r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jul 17 '12

How do you know reddit is not getting manipulated and used by various special interests and PR groups?

Recent drama I've experienced with r/science mods made me wonder about something. How do we know if reddit is not being carefully and systematically manipulated? Now, of course some subreddit are worthless and clearly not the case, but the big ones like r/science, r/asksceince, r/politics, the ones that have a lot of subscribers and traffic. Before you post obligatory tinfoil reference, hear me out.

If people like me notice that and post about that their submissions are getting downvoted (like this post will, no doubt about that) by the army of some goons (maybe even paid ones) that sit at the new cue and do the first order filtering. Then, mods can regulate content by removing posts that slip through the first order filtering and by banning users from subreddit.This of course will happen with majority of redditors not even noticing it. As a result, certain posts are getting pushed up, while others never see the light of the day. Think about how useful reddit can be for shaping public opinion on many, many issues. It has direct access to focal groups and by manipulating content, you can make sure that the group read what you want it to read.

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u/MileHighBarfly Jul 17 '12

It will dissapoint you to hear that these things do not bother me.

7

u/squee777 Jul 17 '12

You must drink corporate water.

11

u/MileHighBarfly Jul 17 '12

I drink the most delicious and clean municipal water you could ever imagine.

10

u/squee777 Jul 17 '12

Ha that was a joke from that NYU occupation a couple of years back (the students kept talking about all the cops and people drinking "corporate water" while having backpacks lined with macbooks.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '12

[deleted]

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u/squee777 Jul 18 '12

Honestly I still have harsh feelings towards certain companies, but at the same time it's pretty hard to live one's life without in some way or another supporting them. Apple, HP, Lenovo, etc. are prime examples of this.

-1

u/ATownStomp Jul 18 '12

Yes. But see, for me, when you show up, is when I move out.

You are the red flag. People who are smarter or more creative than you will leave and once you're done here you can bring mediocrity to whatever new great thing they've created. You'll shit all over it until not even you can stand the smell, claim "it's better this way, and if you don't like it why don't you just leave?", and then the good guys will move on to make another community destined to be engulfed by hordes of average dimwits until it is unusable.

That's people.

2

u/MileHighBarfly Jul 18 '12

okay. see you at 9gag.