[HN Gopher] Self promo on social apps like Reddit is banned BC i...
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Self promo on social apps like Reddit is banned BC it supports
grift economies
Author : winternett
Score : 10 points
Date : 2023-03-06 20:16 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (circuitbored.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (circuitbored.com)
| 650 wrote:
| It's supported for those in the know-how via astroturfing. Buy
| 2-10 year old reddit accounts for $$$ and leave a real person
| esque comment pointing back to your product. It's gotten worse
| over the years.
|
| One way to see this is looking at the user who posted the review,
| even if it's an old account, some companies are lazy and only
| have a few comments on sports/entertainment subreddits and then
| their most recent being a link to their comment. Of course this
| could be a real user, but I believe I can discern a fake. Tougher
| are those who interleave paid posts in between real comments.
|
| I think with the rise of Chat-GPT esque farms, user reviews will
| be tougher.
|
| I find people place a lot of trust in creators (tiktok,
| instagram, etc.) believing because the creator is "big" (5-100k
| followers), but not too big, they can trust them. They often are
| just in it for the money though and grift often as well.
| Veuxdo wrote:
| Since this is about music, specifically, and the author mentions
| Spotify, I'll point out that Spotify sees 60,000 new tracks
| released every day. If Reddit et. al. didn't suppress self-
| promotion, they'd get overwhelmed.
| winternett wrote:
| Spotify can easily make algorithmic changes to sort out low
| quality and low-listener-rated content (after a
| healthy/authentic audience has been exposed to each upload).
| This is what they should be primarily focused on.
| Unfortunately, sites like spotify make most uploads languish
| without being heard at all, unless the uploader pays (a minimum
| of $250) to promote their work on spotify. There is no
| incentive for Spotify to be fair when they get revenue from
| struggling artists in this manner.
|
| There are even numerous reports that Spotify (indirectly) is
| involved in creating fake accounts, playlists, and uploads in
| order to seize the lion share of profit for it and it's
| affiliated parties. SOURCE:
| https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fake+artists+on...
|
| Spotify is a MAJOR company that earns a LOT of money off of
| user uploaded content. They can afford to moderate and police
| content better very easily to be honest. Excuses should not be
| made for their lack of intervention in fraud and payola
| schemes.
|
| SOURCE: In 2022, music streaming service Spotify generated a
| revenue of over 11.7 billion euros
| (https://www.statista.com/statistics/813713/spotify-
| revenue/#....)
| Veuxdo wrote:
| Maybe they can help at the margins, but 60,000 new tracks per
| day is simply too many to deal with in a fair way, "major"
| company or not.
| winternett wrote:
| Management of Spotify isn't based on tracks, it's based on
| artists, which is a much easier pool to manage. That being
| said, with modern day scripting, it's pretty easy to
| evaluate 60,000 tracks in one day.
|
| The DMV manages records for Billions of citizens on a
| routine basis.
| oidar wrote:
| There is an interesting astroturfing/spamming tactic on Reddit
| that is currently being used, and it is practically invisible to
| Reddit admins. Here are the steps:
|
| -1- Create at least two Reddit accounts - an astroturfing account
| and a moderator account. -2- Moderator account: Become a
| moderator of a medium-sized subreddit - it doesn't have to be
| about your promotion target. You can either buy a Reddit account
| or petition to be a moderator through various means. Use your
| moderation credentials to become a moderator of a relevant
| subreddit that is run by an absent moderator. -3- Astroturf
| account: Start astroturfing - by putting your links on any post
| that is relevant to your product in the relevant subreddit. -4-
| Moderator account: Set the spam filter to automatically delete
| all posts and domains by astroturf users. -5- Moderator account:
| Approve the deleted spam comments/posts.
|
| Now, after that, Reddit won't care if you mark those
| comments/posts as spam because they have already been identified
| as spam, but the moderator approved them.
|
| To get Reddit to take action in a situation like this, I had to
| send probably over 20-30 reports. Reddit is making it harder and
| harder to get in touch with administrators/abuse teams -
| everything is automated. The key phrase that I think got the
| issue raised was something like, "I believe these posts/comments
| violate FCC rules regarding material connection to XYZ.com.
| Moreover, the relationship between the moderators of the XXX
| subreddit and the astroturfing accounts violates moderator
| guidelines and promotion rules."
| winternett wrote:
| It's all getting to be so convoluted... The common thread is
| usually in buying already popular/followed accounts, running
| platform ads, and subverting everyone else with downvotes so
| your posts rise to the top... Yikes...
|
| I had a sub of my own, and I just kept it set to personal
| posts, but eventually reddit banned all my associated accounts
| for cross posting to a music subreddit (first time offense =
| permanent ban), and that orphaned my subreddit to this day.
|
| I refuse to have to resort to wild tactics online just to be
| visible, even though I could hack things, I also fear that's
| exactly what will cause me to eventually quit out of a lack of
| growth.
| steponlego wrote:
| Let's stop calling web sites "apps" _RIGHT THIS INSTANT._
| winternett wrote:
| It also encompasses social media apps, far beyond just reddit.
|
| It was uncovered that many scams were run on Facebook and
| Instagram by employees that locked users out of their accounts
| for ransom. The whole industry of social media APPS and SITES
| supports a huge underbelly of toxic corruption... It's a swamp
| if you look deep enough.
| steponlego wrote:
| I agree completely except for calling everything an app.
| Social media is causing societal decay, depression, and many
| immoral unhealthy things to be normalized. Including
| nepotism.
| winternett wrote:
| Amen, It is really creating a system where only wealth and
| nepotism are acclaimed. In many ways too character
| assassination and spreading false information have become
| exponentially worse and more weaponized. I worry about the
| future of where all this is going. :/
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(page generated 2023-03-06 23:02 UTC)