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Reddit hacking for votes and profit

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Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#11

Post by terra_t »

Stevenup7002 wrote: post #7

I really don't see the point any more, almost everyone who uses these sites can pretty much automatically tune themselves out from spam now. Give up.

The people who do things like this, those who do any social media operations (SMO), are smart enough to use it to promote 'acceptable' content that won't be flagged as spam.

If it comes down to a war with the operators of the site, you will lose. If it gets personal, they'll burn you.

Successful SMO promotes content which, plausibly, you'd imagine succeeded organically. Sometimes the content is excellent and sometimes it's a little substandard, but it doesn't stick out as spam. It decorates itself in a pretty cloak to look legitimate.

Unethical tactics in SMO are like steroid use in sports: Steroid users aren't lazy people taking a shortcut, they're people who train hard, can play a good game honestly, but are looking for an edge that will keep them in the market.

It's a tough business because social traffic isn't good traffic for people who play the numbers game. You've got to relentlessly produce fresh content and relentlessly promote it. If you stop, you could be left with little permanent traffic. You'll get hooked on social traffic, however, by the ego rush you get the first time you get a burst of it and it crashes your server.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#12

Post by barrkel »

terra_t wrote: post #5
kylec wrote: post #3

...as long as the article is interesting, this can be quite successful. If the article's interesting you don't need to game the system - people will vote on it naturally.

Not necessarily. Most people find success on social media sites is capricious; not a lot of people read the "new" queue, so your first few organic votes are a matter of luck. Downvotes on reddit make this go double. Even great content can get buried if it doesn't get noticed. For instance, there's a certain blog on a three letter domain name for which I'll sometimes see two or three posting on the front page at HN. T…

It's rather ironic too, as jgc has a background in anti-spam. That's not to say his content is spam; but it is usually merely good.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#13

Post by barrkel »

terra_t wrote: post #4
StavrosK wrote: post #2

This is odd, considering how reddit bans the submission as soon as two accounts vote on it from the same IP. EDIT: Hmm, the page in the video says "unique IPs", so it looks like they are used remotely. Odd.

I knew this purple-haired superheroine who did this to a certain "Zone" which is famous for vapid and incoherent blog postings written in broken English. She made about 1000 fake accounts and used Tor to make them appear to come from multiple IP addresses. The fake accounts were made with a statistical model that generated plausible usernames, real names, profile pictures and everything -- it could even pair up the g…

I believe those cheap SOCKS5 proxies are often actually implemented over bot nets.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#14

Post by terra_t »

barrkel wrote: post #13
terra_t wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew this purple-haired superheroine who did this to a certain "Zone" which is famous for vapid and incoherent blog postings written in broken English. She made about 1000 fake accounts and used Tor to make them appear to come from multiple IP addresses. The fake accounts were made with a statistical model that generated plausible usernames, real names, profile pictures and everything -- it could even pair up the g…

I believe those cheap SOCKS5 proxies are often actually implemented over bot nets.

You can definitely buy them from people who host their own machines in data centers.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#15

Post by jacquesm »

terra_t wrote: post #4
StavrosK wrote: post #2

This is odd, considering how reddit bans the submission as soon as two accounts vote on it from the same IP. EDIT: Hmm, the page in the video says "unique IPs", so it looks like they are used remotely. Odd.

I knew this purple-haired superheroine who did this to a certain "Zone" which is famous for vapid and incoherent blog postings written in broken English. She made about 1000 fake accounts and used Tor to make them appear to come from multiple IP addresses. The fake accounts were made with a statistical model that generated plausible usernames, real names, profile pictures and everything -- it could even pair up the g…

For every good thing that you could create on the internet there are going to be people hell bent on screwing it up.

Your 'friend' and her copycats think they are somehow entitled to that traffic, which in the long run is responsible for the famous eternal September feeling that many websites have.

Gaming the system is like the internet equivalent of slash-and-burn agriculture.

I don't care whether it works or not, or whether you consider it justified because her content was good I think it sucks.

