Honestly I’m not sure where best to discuss this but I’ve been seeing a crazy rise in astroturfing lately.

A couple examples I’ve found that are boggling my mind: Antivirus https://old.reddit.com/r/GettingOverItGame/comments/165kgw7/best_antivirus_reddit_recommends_in_2023_for/ Here is a niche gaming subreddit crosspost of a post on a user whose posts are kinda… sus? They all seem like shit copy written by AI.

I mean who says

Reddit, with its vast user-driven content and unfiltered opinions, is a goldmine for genuine reviews. If you’re searching for the best antivirus Reddit users vouch for in 2023, you’re in the right place.

Hella questionable.

And the links? 1: removed post. 2: Links thru some redirecter that are all to the two VPNs being advertised by the post.

I mean it’s obviously an advertisement just from the fact that only the two shilled services are linked to.

Another example: https://old.reddit.com/r/Spyware/comments/159e2te/what_is_the_best_antivirus_of_2023/

Same products. Same links to only the shilled products. There’s also links to trustpilot but I did a bit of digging and it seems that they’re like yelp in that you can get reviews removed? sigh.

What I find interesting here is the fact that this spyware subreddit is new and tiny, and one of the moderators made this veryyyyy similar AI post.

I mean it even has almost the exact same “Other Subreddits to _____ Antivirus Software” section.

Frankly I’m wondering if I should break the links just so they don’t get extra weight on search engines.

I’ve also seen tons of sock puppet accounts for crappy dating apps, but honestly I’m more of a lurker and I’ve ran out of energy to write anything else here 😌

    • reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
      33·
      10 months ago

      This is the answer. Most of the mods who actually gave a shit about moderating got tired of Reddit’s nonsense and left. So now the spammers and bots are free to post ad nauseum.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
        15·
        10 months ago

        Many people predicted that the APIcalypse would make moderation more difficult and that would result in ad bots running wild. However, people didn’t think that the protest would keep on going an Reddit would kick all the dedicated mods out of the platform. The new mods aren’t doing a great job, and that’s why we have all this spam today.

        • gsa@kbin.social
          43·
          10 months ago

          The new mods aren’t doing a great job, and that’s why we have all this spam today.

          implying reddit mods were ever doing a good job

          lol, lmao even!

          • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
            5·
            10 months ago

            Adequate, is the term I would prefer to use in this case. May not be great, but in most cases it was good enough. There were also higly moderated subs such as r/science where the quality was a lot higher.

    • gsa@kbin.social
      220·
      10 months ago

      *Few mods quit. Most went back to jannying when their pathetic protest failed.

        • romaselli@lemmygrad.ml
          5·
          10 months ago

          Not proletarian heroes but two things can be true at the same time. People who voluntarily mod online communities pretty much are all your negative stereotypes of a nerd, but if they are competent and actually care about their communities they are absolutely integral to their well being, safety and culture.