‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

312 points · 408 comments · p-s-v

  1. nomel · · focus · HN ↗
    > Thin accounts: few comments, low scores, no real standing in the subreddit.

    > Young accounts, or accounts with histories that are hidden or wiped.

    Nope, this is no longer an indicator of a bot account. Many that I've looked into will have active posts to local town/region subreddits (often times multiple!) and different sports subreddits, sometimes getting unusually high amounts of karma in them (which suggests a network).

    Turing test is looong dead, so no reason to assume the small fractions of a cent to make comments, to get a reasonable history, isn't being taken advantage of.

    1. drop_star · · focus · HN ↗
      Ya this is me. I used to use the web version now im 'required' to have an account. I just create and delete accounts every couple weeks. I use the generic Word-Word-#### and keep my history private.
      1. irishcoffee · · focus · HN ↗
        Out of curiosity, why? The amount of times I’ve banged out a Reddit or hn response and deleted it is almost uncountable. Why do you bother replying to Reddit comments?
        1. benoau · · focus · HN ↗
          You need an account just to browse old.reddit.com now, there's some extensions that do an okay job of emulating it but it's not quite the same.
          1. gib444 · · focus · HN ↗
            Working proxies (though probably the emulation you're referring to):

            <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;redlib-org&#x2F;redlib-instances&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;instances.md" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;redlib-org&#x2F;redlib-instances&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;ins...

          2. Akronymus · · focus · HN ↗
            set the cookie &quot;redesign_optout&quot; to true
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.