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Reddit astroturfed their own site with fake users. These guys are 1) astroturfing other people's sites, 2) practicing unethetical tactics by down-voting links t

by mahmud 13y ago

Reddit astroturfed their own site with fake users. These guys are 1) astroturfing other people's sites, 2) practicing unethetical tactics by down-voting links to competing websites with automated bots.

halayli 13y ago
The point is that they are equally dishonest.
- GhotiFish 13y ago
  hmm. I want to reserve judgment until I read about reddit astroturfing their own website. It reminds me of a golang presentation, where the speaker created an omegle clone, but to boot-strap it he used markov chain bots if no one connected in 5 seconds. http://vimeo.com/53221560 http://vimeo.com/53221560 . I didn't think of that as a particularly immoral thing to do. edit: Actually I'm not really sure what to search for here. Do you have an article going over the details?
- raganwald 13y ago
  Astroturfing your own site is a longstanding tradition in media. A long time ago in a career far, far away I wrote classified advertising software for desktop publishers, typically small outfits like trade magazines or penny-savers. When launching a new feature like classifieds, it does you no good to put out a blank page. So absolutely every customer that didn't already have classified ads would astroturf with fake ads. The ethics of their profession was to discard any mail-in replies unread. For example, one customer used my software for personals. They had a strict rule that any reply to one of the "fake" mailboxes was to be shredded immediately upon receipt, unopened. They didn't even want them laying around lest someone write down a name or return address. One there are enough "real" ads, the fake ones are phased out. I can't really say whether it is right or wrong, but I can say it seems to be a standard practice predating the world wide web.
  - GhotiFish 13y ago
    that's interesting, but they sure do seem the same. I'm thinking the only difference here is cultural. Like how we don't view reporting a price as $4.99 instead of $5 as unethical.
    - raganwald 13y ago
      Here's a phrase I feel comfortable using: It's a deceptive practice.

by mahmud 13y ago

halayli 13y ago

The point is that they are equally dishonest.

GhotiFish 13y ago
hmm. I want to reserve judgment until I read about reddit astroturfing their own website. It reminds me of a golang presentation, where the speaker created an omegle clone, but to boot-strap it he used markov chain bots if no one connected in 5 seconds. http://vimeo.com/53221560 http://vimeo.com/53221560 . I didn't think of that as a particularly immoral thing to do. edit: Actually I'm not really sure what to search for here. Do you have an article going over the details?
raganwald 13y ago
Astroturfing your own site is a longstanding tradition in media. A long time ago in a career far, far away I wrote classified advertising software for desktop publishers, typically small outfits like trade magazines or penny-savers. When launching a new feature like classifieds, it does you no good to put out a blank page. So absolutely every customer that didn't already have classified ads would astroturf with fake ads. The ethics of their profession was to discard any mail-in replies unread. For example, one customer used my software for personals. They had a strict rule that any reply to one of the "fake" mailboxes was to be shredded immediately upon receipt, unopened. They didn't even want them laying around lest someone write down a name or return address. One there are enough "real" ads, the fake ones are phased out. I can't really say whether it is right or wrong, but I can say it seems to be a standard practice predating the world wide web.
- GhotiFish 13y ago
  that's interesting, but they sure do seem the same. I'm thinking the only difference here is cultural. Like how we don't view reporting a price as $4.99 instead of $5 as unethical.
  - raganwald 13y ago
    Here's a phrase I feel comfortable using: It's a deceptive practice.