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RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#51

Post by ZoneZealot »

ceejayoz wrote: post #48
gosub100 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so painfully obvious too. On my local subreddit: "what's the best ice cream shop in $CITY?" Check their post history, one "lol" on a cat pic on /r/aww 8 months ago. 4 lines of code could catch this.

> Check their post history, one "lol" on a cat pic on /r/aww 8 months ago. And now Reddit has made it possible to hide your post history. Probably because of this exact issue.

The funny thing about that is it's extremely simple to bypass. On old or new reddit, search 'author:example' to find posts by /u/example. Or to see both comments and posts, on new reddit go to the user profile and do blank search like a single space character.

That's using reddit's own site, of course there are other methods like Google dorks.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#52

Post by truetraveller »

CamelCaseName wrote: post #23
_vqpz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sockpuppet accounts are literally the foundation of Reddit [1] [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/reddi...

Not a "gotcha" There's obviously a massive difference between using sockpuppet accounts to: * Influence perception on a social media platform as a 3rd party vs. * Put content on a social media platform that users are looking for so they return to the platform It doesn't matter who shares a story with you on social media if the goal is to entertain, but it does matter if the goal is to get you to do something [spend m…

The "value" of Reddit as a platform is knowing that people ORGANICALLY liked content. Otherwise, just go to an aggregator. These sock puppet accounts were there to deceive, no doubt. Obviously, they are "different" in some ways, but deceptive nonetheless.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#53

Post by pclmulqdq »

Teever wrote: post #12
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #8

Astroturfing on reddit has been a thing for over a decade and has really accelerated over the last few years. There's several companies where literally that is their business model to promote your product or service on reddit. I saw one for sale on acquire.com a while back for 7 figures

I’m shocked when I come across people who think that sockpuppeting doesn’t happen on social media including HN. I wish there were laws that required large social media sites to publish data to their end users that indicate the severity of the problem.

HN gets a lot less sockpuppeting/astroturfing than reddit or twitter, as far as I can tell. There is some of it, but if it gets too big dang et al seem to generally put a stop to it.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#54

Post by qwerpy »

throw-12-16 wrote: post #38
opengrass wrote: post #24

Welcome to Reddit. That, and the code camp thing. Reddit is a terrible anyway.

Reddit is the garbage bin of the internet.

Better to have the garbage collected somewhere than to have it strewn about everywhere.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#55

Post by minimaxir »

uoaei wrote: post #49
minimaxir wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News doesn't memoryhole anti-YC threads.

Can you make a case why you'd be an authority on the matter?

I know a bit how HN works: https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented

But as noted by freehorse, dang has stated it multiple times and I personally have not seen any threads memoryholed and would call out YC if they were.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#56

Post by freehorse »

uoaei wrote: post #49
minimaxir wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacker News doesn't memoryhole anti-YC threads.

Can you make a case why you'd be an authority on the matter?

To be fair, a moderator has stated this many times https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#57

Post by tedivm »

throw-12-16 wrote: post #17
zx0r2 wrote: post #2

a YC company being unethical, shocking...

I am shocked! I mean I am shocked that this post didn't get flagged immediately ofc.

Honestly I've posted about some unethical YC companies before and those posts got a lot of attention without being removed. That said we'll see what happens here.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#58

Post by tedivm »

bigbadfeline wrote: post #28

> Astroturfing: Coordinated campaigns... [to post,] upvote, leave supportive comments, and ask follow-up questions—creating the illusion of organic excitement... Critical comments receive coordinated mass downvotes. I thought that was the dictionary definition of social media? If it isn't yet, it should be, Reddit is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are laws in the US, and if you're advertising you have to disclose it.

Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?

#59

Post by tedivm »

baxtr wrote: post #35
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #8

Astroturfing on reddit has been a thing for over a decade and has really accelerated over the last few years. There's several companies where literally that is their business model to promote your product or service on reddit. I saw one for sale on acquire.com a while back for 7 figures

For those like me who didn’t know: Astroturfing is the practice of creating a fake "grassroots" movement to make it look like a cause, product, or candidate has widespread public support when they actually do not.

Also for people who don't know, if you pay someone to post something (including just giving them a free product) it has to be disclosed. Astroturfing is (in simple terms) a form of fraud and the FTC does go over companies for it.
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