about” section, one of which, MattressCrane (who is also a contributor), is in the process of compiling an anthology of Norman stories. He asks for permission to do so in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeofnorman/comments/2b653j/id_like_to_compile_normans_stories_into_an_ebook/?, dated two years ago (exact dates are not available). MatressCrane’s latest update regarding this project can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeofnorman/comments/52u22t/the_book_of_norman_the_time_hasalmost_finally/ . As of today, this link is dated as “7 days ago”, and the link includes a final list of the usernames attached to each contributing writer.

A search of MattressCrane’s posts in the Norman subreddit reveal roughly thirteen updates on the bookmaking process between the two years that separate the links above. While the book manuscript is now finalized and awaiting publication (with all proceeds to benefit Cats Cradle animal shelter in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada [https://www.reddit.com/r/lifeofnorman/comments/3yuh6v/the_book_of_norman_the_final_update/], users continue to contribute new stories about Norman and the characters in his life on a daily basis. There is even a spinoff subreddit for Norman’s coworker/love interest, Lisa: https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeOfLisa. By upvoting or downvoting stories about Norman (or by awarding them virtual gold coins purchased with actual currency; i.e. gilding, users effectively decide which stories become canonical, and which do not.  Users can also actively discuss the specifics of Norman's life and character by tagging such posts as "[META]".