Live data from Hacker News

I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

twitter.com

41–50 of 259 posts

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#41
Disheartening, but definitely not a new thing. As OP / others pointed out, many are super obvious. Others are less so.

As more and more companies try to go the content marketing route, getting the all-too important backlinks become basically required. If you aren't getting them organically, then this is a great way to "kickstart" that process. Once you are in front of more eyeballs, then the organic growth can start (if your products are good/useful)

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#42
post #38

The Twitter thread has a lot more. There's a person or firm who is doing black-hat content marketing at scale. They either approach freelance bloggers to write articles about their clients (to be submitted to Medium-hosted and similar blogs as if written by unaffiliated users), or create Medium profiles for fake names and write the posts themselves. Posts have appeared in Better Programming, DEV.to, FAUN, freeCodeCam…

> There's a person or firm who is doing black-hat content marketing at scale. No!!! You don't say!

Wait, you mean I can't believe everything i read online!!!

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#43

The Twitter thread has a lot more. There's a person or firm who is doing black-hat content marketing at scale. They either approach freelance bloggers to write articles about their clients (to be submitted to Medium-hosted and similar blogs as if written by unaffiliated users), or create Medium profiles for fake names and write the posts themselves. Posts have appeared in Better Programming, DEV.to, FAUN, freeCodeCam…

It would be a good idea to present stronger evidence before saying HN is astroturfable. It has one of the strongest anti astroturf systems I’ve seen, primarily because of how HN works (which, sadly, is hard to discuss openly).

I believe you about Reddit, but it’s going to be quite hard to buy your way into HN, no matter how cleverly you do it.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. But it’s so easy to believe, and so hard to do, that it warrants skepticism.

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#44
post #18

I don't endorse this behavior at all but can it really be said to be black-hat? imho seems more gray to me. From what I understand, content _is_ being generated and there are attempts to boost the SEO, so they're providing a service and it's not outright theft. At worst it just sounds like poor practice and gaming the system. They're not acting maliciously, illegally, and/or destructively, which is how I've always de…

> They're not acting maliciously, illegally, and/or destructively, which is how I've always defined black-hat. Am I missing something?

It probably is illegal if they aren't disclosing a paid relationship: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/dis...

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#45
post #18

I don't endorse this behavior at all but can it really be said to be black-hat? imho seems more gray to me. From what I understand, content _is_ being generated and there are attempts to boost the SEO, so they're providing a service and it's not outright theft. At worst it just sounds like poor practice and gaming the system. They're not acting maliciously, illegally, and/or destructively, which is how I've always de…

If this isn't black-hat, what is? Specifically, an author not disclosing an affiliation or payment, fake accounts promoting it, and fake accounts commenting on those promotions. In the continuum between white and black, what's left on the black side? :-)

You dummy. How about actual fraud? Hijacking sites, puting in secret back links. Paying for content is not black hat.

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#46
post #29

Isn't this extremely common honestly? Isn't this so common it has names like "astroturfing" and "growth hacking"? This so not black hat that it's basically just regular ol' hat. Yeah creating fake grass roots support isn't particularly new, and I would venture that it's been around as long as there's been marketing.

Yes. Reddit upvotes are dirt cheap and sites sell article spots all the time.

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#47

The Twitter thread has a lot more. There's a person or firm who is doing black-hat content marketing at scale. They either approach freelance bloggers to write articles about their clients (to be submitted to Medium-hosted and similar blogs as if written by unaffiliated users), or create Medium profiles for fake names and write the posts themselves. Posts have appeared in Better Programming, DEV.to, FAUN, freeCodeCam…

It would be a good idea to present stronger evidence before saying HN is astroturfable. It has one of the strongest anti astroturf systems I’ve seen, primarily because of how HN works (which, sadly, is hard to discuss openly). I believe you about Reddit, but it’s going to be quite hard to buy your way into HN, no matter how cleverly you do it. I’m not saying it’s impossible. But it’s so easy to believe, and so hard t…

I think that anti-astroturf systems are definitely one of the things that should qualify to remain as proprietary data of the people who run the servers.

Much the same as the best online payment processing anti-fraud services are an opaque black box that you feed some data into, and you get a result back. They don't tell you what's going on inside the black box.

I would not be surprised at all if the top vendors for online payment processing fraud detection also offer services for anti-sockpuppet/anti-inauthentic user detection. Some of the methods going on in the back end to analyze the validity of a transaction will also apply.

Considering the modern weaponization of social media to manipulate stocks, elections, protests and such, I would consider that sort of SaaS to be a growth market.

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#48

The Twitter thread has a lot more. There's a person or firm who is doing black-hat content marketing at scale. They either approach freelance bloggers to write articles about their clients (to be submitted to Medium-hosted and similar blogs as if written by unaffiliated users), or create Medium profiles for fake names and write the posts themselves. Posts have appeared in Better Programming, DEV.to, FAUN, freeCodeCam…

It would be a good idea to present stronger evidence before saying HN is astroturfable. It has one of the strongest anti astroturf systems I’ve seen, primarily because of how HN works (which, sadly, is hard to discuss openly). I believe you about Reddit, but it’s going to be quite hard to buy your way into HN, no matter how cleverly you do it. I’m not saying it’s impossible. But it’s so easy to believe, and so hard t…

How I initially joined HN: Made an account to point out an astroturf post I saw someone promoting elsewhere to upvote spam.

I was just a passive consumer before.

Re: I found black-hat content marketers: sockpuppet bloggers, fake Reddit/HN accts

#49

The Twitter thread has a lot more. There's a person or firm who is doing black-hat content marketing at scale. They either approach freelance bloggers to write articles about their clients (to be submitted to Medium-hosted and similar blogs as if written by unaffiliated users), or create Medium profiles for fake names and write the posts themselves. Posts have appeared in Better Programming, DEV.to, FAUN, freeCodeCam…

It would be a good idea to present stronger evidence before saying HN is astroturfable. It has one of the strongest anti astroturf systems I’ve seen, primarily because of how HN works (which, sadly, is hard to discuss openly). I believe you about Reddit, but it’s going to be quite hard to buy your way into HN, no matter how cleverly you do it. I’m not saying it’s impossible. But it’s so easy to believe, and so hard t…

> which, sadly, is hard to discuss openly

Why is this?

Post reply on HN