If you want to have that traffic start your own social site, promote that and make it work, then feel what it is like to have people come out to game the system and use your knowledge of how such systems can be gamed to put a stop to it.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#16

Post by stcredzero »

terra_t wrote: post #4
StavrosK wrote: post #2

This is odd, considering how reddit bans the submission as soon as two accounts vote on it from the same IP. EDIT: Hmm, the page in the video says "unique IPs", so it looks like they are used remotely. Odd.

I knew this purple-haired superheroine who did this to a certain "Zone" which is famous for vapid and incoherent blog postings written in broken English. She made about 1000 fake accounts and used Tor to make them appear to come from multiple IP addresses. The fake accounts were made with a statistical model that generated plausible usernames, real names, profile pictures and everything -- it could even pair up the g…

I knew this purple-haired superheroine who did this to a certain "Zone"

Because of this, I was picturing Ramona Flowers performing the rest of the actions described in your comment.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#17

Post by stcredzero »

terra_t wrote: post #11
Stevenup7002 wrote: post #7

I really don't see the point any more, almost everyone who uses these sites can pretty much automatically tune themselves out from spam now. Give up.

The people who do things like this, those who do any social media operations (SMO), are smart enough to use it to promote 'acceptable' content that won't be flagged as spam. If it comes down to a war with the operators of the site, you will lose. If it gets personal, they'll burn you. Successful SMO promotes content which, plausibly, you'd imagine succeeded organically. Sometimes the content is excellent and sometime…

If you replace SMO with propaganda, your comment makes an even more thought provoking read.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#18

Post by stcredzero »

terra_t wrote: post #5
kylec wrote: post #3

...as long as the article is interesting, this can be quite successful. If the article's interesting you don't need to game the system - people will vote on it naturally.

Not necessarily. Most people find success on social media sites is capricious; not a lot of people read the "new" queue, so your first few organic votes are a matter of luck. Downvotes on reddit make this go double. Even great content can get buried if it doesn't get noticed. For instance, there's a certain blog on a three letter domain name for which I'll sometimes see two or three posting on the front page at HN. T…

Most people find success on social media sites is capricious; not a lot of people read the "new" queue, so your first few organic votes are a matter of luck. Downvotes on reddit make this go double. Even great content can get buried if it doesn't get noticed.

I've seen this happening as well. I've also had several experiences of submitting a link and having it buried at -2 or -3 and then seeing a different link on the same subject up-voted a day or so later.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#19

Post by terra_t »

jacquesm wrote: post #15
terra_t wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew this purple-haired superheroine who did this to a certain "Zone" which is famous for vapid and incoherent blog postings written in broken English. She made about 1000 fake accounts and used Tor to make them appear to come from multiple IP addresses. The fake accounts were made with a statistical model that generated plausible usernames, real names, profile pictures and everything -- it could even pair up the g…

For every good thing that you could create on the internet there are going to be people hell bent on screwing it up. Your 'friend' and her copycats think they are somehow entitled to that traffic, which in the long run is responsible for the famous eternal September feeling that many websites have. Gaming the system is like the internet equivalent of slash-and-burn agriculture. I don't care whether it works or not, o…

It's hard to say.

The toughest problem people have starting community sites is getting the community. Dealing with problem behaviors is something you worry about after you've got the community. Just as casinos hire shills, many community site operators use Mechanical Turk or statistical models to get the ball rolling...

Who knows, we might soon have replicants that are more satisfying to interact with than ordinary humans.

Re: Reddit hacking for votes and profit

#20

Post by terra_t »

stcredzero wrote: post #17
terra_t wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who do things like this, those who do any social media operations (SMO), are smart enough to use it to promote 'acceptable' content that won't be flagged as spam. If it comes down to a war with the operators of the site, you will lose. If it gets personal, they'll burn you. Successful SMO promotes content which, plausibly, you'd imagine succeeded organically. Sometimes the content is excellent and sometime…

If you replace SMO with propaganda, your comment makes an even more thought provoking read.

Good insight. My thinking today has moved beyond SMO more in the directions of public relations.
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