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Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

312 points · 408 comments · p-s-v

  1. nomilk · · focus · HN ↗
    The biggest problem I have with reddit is mods can slowly but systematically ban users who express unfavourable opinions, and over time, anyone casually browsing could mistakenly believe those views are unpopular, whereas in reality everyone with that view (everyone who spoke it, anyway) was banned.

    To give a simple example, one video game franchise subreddit bans any negative discussion on the most recent title. Over 5-10 years, this shielded them from negative feedback. But the franchise has tanked because core users weren't listened to, and they ended up making something nobody wanted.

    1. charlesfries · · focus · HN ↗
      The business model is fundamentally broken. Reddit, unlike other sites driven by user-generated content, forgoes the cost of huge (but ideally impartial) content moderation teams in favor of unpaid user moderators, leading to what you've described. Nothing will change unless the business model changes.
      1. TheqO · · focus · HN ↗
        Yes, it's now a listed company.

        Shareholders want to get paid. CEO wants to get paid.

        The primary KPI's are revenue and profit, customer satisfaction will only matter if people actively quit.

        I started to get banned from subreddits after giving perfectly polite comments which happened to be contrary to popular opinion, so stopped posting on Reddit and only read it with an ad-blocking browser.

        Don't give them content, don't give them your data and revenue. Reddit know full well that there should be an appeal process to user-mod nazi's. But these people obsessively post new content on their forums and so are protected.

        RIP Aaron <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=gpvcc9C8SbM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=gpvcc9C8SbM

      2. philipallstar · · focus · HN ↗
        Twitter did the same with paid mods, because paid mods are no more likely to be impartial than unpaid ones.
      3. Hendrikto · · focus · HN ↗
        Paid content moderation teams are also biased and partial.
        1. dataengineer56 · · focus · HN ↗
          Yes but not to the same extent. Professional, paid moderators following a centrally-defined set of rules are going to act differently to terminally-online volunteer mods.
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