3 ms·

A lot of reddit does not seem to be aware that a huge amount of the content is totally fake, astroturfing, etc. Soon, the "product site:reddit.com" will be just

A lot of reddit does not seem to be aware that a huge amount of the content is totally fake, astroturfing, etc. Soon, the "product site:reddit.com" will be just as useless as Amazon reviews.

wat10000 7mo ago
How many of the credulous responses are themselves bot-generated to make the original sound more believable?
brynnbee 7mo ago
A lot don't care if it is. I've had friends share things and I stopped replying with "you know this isn't a true story/fact/real image, right?". Their response is always "idk i thought it was funny/interesting" which is valid. I felt like I was raining on parades so now I usually just respond with an emoji.
- WarmWash 7mo ago
  The problem is though that even if they "just think it's funny", over time it gets built into their worldview. It's like people who only consume TV shows and movies, they know it's all fiction, but if you talk to them about how the world works, you realize that all their mental structures are based on Hollywood tropes. This even tracks to reddit, where everyone knows it's bullshit and reddit is dumb, but their entire perception of the world is still reddit's dumb views anyway.
- RankingMember 7mo ago
  > "idk i thought it was funny/interesting" which is valid Ha, I don't know your friends but in my experience that's like a textbook phrase people use to try to play off being duped when they're clued in
  - inquirerGeneral 7mo ago
    [dead]
- Bridged7756 7mo ago
  Reddit is the fakest social media platform out there. The amount of fabricated situations like "my marbles totally aligned like this by themselves", or "my husband eats his hotdogs with toothpaste" and it's a picture of something odd but that someone could easily fabricate and take a picture of is just crazy. That kind of posts always reach the top pages too.
gadders 7mo ago
They have a whole "That Happened" subreddit just for the rubbish that people post, let alone AIs.
- projektfu 7mo ago
  Post an interesting true story and it will be referred to /r/thathappened. https://www.reddit.com/r/nothingeverhappens/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nothingeverhappens/
ticulatedspline 7mo ago
Been that way a long time, maybe always was. Bad behavior is often rewarded, compelling lies gain more upvotes than truth and there's little consequence for shitposting. I think it's gotten a bit worse as the platform has grown since there's more reward, astroturfing gets more eyes and is more effective, posts in general can get more karma so more fake internet points.
- red-iron-pine 7mo ago
  gotten worse since 2015, and you can see the big drop off after LLMs get big in ~2021
- everdrive 7mo ago
  It was pretty amazing in the early days. It has been bad for a while. The current era is definitely something new, though. Popular subreddits are mostly worthless, and the platform both cannot control all the bots and astroturfing, but also their attempts to do so have degraded the experience for the average user.
  - ticulatedspline 7mo ago
    "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Was active on Reddit a long time ago, there's a liminal band of popularity in which a service tends to offer the best experience. Enough interest to be good, not enough interest to make it shitty or incentivize abuse. It's difficult to remain in that band particularly because at some point you have to actively fight growth, not sure HN is all that immune either. I think HN tries to stay in that band via it's archaic UI and somewhat intimidating culture.
    - everdrive 7mo ago
      Yep, I think that's right. Even if reddit, its company, and its moderators were all perfect, it might still crumble and become awful under the weight of its popularity. Too many bad actors, too many companies astroturfing, not enough monetization to solve these problems. And of course the site, the company, and the moderators are far from perfect.
idiotsecant 7mo ago
'Everything is astroturf' is such a boring and cynical worldview. Its good to be suspicious, but not at the cost of joy. Underwood sauce is good. They got screwed over. Sometimes a story is just a story.

A lot of reddit does not seem to be aware that a huge amount of the content is totally fake, astroturfing, etc. Soon, the "product site:reddit.com" will be just as useless as Amazon reviews.

wat10000 7mo ago

How many of the credulous responses are themselves bot-generated to make the original sound more believable?

brynnbee 7mo ago

A lot don't care if it is. I've had friends share things and I stopped replying with "you know this isn't a true story/fact/real image, right?". Their response is always "idk i thought it was funny/interesting" which is valid. I felt like I was raining on parades so now I usually just respond with an emoji.

WarmWash 7mo ago
The problem is though that even if they "just think it's funny", over time it gets built into their worldview. It's like people who only consume TV shows and movies, they know it's all fiction, but if you talk to them about how the world works, you realize that all their mental structures are based on Hollywood tropes. This even tracks to reddit, where everyone knows it's bullshit and reddit is dumb, but their entire perception of the world is still reddit's dumb views anyway.
RankingMember 7mo ago
> "idk i thought it was funny/interesting" which is valid Ha, I don't know your friends but in my experience that's like a textbook phrase people use to try to play off being duped when they're clued in
- inquirerGeneral 7mo ago
  [dead]
Bridged7756 7mo ago
Reddit is the fakest social media platform out there. The amount of fabricated situations like "my marbles totally aligned like this by themselves", or "my husband eats his hotdogs with toothpaste" and it's a picture of something odd but that someone could easily fabricate and take a picture of is just crazy. That kind of posts always reach the top pages too.

gadders 7mo ago

They have a whole "That Happened" subreddit just for the rubbish that people post, let alone AIs.

projektfu 7mo ago
Post an interesting true story and it will be referred to /r/thathappened. https://www.reddit.com/r/nothingeverhappens/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nothingeverhappens/

ticulatedspline 7mo ago

Been that way a long time, maybe always was. Bad behavior is often rewarded, compelling lies gain more upvotes than truth and there's little consequence for shitposting. I think it's gotten a bit worse as the platform has grown since there's more reward, astroturfing gets more eyes and is more effective, posts in general can get more karma so more fake internet points.

red-iron-pine 7mo ago
gotten worse since 2015, and you can see the big drop off after LLMs get big in ~2021
everdrive 7mo ago
It was pretty amazing in the early days. It has been bad for a while. The current era is definitely something new, though. Popular subreddits are mostly worthless, and the platform both cannot control all the bots and astroturfing, but also their attempts to do so have degraded the experience for the average user.
- ticulatedspline 7mo ago
  "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Was active on Reddit a long time ago, there's a liminal band of popularity in which a service tends to offer the best experience. Enough interest to be good, not enough interest to make it shitty or incentivize abuse. It's difficult to remain in that band particularly because at some point you have to actively fight growth, not sure HN is all that immune either. I think HN tries to stay in that band via it's archaic UI and somewhat intimidating culture.
  - everdrive 7mo ago
    Yep, I think that's right. Even if reddit, its company, and its moderators were all perfect, it might still crumble and become awful under the weight of its popularity. Too many bad actors, too many companies astroturfing, not enough monetization to solve these problems. And of course the site, the company, and the moderators are far from perfect.

idiotsecant 7mo ago

'Everything is astroturf' is such a boring and cynical worldview. Its good to be suspicious, but not at the cost of joy. Underwood sauce is good. They got screwed over. Sometimes a story is just a story.