>That's not a strategy to get new users though. It makes a social site more appealing to new users, but it doesn't attract them. This statement appears thoroug

>That's not a strategy to get new users though. It makes a social site more appealing to new users, but it doesn't attract them. This statement appears thoroughly contradictory, unless you're using an unusual definition of either appeal or attract. IMHO most people are going to see those words having almost the same meaning in the context you used them In 2012, Steve Huffman, Reddit co-founder, was honest enough to attribute Reddit's initial ability to attract new users to their fake user strategy first of all [1]. Even while they were doing that, he said, they still needed a few months to get the site self-sustaining so they could stop faking user engagement. In that talk, Steve Huffman never even mentions influencers. Paul Graham didn't write about Reddit until 3 or 4 months in, after they had retired the fake user posting, though I agree with you influencers and friends must have been a help [1] https://youtu.be/zmeDzx4SUME?t=28 https://youtu.be/zmeDzx4SUME?t=28