OP makes a compelling argument regarding the tensions between advertisers selling hype, and your average redditor's desire to tell it straight (anti-hype) Here

OP makes a compelling argument regarding the tensions between advertisers selling hype, and your average redditor's desire to tell it straight (anti-hype) Here's an idea: there are some companies/services that are genuinely awesome and yet not marketed well. Now one may say they hardly need advertising because reddit promotes them naturally. However, not all aforementioned companies explode and make it huge on reddit. So, what if you had a system whereby one incentivizes honest disclosure, whilst downplaying overselling? In other words, a genuinely awesome small startup/service might submit itself and gain exposure (with full disclosure.) Upon a success, they would subsequently make a proportional payment for advertising to reddit, to help sustain the ecosystem. It has parallels with a freemium model whereby some users (in this case successfully advertised companies) sustain the the others (non-paying users and companies).