Thread

Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

312 points · 408 comments · p-s-v

nomel · 1790637663 · 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 · 1790638357 · 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 · 1790638723 · 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?
    benoau · 1790641687 · 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.
    gib444 · 1790643687 · focus · HN ↗
    Working proxies (though probably the emulation you're referring to):
    <a href="https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib-instances/blob/main/instances.md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib-instances/blob/main/ins...

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