I actually care about the quality of statistical claims and data science
Then you've gotta be having a really bad time trying to analyze subjective data about posts in internet forums with basically zero positive identification of the authors.
Even if the study authors bothered to "drill down" and check the posting history of each and every message author in a studied forum, that can be (and undoubtably frequently is) faked with boilerplate AI spam type generic responses all over a bunch of generic forums just to manufacture "validity" for the intended "high value" posts in the target areas.
If this sounds far-fetched, remember that over 20 years ago there were "gold farmers" playing WoW in China for the sole purpose of "earning" in-game value through repetitive play. Literally thousands of WoW accounts were banned just months after the game launched due to obvious farming activity.
All kinds of organizations pay for all kinds of advertising to "shape public opinion" on all kinds of topics. Only a small fraction of that advertising money gets dumped into traditional high profile channels like 30 second Superbowl spots.
A 2020 study (re-circulated in late 2025) found that in the top 100 subreddits—the primary sources for r/all—at least 15% of communities contained content likely posted by corporate trolls or bots designed to promote specific organizations.
Bot and Spam Removals:
Reddit's Transparency Reports consistently show that "content manipulation" and "spam" (which include paid promotional agendas) account for the vast majority of admin-level removals. For instance, in early 2024, nearly 70% of admin removals were attributed to spam.
Prevalence of Bots:
Independent estimates and user analysis suggest that 5% to 20% of users in high-visibility subreddits may be bots. These bots are frequently used by bad actors to manufacture "consensus" or "outrage" to push specific agendas.
Infiltration Experiments:
Unauthorized research in 2025 demonstrated that AI bots can successfully pose as humans and engage in "psychological manipulation" to change user views in front-page subreddits like r/changemyview without being detected.
live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a corporate troll manipulating public opinion.
I can only imagine being paid to post "company" opinions in internet forums (my company pretty much trains / pays us to keep their name out of internet forums...) It seems like it would just be... depressing, soul sucking, dreary, dreadful but not particularly fear inducing.
I've never used a Reddit app - just the web interfaces, almost always old.reddit.com these days. I see more like 4% advertisement, but it does vary by which sub-reddits I view. Doesn't change the number of trolls whatsoever, but they also vary a lot depending on which sub-reddits you are in, typically the more popular, the more it is overrun with trolls.
The 2025 Superman movie hits it pretty hard with Lex Luthor's "monkey bots."
Considering that Blizzard had to mass-ban thousands of WoW gold farmers back in 2005, it should be no surprise whatsoever that all kinds of commercial and political "value" are being "farmed" in every major internet forum today, using every kind of cheap labor available.
How many of these trolls are now using AI to auto-generate their content?
the amount of corporate-personalized shit I want in my life
would be zero when unsolicited. Don't send me SMS, don't send me e-mails, NEVER have my home speaker announce things I didn't explicitly ask for.
However, when I search for things, make requests of "the cloud" to bring me information, I do appreciate having my personal history influence those results. I don't want to sift through all the NFL, NBA, NHL, etc. score results and commentary just to get a weather forecast. I don't want to see all the "big celebrity / entertainment news" mixed in with my local news. And, this means that some degree of customization of my feeds and search results is necessary to steer those results to my preferences.
Would I appreciate having more direct, intuitive, transparent control of the filtering? Hell yes. Is anybody offering anything better than Google out there right now? Very few, and mostly of very limited capability. Please prove me wrong with links to examples in your responses.
Never said I would shoot them, just pointing out the reality of modern life that the only possible response is to go interact with unknown belligerent members of the public in person, who may themselves be carrying firearms...
The real conundrum is: once you have unique identifiers on vehicles - which pretty much all countries with cars have - where's the line? Do you require people to visually read the plates and write them down on paper? Who is allowed to keep databases of the information? How do you prevent people from keeping their own private databases? How do you prevent someone from creating a dash-cam app that does GPS/time coded databasing of all plate numbers it observes while driving? If a neighborhood HOA wants to network all their dash (and fixed location) apr-cam information into a central database, when does it become too much to allow? And how do you possibly enforce overstepping of the limits?
Scenario: A HOA has fixed cam automatic plate reader information and video evidence that proves XM3 5D9 was out smashin' mailboxes on Friday night. The HOA president is cruising downtown Saturday morning and finds XM3 5D9 parked on the street, using his dash mounted apr software, calls the cops (in a vain attempt) to have them come arrest the mailbox smashers who were recorded in close-up 4K high def night vision doing the deed from the window of their car. This feels close to the over-stepping limit, but what if there were no cameras or software involved and the same XM3 5D9 plate ID was used by the same people to make the same accusation of the same mailbox smashers, this time based on telephoto chemical film pictures?
Our (prior) neighborhood had 3 miles of roads with one entrance, a 911 call could get a sheriff's car response to block the entrance with a description of the vehicle (plate number, even).
Our current neighborhood, only 1/4 mile of road, so yeah, you'd have to shoot 'em.
My son was in kindergarten in 2005 - when touchscreens were still pretty rare - they gave him one to work with at school and were so jazzed about what he was doing they encouraged us to get one at home. I set him up with a keyboard instead, and he kicked butt with the keyboard just as well, if not better than, he did on the touch screen. Of course, iPod / iPads followed soon after - anybody can use a touch screen, it doesn't hurt to know how to use the keys too.
It's not just the software industry. Fully 1/2 of CEOs I have worked under get their hands on some money and an idea that they're going to grow the business - really fast - poised for growth - ready to capitalize on the opportunities when they arise - and 6-18 months later their idea doesn't pan out and they've got all these people who are costing more than the company is bringing in in sales revenue, so...
There's a small difference, the imploded CEO was "boldly going where no man had gone before, on such an accelerated timetable and tight budget" - the screen door guy was a couple of orders of magnitude more foolish.
Depends on how you count it: https://anvaka.github.io/map-of-reddit/?x=19755.639226167965&y=11639.277543371396&z=34822.44646362009&v=2