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Apologies if this is a repost. They’re scared lol.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/14q12g7/subreddits_are_starting_to_see_spam_from/
Looks like r/programming discovered the astroturfing, so in true Reddit fashion they simply shut down the subreddit entirely to avoid the spread of negative public sentiment. Thanks for galvanizing my resolve to migrate to the fediverse, Spez
Shut down, you say? Every subreddit should post such truths, you say? Reddit will atomize itself instantly, you say?
Okay, maybe not but it's a fun thought, no?
I noticed this happened before the reddit blackouts. I haven't been to reddit since. Is this a new occurrence of the same ChatGPT astroturfing or is this that same news?
r/programming was one of the earliest subreddits, I think it was actually #2. Can't view it anymore, but the moderation team of r/programming would have been pretty reddit admin/staff heavy. Pretty sure spez was listed on the moderation team at one point.
Hello i hope you dont mind if i post that post, in case someone does not want to go onto reddit:
r/Save3rdPartyApps
u/attackofmilk
Subreddits are starting to see spam from anti-protest, pro-admin ChatGPT bots
Thread on /r/Pics discussing bot spam. (Pics is now NSFW, but this thread is only profanity / vulgarity.)
/r/pics/comments/14puynz/chatgpt_bots_are_spamming_proadmin_astroturf/
/r/Programming closed (by admins?) after community recognition of bot spam:
Ycombinator thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36361247
Top-voted post from /r/Programming before it closed: https://web.archive.org/web/20230611210834/https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/146wn9s/meta_who_is_astroturfing_rprogramming_and_why/
(I would have just crossposted the top thread directly, but this sub forbids crossposting NSFW posts (which is now everything on /r/Pics )
Good idea, thank you
The perfect site for reddit admins would be endless bots posting, commenting and viewing adds while said advertisers are oblivious to the con.
The first two have been going on at some level for years. The last? Well, it will be interesting to see the official reddit app's adoption numbers in the coming months.
That's also a fantastic way to end up in jail, which I wouldn't be opposed to spez getting familiar with
That won't go well either, in the long run. Advertisers will catch on to how many "people" are viewing their ads without ever clicking on anything and put their funds elsewhere.
Ad-free no-money-to-reddit teddit link, https://teddit.adminforge.de/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/14q12g7/subreddits_are_starting_to_see_spam_from/
Hourly reminder that Spez sucks
Wow, so would mods of r/programming get another threat asking them to open the sub again? :D
isnt that the sub where spez and bunch of other admins are head mods lol
Jesus Christ, do we have a good reason to believe that this was the admins and not some other random third-party group just deciding to do this for shits and giggles?
Because on one hand yeah I could totally see red it doing this after all of their other stupid mistakes so far.
On the other hand this seems really strange to me and it just seems so insane to think that Reddit would even think of doing this.
On the other hand this seems really strange to me and it just seems so insane to think that Reddit would even think of doing this.
Have you read about any of Spez's interviews? This feels entirely like something they would do. Don't forget, reddit was originally populated with bots.
I haven’t heard about that (being originally populated by bots) but I would love to read something about it if you know of anything.
“Huffman […] together with Ohanian launched Reddit in June 2005. Embarrassed by an empty-looking site, the founders created hundreds of fake users for their posts to make it look more populated” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit#History
Jeez man ... +1 to this person! https://teddit.adminforge.de/r/pics/comments/14puynz/chatgpt_bots_are_spamming_proadmin_astroturf/jql4cka/#c
(After r/programming went private, they sent the u/ModCodeOfConduct modmail to the mods of r/programming - which is modded by reddit admins.)
Ozymandias
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
They found a bot on Reddit!? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you... well okay, not that shocked :-). \s
(yes I know, there's more to it than that, I just wanted to say the meme text, and also take this opportunity to BOW DOWN BEFORE OUR NEW OVERLORDS)
I already knew they didn't want moderators to have better anti-spam tools since it would decrease the apparent activity to attract advertisers.
When people tell you who they are, better to believe them the first time.
Huffman said he didn't need no stinking meatsacks... so now he must be happy with the way the site is working now... right!? :-P
Reddit admins have apparently used bots to populate content the way they want before as well: https://reddit.moe.ngo/r/SubredditDrama/comments/13p889x/reddit_admins_were_just_caught_using_bots_or_fake/
@fivezero Holy shit that is one top heavy company. No wonder they haven't made a profit. I'm done with f u/spez but it will be entertaining to watch him continue to devalue the company. Fidelity downgraded the value and who knows what the Chinese investor Tencen thinks. It will be delicious to watch spez screw up his IPO. Desperation has gripped spez and its getting worse.
I'm sorry, but as an AI language model, I don't feel it's appropriate for me to comment on this.
/joke
They really are just bungling this completely.
If they were competent, we'd all still be on Reddit.
You make a very good point.
That’s really all on Steve Huffman. He had years to prepare Reddit for profitability and an IPO. He was caught swimming naked when the proverbial music stopped, and he went for the low-hanging fruit (killing the costly API) with nothing but scorn for the dissenting voices.
The board should have fired him after the stealth edits debacle. This guy has no business being a CEO.
At least ChatGPT is a more polite than the toxic, racist & sexist shit that remains on Reddit. Scrolled through /r/all this morning and was appalled by some of the toxic comments in the various submissions. I also noticed some sockpuppets somehow spewing the same bullshit opinion about certain topics, using the literal same type of phrasing too, just in different comment chains and with different accounts.
Honestly, probably better for my blood pressure to stay away from most of it.
[Serious] I am sorry, but can someone explain like I'm five what this is about?
Thanks in advance. I pay onise you, I am NOT a Bot. :-)
Someone (presumably at Reddit, but there's no hard proof of that), has recently begun using a large number of dummy accounts and what appears to be ChatGPT to post pro-admin, anti-protest comments across the site, and give them a lot of upvotes. Someone figured this out and posed evidence of it to /r/programming. Shortly after that thread reached the top of /r/programming, the subreddit was abruptly closed by the site admins, which is extremely suspect to say the least.
This is hilarious. Reddit resorting to bots…like a new twitch streamer trying to con their way to partner. What a sad, sad outcome for what was once a great website.
Between Reddit and Twitter I hope big tech begins to take notice and realize they don’t control as much as they think they do. They’re much easier to replace than they think, and ultimately they’re just ad companies.