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> /R/the_donald was consistently getting bullshit content to the front page using bots. Just curious, how do you know for a fact that bots were involved in boo

> /R/the_donald was consistently getting bullshit content to the front page using bots. Just curious, how do you know for a fact that bots were involved in boosting the content? I mean, I'm sure that's possible, it's just that the level of energy/enthusiasm there among the users was extremely high to the point that I think it's reasonable to think that the subreddit's success was mostly just people being enthusiastic and wanting to upvote everything. As far as bot based content-generation goes, that seems a little far-fetched to me given the level of humor and quality of the memes. Human humor to that level seems beyond reach of whatever technology was state of the art in 2015-2016 or even now.

cyanydeez 4y ago
There's a filter on reddit that is a "1hour/top" that basically shows content that's quickly upvoted. I've watched this tab for many years because it strikes the right balance between new and interesting content. During the trump election. Everyday there were multiple posts to the sub getting upvoted and this went on for months. Also, multiple people analyzed the content voting for that subreddit and it significantly deviated from every other major subreddit. I get you're trying to claim "there's no way to be statistically certain" but the evidence in the Mueller report and elsewhere makes it clear, internet propaganda is a real problem and is documented.
- logicalmonster 4y ago
  > Also, multiple people analyzed the content voting for that subreddit and it significantly deviated from every other major subreddit. Here are 2 ways to look at this. There's no way to prove which viewpoint is correct, but anybody who spent time there will know exactly what I'm talking about. 1) One way to explain this is bots. 2) Another way to explain this is you actually saw genuine enthusiasm for the first time. As somebody who has spent a long time on the Internet, I've never seen a large forum like that devoted to some cause that was basically a 24/7 party-like atmosphere with genuine extreme enthusiasm and people having fun shit-posting, not worrying about political correctness, and making memes. If it was the case that the enthusiasm was indeed an outlier, then the level of activity would also be an outlier. In light of actual evidence, how one interprets this is pretty subjective and minds are already made up. You be the judge, but I think the answer is obvious.
- tonguez 4y ago

cyanydeez 4y ago

There's a filter on reddit that is a "1hour/top" that basically shows content that's quickly upvoted. I've watched this tab for many years because it strikes the right balance between new and interesting content. During the trump election. Everyday there were multiple posts to the sub getting upvoted and this went on for months. Also, multiple people analyzed the content voting for that subreddit and it significantly deviated from every other major subreddit. I get you're trying to claim "there's no way to be statistically certain" but the evidence in the Mueller report and elsewhere makes it clear, internet propaganda is a real problem and is documented.

logicalmonster 4y ago
> Also, multiple people analyzed the content voting for that subreddit and it significantly deviated from every other major subreddit. Here are 2 ways to look at this. There's no way to prove which viewpoint is correct, but anybody who spent time there will know exactly what I'm talking about. 1) One way to explain this is bots. 2) Another way to explain this is you actually saw genuine enthusiasm for the first time. As somebody who has spent a long time on the Internet, I've never seen a large forum like that devoted to some cause that was basically a 24/7 party-like atmosphere with genuine extreme enthusiasm and people having fun shit-posting, not worrying about political correctness, and making memes. If it was the case that the enthusiasm was indeed an outlier, then the level of activity would also be an outlier. In light of actual evidence, how one interprets this is pretty subjective and minds are already made up. You be the judge, but I think the answer is obvious.
tonguez 4y ago