4 ms·

During this whole debacle, there's been quite a few posts across various parts of the internet that register to me as astroturfing, including a handful on HN. I

During this whole debacle, there's been quite a few posts across various parts of the internet that register to me as astroturfing, including a handful on HN. It's not about the opinions presented, nothing wrong with dissent, but the way these posts express those opinions just feels wrong somehow — I've seen 20 years worth of impassioned people posting on the internet, and these posts come off as poor imitations of that.

slowmovintarget 3y ago
I agree. The posts here on HN about how all the mods are terrible human beings... that just read as an oddity.
- Kiro 3y ago
  How so? People generally hate reddit mods, for good and bad reasons. The belief that reddit mods are power hungry abusers is ingrained in internet culture so I don't find it strange that this common sentiment is leaking to HN. If anything I find it very surprising that people praise them as heroes now which would have been completely unheard of just a few weeks ago.
  - Y-bar 3y ago
    There are many mods I actively dislike, for example one on r/confusingperspective who gave me a warning because I tagged another user in a comment because I wanted to highlight something for them. But I still support the mods here. And I also support the third-party developers as well. Ultimately Reddit depends on moderators being able to do their job, if Spez chooses to pull the rug out from under their feet so that they cannot do their job (which they do without cost for Reddit) effectively, why should I not cheer them on? Especially since they are pretty much the only ones able to coordinate any form of protest after Spez lied (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36247130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36247130) about what the Apollo dev said?
- pseudo0 3y ago
  It really isn't that odd. Most reddit users hardly interact with the admins. When it comes to mods though, the question is not whether they have had bad interactions, but how many. A job that offers no pay, no benefits, but the dopamine hit of having petty power over random strangers tends to attract poor candidates.
- 14 3y ago
  I’ve been on HN for years as seen by my post history. I’ve been on reddit for years. I would love to see the mods stripped of power and the ability to vote them out. A lot of mods are terrible, probably not human beings but terrible at moderating.
- lamontcg 3y ago
  Nah those are real. People with a big "I dropped an r-bomb on a leftist sub and the powertripping mods banned me" energy.
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    More like "I disagreed with a user I didn't realize was a mod and they banned me".
PrimeMcFly 3y ago
You're probably used to desktop users. Most people seem to use their phones to interact nowadays, and the quality of content is lower as a result.
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  I won't deny that as a possibility, but the majority of my Reddit usage has been during its mobile-dominant era so it's not as if low effort mobile posts are unfamiliar.
Zetice 3y ago
What you're describing is textbook paranoia. People exist, real people, who hold opinions that differ from yours, including me.
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  > People exist, real people, who hold opinions that differ from yours, including me. Of course, but astroturfing is also a very real thing that those with money to lose have no moral objection making use of, and as such it's naive to take every comment at face value. The method which one determines which comment falls into which category is variable and imperfect and always will be but it's a sense I've tried to hone. I like to try to give people the benefit of the doubt but it can be difficult to do that when, say, large number of comments parrot one of a handful of talking points with few linguistic variances or elaborations on why the commenter feels that way.
- flutas 3y ago
  Ah yes, "textbook paranoia". Not a pattern of hallucinated poetry posted to new accounts, that just so happen to also dislike the blackout[0-6], while also occasionally apologizing for not being able to generate inappropriate or offensive content[7]. [0]: https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png [1]: https://i.imgur.com/0seHYei.png https://i.imgur.com/0seHYei.png [2]: https://i.imgur.com/Q8Pl2Ms.png https://i.imgur.com/Q8Pl2Ms.png [3]: https://i.imgur.com/IRAug6a.png https://i.imgur.com/IRAug6a.png [4]: https://i.imgur.com/N88AxJx.png https://i.imgur.com/N88AxJx.png [5]: https://i.imgur.com/Ar8P95B.png https://i.imgur.com/Ar8P95B.png [6]: https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png [7]: https://i.imgur.com/4e9jO7P.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4e9jO7P.jpg
  - kitsunesoba 3y ago
    Wow, even ignoring the error message comments those are textbook ChatGPT responses.
  - Zetice 3y ago
    [flagged]

slowmovintarget 3y ago

I agree. The posts here on HN about how all the mods are terrible human beings... that just read as an oddity.

