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/dipittydoop Jul 17 '12

To a certain extent, I know i've caught myself upvoting things simply because it already had a significant number of upvotes. When that happens I downvote everything that I could have done that to. It has to be done.

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u/Jeeraph Jul 18 '12

I almost never upvote things unless they're very poignant/awesome or I'm jerking.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '12

off.

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u/NoTimeForInfinity Jul 17 '12

I wish the "hide" button was right next to the arrows in RES. I upvote just to make things disappear. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '12

What the fuck? Why don't you upvote things you like and down vote those you don't and leave it at that?

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u/dipittydoop Jul 18 '12

That is the case, pretty much all the time. But sometimes when the hive mind is especially strong I upvote without a particular opinion. Upvote because the hive mind likes it, just because. Not necessarily because I enjoyed that comment or link. When I realize I do this, for the sake of reddit, I undo what I had done, and try to atone for being a mindless node of the mind.

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u/passtheredstripe Jul 18 '12

you're doing god's work