‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

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. atraac · · focus · HN ↗
      I feel like most of their problems come from downvoting, not mods though. It's just not possible to have a real discussion on reddit anymore, because anything that is not the mainstream opinion just gets insta downvoted. People will literally downvote anything they don't agree with, and seem to be more likely to do that if they see the comment has a negative score already. If they allowed subreddits to turn off downvoting, and have HN-like system where every new comment lands on top for a while to give everyone a chance, that whole place would be much more healthy.
      1. Akronymus · · focus · HN ↗
        HN also only gived downvote perms after being active, afair.
        1. saghm · · focus · HN ↗
          IIRC it's unlocked at 500 karma. You need to contribute in ways the community considers valuable before you can signal that something isn't valuable.
          1. Akronymus · · focus · HN ↗
            Yeah I wasn't sure of the actual threshold (I kinda just lucked into a lot of karma early on because of a post about factorio releasing 1.0)
            1. saghm · · focus · HN ↗
              Ah, that makes sense. I'm basically the opposite, in around a decade I've posted articles directly maybe a dozen times, so it took me a while before I received the privilege to downvote.
              1. brokenmachine · · focus · HN ↗
                I only see downvote sometimes, for some reason. I don't see it available on the comments on this post.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.