Kiro 3y ago
How so? People generally hate reddit mods, for good and bad reasons. The belief that reddit mods are power hungry abusers is ingrained in internet culture so I don't find it strange that this common sentiment is leaking to HN. If anything I find it very surprising that people praise them as heroes now which would have been completely unheard of just a few weeks ago.
- Y-bar 3y ago
  There are many mods I actively dislike, for example one on r/confusingperspective who gave me a warning because I tagged another user in a comment because I wanted to highlight something for them. But I still support the mods here. And I also support the third-party developers as well. Ultimately Reddit depends on moderators being able to do their job, if Spez chooses to pull the rug out from under their feet so that they cannot do their job (which they do without cost for Reddit) effectively, why should I not cheer them on? Especially since they are pretty much the only ones able to coordinate any form of protest after Spez lied (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36247130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36247130) about what the Apollo dev said?
pseudo0 3y ago
It really isn't that odd. Most reddit users hardly interact with the admins. When it comes to mods though, the question is not whether they have had bad interactions, but how many. A job that offers no pay, no benefits, but the dopamine hit of having petty power over random strangers tends to attract poor candidates.
14 3y ago
I’ve been on HN for years as seen by my post history. I’ve been on reddit for years. I would love to see the mods stripped of power and the ability to vote them out. A lot of mods are terrible, probably not human beings but terrible at moderating.
lamontcg 3y ago
Nah those are real. People with a big "I dropped an r-bomb on a leftist sub and the powertripping mods banned me" energy.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  More like "I disagreed with a user I didn't realize was a mod and they banned me".

PrimeMcFly 3y ago

You're probably used to desktop users. Most people seem to use their phones to interact nowadays, and the quality of content is lower as a result.

kitsunesoba 3y ago
I won't deny that as a possibility, but the majority of my Reddit usage has been during its mobile-dominant era so it's not as if low effort mobile posts are unfamiliar.

Zetice 3y ago

What you're describing is textbook paranoia. People exist, real people, who hold opinions that differ from yours, including me.

kitsunesoba 3y ago
> People exist, real people, who hold opinions that differ from yours, including me. Of course, but astroturfing is also a very real thing that those with money to lose have no moral objection making use of, and as such it's naive to take every comment at face value. The method which one determines which comment falls into which category is variable and imperfect and always will be but it's a sense I've tried to hone. I like to try to give people the benefit of the doubt but it can be difficult to do that when, say, large number of comments parrot one of a handful of talking points with few linguistic variances or elaborations on why the commenter feels that way.
flutas 3y ago
Ah yes, "textbook paranoia". Not a pattern of hallucinated poetry posted to new accounts, that just so happen to also dislike the blackout[0-6], while also occasionally apologizing for not being able to generate inappropriate or offensive content[7]. [0]: https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png [1]: https://i.imgur.com/0seHYei.png https://i.imgur.com/0seHYei.png [2]: https://i.imgur.com/Q8Pl2Ms.png https://i.imgur.com/Q8Pl2Ms.png [3]: https://i.imgur.com/IRAug6a.png https://i.imgur.com/IRAug6a.png [4]: https://i.imgur.com/N88AxJx.png https://i.imgur.com/N88AxJx.png [5]: https://i.imgur.com/Ar8P95B.png https://i.imgur.com/Ar8P95B.png [6]: https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png https://i.imgur.com/Aw8JUga.png [7]: https://i.imgur.com/4e9jO7P.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4e9jO7P.jpg
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  Wow, even ignoring the error message comments those are textbook ChatGPT responses.
- Zetice 3y ago
  [flagged]