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Comment by rublev | Hacker News Reader

Probably because it's designed to feign organic interest in a niche market to get readers to hand over their money and thus little by little tactics like this erode faith in the web.

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Just the other day I was looking for a good running-hydration-backpack and Googling for that brought up a bevy of sites that used round-up lists of Amazon affiliate links. The content was relatively well-written, if bland. In the end, these listicles were too bland to be helpful and I ended up adding "site:reddit.com" to my query.

This reminds me of how Amazon reviews used to be really helpful, but more and more these days I'm seeing so many obviously fake reviews that are cluttering up the site, especially for "popular" products. It's really watering down the value of the site for me.

AKA The Wirecutter/Sweethome Strategy.

I don't think that's fair. Wirecutter/Sweethome is quite well researched and what is recommended they review directly.

It's also marketing to ensure your product is included in their reviews.

Yes, I like them too, but I'm not sure anybody else had really executed on that model before them, and at any rate they are the strategy to be copied nowadays.

Well, the incentives of the wirecutter are to recommend you the more expensive products, like any commission based salesman. And it shows.

What about sockpuppets when using site:.reddit.com ?

Nathan VaporAir.

Ultimate Direction AK 3.0

That's a huge vest. Mostly I use my handheld so even the VaporAir is more than I need. So different use cases for these two recommendations.

Yeah it definitely is a big pack. During the fall/winter here in the PNW I carry a lot of layers. I'm also Type I Diabetic so I carry some emergency supplies that I (hopefully) never use and most people don't need to bother with.

Lately I've been really liking the Jurek Endure. That plus an Amp handheld (squish it up and bungee it to the waist pack when empty) have been great for up to about 15 miles this summer.

Sooner or later the readers will find out the truth. But in the mean time before the market re-adjusts itself, he's raking in 10k per month.

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