As the site has been growing, I feel like there are increasesd amounts of astroturfing going on. Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, or maybe I've visited r/hailcorporate too many times. However, consider this - reddit is a huge website with a lot of reach, where it's free to post. Even better than that, you can control discussions if you're a moderator. This means you can advertise comparatively cheaply, in a way that looks genuine and reach a wide, desirable audience with your message.
Would you be surprised if there are whole businesses that specialise in creating positive content about brands on reddit? I would be shocked if there weren't.
Especially because every non-expert thinks they are an expert, and if you aren't familiar with the subject matter, it can be difficult to spot
On hackernews- there are rarely subscription sites- and when there is, the first comment is typically how to view for free. Likewise with literally every other forum I frequent.
It's particularly interesting in a /r/politics subreddit that is fairly anti-capitalist