Thread

Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests

312 points · 408 comments · p-s-v

nomilk · 1790655652 · 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. aurareturn · 1790656841 · focus · HN ↗
  My biggest problem with Reddit is that trolls, memes, unintelligent posts have taken over the platform. Go to any semi-popular subreddit and most upvoted posts are just low effort memes. Posts that are long and well thought out don't win over memes and trolls. One of the reasons is that posting a few short words wins in upvotes because they get posted first while it takes much longer to write something thoughtful.
  Reddit's system rewards these low effort posts for some reason. Over time, the platform becomes less and less trustworthy until it becomes something like Quora.
  1. cbg0 · 1790657464 · focus · HN ↗
    This has always been Reddit, aside from the niche subreddits.
    aurareturn · 1790658784 · focus · HN ↗
    I don't think so. I've been a Reddit user for 12+ years or so. Obviously when you make the platform easy to use for anyone, you also invite more casual users who just want to meme.
    Reddit doesn't even make any attempt to control quality since user engagement numbers matter more than quality.
    Reminds me of Quora which over optimized the site for engagement growth but eventually became completely useless for this reason.
    cbg0 · 1790661150 · focus · HN ↗
    Here's the front page from 12 years ago, not exactly riveting debates in top hats.
    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140929012305/http://www.reddit.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20140929012305/http://www.reddit...
    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140929073818/http://www.reddit.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20140929073818/http://www.reddit...
    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140929232807/http://www.reddit.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20140929232807/http://www.reddit...
    aurareturn · 1790665608 · focus · HN ↗
    The subreddits that I frequent have turned into a low effort meme fest.
    No original OP posts are allowed, only URLs from the same old websites.
    tayo42 · 1790667195 · focus · HN ↗
    Your reddit experience is from mods and their rules and how they enforce it, not the site overall.
    rusticpenn · 1790669417 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, look at AskHistorians. Its still pretty awesome.
    keiferski · 1790677007 · focus · HN ↗
    Not really, if you want to ask a question. 9/10 times it gets locked for breaking some obscure rule. If anyone answers, that answer is just deleted immediately as well.
    This type of subreddit specifically is almost entirely useless since the advent of AI.
    rusticpenn · 1790843478 · focus · HN ↗
    It depends. I have compard some answers with my discussions with different llms and i still find the answers in the sub qualitatively better.
    kelipso · 1790705616 · focus · HN ↗
    Every interesting question just shows a bunch of deleted comments, so I stopped looking at it a while ago.
    rusticpenn · 1790843423 · focus · HN ↗
    There is another sub which tracks answered questions. Its a side effect when focussing on quality.

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