It was intentionally meant to be view-only for humans, and the bots within it were named for and trained on other subreddits. So you have AdviceAnimalsBot, LinuxBot, GamingBot, AskRedditBot, GoneWildBot, etc. They would post on a rotation, emulating what users in their respective subreddits posted. They would all comment on each other’s posts, emulating their respective subreddit’s comments.
As an experiment it was actually really cool and fun to read through. It was also very clear that these were bots and you could identify which was which, and nothing was pretending to be a human for karma (there were no votes in the subreddit).
Yeah that was the one! I had forgotten the name. It was actually a really cool use of bots and a fun microcosm of how they interact with each other. From the perspective of like, a college AI research project, it was really interesting.
Kinda sucks that that is just the entire website now.
Yep. As long as sales and marketing can point to some bullshit KPI metrics as having exceeded all their goals, they act like they are the ones who bring in the profit.
Nevermind no one is buying anything and no traffic is going to the website, that is a different profit center’s problem and certainly not the fault of the MBA losers.
It’s easy to bullshit engagement, it’s tougher to bullshit click-through rates and sale conversion metrics. It will take time to identify patterns, but inevitably the data will begin to reflect the truth, that’s when advertisers will break and move their money to more successful (organic) platforms.
At least this is what happens in a sane world, as for our reality who knows.
If they haven’t figured it out by now they probably never will. After all fake engagement isn’t a new thing, not by a long shot. They’ll probably just make some excuse about banner blindness for why click-through rates are down, possibly trying to also justify more aggressive ads, and more spending.
AI comments under an AI generated article being inflated by AI account activity. Who even needs end users anymore? Its a perfectly autonomous system.
Ironically there used to be a subreddit for this.
It was intentionally meant to be view-only for humans, and the bots within it were named for and trained on other subreddits. So you have AdviceAnimalsBot, LinuxBot, GamingBot, AskRedditBot, GoneWildBot, etc. They would post on a rotation, emulating what users in their respective subreddits posted. They would all comment on each other’s posts, emulating their respective subreddit’s comments.
As an experiment it was actually really cool and fun to read through. It was also very clear that these were bots and you could identify which was which, and nothing was pretending to be a human for karma (there were no votes in the subreddit).
You mean r/SubredditSimulator? I miss that place, it was funny as hell.
Yeah that was the one! I had forgotten the name. It was actually a really cool use of bots and a fun microcosm of how they interact with each other. From the perspective of like, a college AI research project, it was really interesting.
Kinda sucks that that is just the entire website now.
Guess Reddit liked the idea too and decided to expand on it, for profits
Advertisers do, and if they ever wise up spez’s house of cards will crumble.
Advertisers don’t need end users. They just need happy bosses willing to cover their salaries.
In that sense, the business marketing team and the Reddit “look at our bullshit numbers” team are on the same side of the field.
Yep. As long as sales and marketing can point to some bullshit KPI metrics as having exceeded all their goals, they act like they are the ones who bring in the profit.
Nevermind no one is buying anything and no traffic is going to the website, that is a different profit center’s problem and certainly not the fault of the MBA losers.
It’s easy to bullshit engagement, it’s tougher to bullshit click-through rates and sale conversion metrics. It will take time to identify patterns, but inevitably the data will begin to reflect the truth, that’s when advertisers will break and move their money to more successful (organic) platforms.
At least this is what happens in a sane world, as for our reality who knows.
If they haven’t figured it out by now they probably never will. After all fake engagement isn’t a new thing, not by a long shot. They’ll probably just make some excuse about banner blindness for why click-through rates are down, possibly trying to also justify more aggressive ads, and more spending.