• @[email protected]
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      163 hours ago

      Conspiracy hat on:

      It’s done by Reddit themselves. They know user visits are dropping. They know power users have slipped. To avoid making it look like a desert, they have bots create content.

      Reddit’s origin story is sockpuppeting as users.

      They’ll do it again

      • @NotMyOldRedditName
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        2 hours ago

        The difference between now and then though, is they were a private company.

        Unless they disclose they use bots to post content and make the site look active, any use of user count and engagement for any aspect of the company becomes fraud as its misleading investors.

        Oh we have 1 million posts an hour! Fraud.

        Oh we have 100 million monthly active users! Fraud!

        Investors Q/A - do you use bots? Answer No. Fraud.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 hours ago

          Fraud doesn’t really stop a big company, if they can get away with it.

          Facebook for example.

          And whose to say it’s not them directly, but a “third party who Reddit pays for user acquisition” services?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      5 hours ago

      Selling accounts with high karma to people wanting to push an agenda with a seemingly legit account

    • @[email protected]
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      95 hours ago

      Mature accounts with some activity are worth money to people looking to AstroTurf political discussions.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 hours ago

      I haven’t thought about Reddit since the mod ban but aren’t people being paid to make content? So could be mass farming nickels?