> Add "reddit" to get any sort of non-promoted human-driven knowledge
Do note that depending on which sub you venture in to, it might be very much promoted stuff
Random video game subs tend to be pretty good though
Do note that depending on which sub you venture in to, it might be very much promoted stuff
Random video game subs tend to be pretty good though
So searching for reviews on there is basically useless. At the same level as Amazon at this point. There will be some exceptions, but anonymity and very easy vote manipulation ability makes every review questionable at best. That being said, it is still very good for a quick "general question"-esque searches.
It's more "90% spam" vs. "40% spam". At least there's some signal within the noise, whereas for many topics the Google search is just 3 pages of ChatGPT pablum before you get to 5 more pages of manually-written SEO bait, with a small smattering of actual valuable information.
A) It's long enough that it's much less likely to be inorganic,
B) Provides enough context for more informed decision, and
C) in an ideal world if the parties disagree you get the advantage of adversarial discussion (hopefully still relatively friendly)
Admittedly, this is pretty uncommon, but I'm more likely to find it on reddit than anywhere else.
The other couple fun ones that are easy to spot - someone asks for a recommendation, and a comment is a list of 3+ brands to make it sound "organic". You go into the history of the account, and you can see they always include one specific brand name in every list they suggest with 4-5 months in between posts. Or someone asks for a recommendation (brand themselves), then there's a response from a random person suggesting a brand that is extremely niche, and the OP a few days later comments back saying "i tried this, and this is amazing!".
My guess is, most of it is a "long game", as Reddit et al. is extremely lurker-heavy. I could see SEO companies setting up shops and having different tactics to play the game. The other problem is, since every company is doing it, you will get a "great product from Reddit recommendations", as those great companies also have to do it. But it's just a gamble at that point. As much as I'm not a fan of them, I tend to stick with wirecutter / consumerreports as my "starting point" of the research, where it applies. Not the best, but I feel less tricked than going through Reddit.
-edit- also my point was about conversations that are significantly longer and more substantive than the ones you describe. That actually get into details, with back and forth.