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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. geocar · · 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.

      DDG search "buy pre-aged reddit accounts" and you will find all of these. You can even search reddit for this.

      The author of the article has no fucking idea what they are talking about. Buying "comments" is for chumps.

      > I score it this way because an account that keeps bringing up the same brand is the product the vendors above are selling.

      Or man, I just like my knife: It's older than my kid, and I've never had to do anything but hone it, and it'll still cut a piece of paper or a tomato no sweat. The next comment will be someone asking what brand of knife it is.

      1. paweladamczuk · · focus · HN ↗
        I want to ask instead what stone you use and where/how did you learn to sharpen the knife?
      2. samudrijan · · focus · HN ↗
        How was the tomato?
      3. wiseowise · · focus · HN ↗
        What brand of knife is it?
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