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I don't have access to HN's or Reddit's data, but I suspect that it only takes a few dozen people to accomplish the "heavy lifting" you had mentioned. This is p
by BitwiseFool 3y ago
I don't have access to HN's or Reddit's data, but I suspect that it only takes a few dozen people to accomplish the "heavy lifting" you had mentioned. This is particularly noticeable on city/state subreddits, where you quickly notice who 'the usual suspects' are because they comment so consistently and show their ideological bias so readily. These folks may or may not be coordinating on a discord, but I ultimately think they have an activist mindset and are driven to try and control the discourse on the community they see as "theirs".
I've seen people in smaller city subreddits try and stand up to these folks, but they end up getting about a dozen downvotes on all their posts. They probably don't have the energy to keep putting up with all the contentiousness and they almost always give up trying to argue and the echo chamber is restored.
- flir 3y agoThere's a UK-based subreddit that's flipped so hard from left-wing to right-wing lately that I'm convinced it's orchestrated. But not just in the "spam and move on" way we're familiar with from a decade back; there's real effort being put into the comments. The posts and comments are hitting all the current government's talking points in a way I find incredibly suspicious. (And when I say that, I sound like a conspiracy theorist. You can't win).
- jayGlow 3y agothere's definitely an inertia to the voting system, once someone gets up or down voted they're likely to keep going on the same direction. definitely seems like a major flaw in the voting system.
- bratwurst3000 3y agoThere is a talk about social bots from the ccc in German. At the end social bots didn’t have any influence. The most influence came from one 60 year old guy who didn’t stop posting right wing propaganda. So yea one person is sufficient.