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Comment by 57875786 | Hacker News Reader

Reddit at this point is a native advertising platform (not just the "promoted" stuff; much of the content on popular subs is astroterfing/native advertising too) with some "niche" communities that are always inferior (worse information, less informed members) than the equivalent StackExchange or dedicated website and message board that's been around for decades.

It's a garbage website.

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Reddit badges, btw, are a great example of native advertising. In addition to advertisers badging their native ads, I would guess that most badges on reddit are fake, either automatically awarded by the software to popular posts or given out arbitrarily by reddit staff, with the intent of giving users the impression that it's common for redditors to spend real money to "gild" or otherwise flair posts that they like, so that they might do the same (despite the fact that none of the money goes to the person who authored the post they like).

For those doubting this, remember that Reddit was bootstrapped by Spez and Alexis (by their own admission) posting stories through many sockpuppet accounts to make the early community seem larger and faster-growing than it really was.

EDIT: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/reddi...

> given out arbitrarily by reddit staff, with the intent of giving users the impression that it's common for redditors to spend real money to "gild" or otherwise flair posts that they like, so that they might do the same

I received for the first time yesterday, 100 credits for free from Reddit. I had to spend it within 24hrs or lose it, so I guilded the most interesting comment I read that hour.

I think that the amount of gilded awards that are ironically given to posts on r/conservative from members of r/politics largely disproves the idea that people are unwilling to spend stupid amounts of money on what amount to shiny baubles. How much that makes of their revenue however, is only known by reddit.

> ironically given to posts on r/conservative from members of r/politics

A lot of this could just be reddit staff astroterfing, but to the extent that it isn't, it (giving actual money, even small amounts, to flair reddit posts) just validates the stereotype that reddit as a platform selects for users with lower than average intelligence.

I don't believe the badges are fake. I've gotten quite a few of them, and each time, it's been from someone whose posting history makes it clear that they share a lot of ideas in common with me.

You're quite negative

If you compare it to all the current social medias, reddit seems to be fairest of them all. the admins are working quite hard to make sure things are balanced with moderators etc, but it's always a delicate balance.

It's obviously the target of astroturfers, but honestly it's a sign that reddit is actually quite a more organic network compared to others, if it's such a target.

Meanwhile, everybody knows facebook/instagram are less organic and too much oriented towards ads; reddit has much more authenticity, or at least that's how users feel.

I totally agree with your criticism, but it's not really the fault or the website, it's just impossible to prevent astroturfing, it's more of a law problem.

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