4 ms·

I'd be interested if you could find some posts in AskScience that were remotely successful, which you could reasonably argue were made by shills.

by M_Grey 10y ago

nl 10y ago
I think that the point was that even if specific posts aren't made by shills the world-view of commentators is shaped by them. I think there is some truth to this. I don't frequent Reddit much, but I'd note that for a period a while back there were people here on HN who believed that the Pizzagate conspiracy theory was true. These were long lived accounts here who had commented on a range of issues, so they didn't appear to be shills themself. But it is hard to argue that their world-view isn't influenced by shills on Reddit.
- ramy_d 10y ago
  I just read about the pizzagate conspiracy you mentioned as I have not heard of it before, and wow, that is quite a spiral from conspiracy to fake news to a (no injuries) shooting at a pizza restaurant. Crazy. One thing to underline the importance of: when things hit Reddit, they are mainstream now. Reddit is no longer the "small" community it used be back in 2012, 5 years ago.
- M_Grey 10y ago
  People who believe in things like Pizzagate are firmly in the 50% I was talking about (to be charitable), and more realistically are part of an extreme base. The degree to which that kind of thing is the result of shilling on Reddit, or just Breitbart and the rest of the crap leaking through is debatable. Other places, like anything to do with news and politics, is a miserable shit-fest, and would be with or without shilling.
Ajedi32 10y ago
You're missing the point. You may want to re-read the comments you're replying to. In particular: > Just because a fraction of subreddits are being exploited through shilling doesn't mean that redditors in your favourite subreddit don't go there and that they themselves are (consciously or otherwise) not being affected.
- M_Grey 10y ago
  I'm not missing the point, I'm contesting it and asking for some evidence of this extremely subtle creep from a place like /r/TheDonald to a place like /r/AskScience.

I'd be interested if you could find some posts in AskScience that were remotely successful, which you could reasonably argue were made by shills.

by M_Grey 10y ago

I'd be interested if you could find some posts in AskScience that were remotely successful, which you could reasonably argue were made by shills.

nl 10y ago

I think that the point was that even if specific posts aren't made by shills the world-view of commentators is shaped by them. I think there is some truth to this. I don't frequent Reddit much, but I'd note that for a period a while back there were people here on HN who believed that the Pizzagate conspiracy theory was true. These were long lived accounts here who had commented on a range of issues, so they didn't appear to be shills themself. But it is hard to argue that their world-view isn't influenced by shills on Reddit.

ramy_d 10y ago
I just read about the pizzagate conspiracy you mentioned as I have not heard of it before, and wow, that is quite a spiral from conspiracy to fake news to a (no injuries) shooting at a pizza restaurant. Crazy. One thing to underline the importance of: when things hit Reddit, they are mainstream now. Reddit is no longer the "small" community it used be back in 2012, 5 years ago.
M_Grey 10y ago
People who believe in things like Pizzagate are firmly in the 50% I was talking about (to be charitable), and more realistically are part of an extreme base. The degree to which that kind of thing is the result of shilling on Reddit, or just Breitbart and the rest of the crap leaking through is debatable. Other places, like anything to do with news and politics, is a miserable shit-fest, and would be with or without shilling.

Ajedi32 10y ago

You're missing the point. You may want to re-read the comments you're replying to. In particular: > Just because a fraction of subreddits are being exploited through shilling doesn't mean that redditors in your favourite subreddit don't go there and that they themselves are (consciously or otherwise) not being affected.

M_Grey 10y ago
I'm not missing the point, I'm contesting it and asking for some evidence of this extremely subtle creep from a place like /r/TheDonald to a place like /r/AskScience.