police were attending when I rode past five minutes ago - expect traffic chaos for the next two hours regardless as nothing was getting through.
Yesterday someone pointed out that astroturfing had clearly increased, and this morning clear evidence jumped out at me.
The account pictured has spammed posts that question the changes, stir the post briefly, and then nothing. To make the account look legit they‘ve had AI-generated ‘debates’ with other atrorurfing accounts, who have spammed the same watch photos to other accounts. this follows the pattern of setting up accounts before you want to astroturf to look legit, and then launching your campaign.
We need to respond to this campaign for the quality of this sub. I’ve been here for years and never witnessed this level of nonsense. Mods, please set up some protections with automod because there’s been a nosedive the last two weeks.
Further proof of this: I was reported for harassment by the account when I pointed this out, and it was upheld. I now have a strike from Reddit, which tracks with someone trying to stifle dissent against their goals.
Edit: Replaced the word ‘bot’ with ‘astroturfing’ because that’s giving a line of attack. The accounts aren’t bots. They’re run by real people (hi there!) who create an inane, ‘legit’ post history, so accounts are prepped for when a PR agency or other group needs to run a campaign against or for something.
This a documented tactic. It uses AI for the long ‘debates’. It is insidious. I removed the term ‘bot’, please find other holes in this argument. Also note I didn’t state my personal feelings on the change. Im concerned about the quality of the sub, not the opinions.
*Edit 2: I’ve clearly hit a nerve - this is about **bad faith tactics on Reddit that reduce the usability of this sub, nothing more.** *I have strong feelings on this policy but I’m not sharing those here. I want real discussion - this Is not about differing views, but about poor practice.