I'm sure people already know that there are a lot of agencies around which sell you votes on relevant platforms, so any given company can - for peanuts(!) - just upvote positive 'real' comments and downvote the same for the competitors products etc. Machine Learning is super good in determining if a given comment is about, and wherever its a or comment. That's more then enough time for even the biggest corporations to act on.ĭo keep in mind that the influencing agency doesn't actually have to write comments. Going on various social media platforms to decide on a purchase has already been an established pattern for more then 10 years. Your phrasing makes it sound like a conspiracy, but its really not. There's no room for thoughtful discussion and discourse on the majority of the site, just shitposting and low rung commentary.īecause of that, having a productive/net positive Reddit experience comes with a high barrier to entry in knowing which communities to pay attention to and which time sinks to avoid. So many low quality posts and comments that encapsulate all the negatives about "internet culture". It's the noise of the entire internet, jam packed into a webpage. I'm sure fraud happens, but I have personally not (yet) been affected by it when transacting on the platform.īut the main, core "Reddit experience" as algorithmically produced by r/Popular is a complete dumpster fire. One of Reddit's strengths is being able to tie a username to a post history across many interests, which has given me enough confidence signals in buying and selling things on there. I've also bought and sold various digital and physical goods through HardwareSwap, GameSale, SteamGameSwap, and others. Keto was helpful in my weight loss journey HomeImprorvement is great for repair advice There are pockets of great, high signal communities on Reddit that have not been unbundled. Reddit is an intentionally designed dopamine machine with some areas of usefulness.