this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
1181 points (97.7% liked)
SNOOcalypse - document, discuss, and promote the downfall of Reddit.
4672 readers
1 users here now
SNOOcalypse is closing down. If you wish to talk about Reddit, check out [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
This community welcomes anyone who wants to see Reddit gone. Nuke the Snoo!
When sharing links, please also share an archived version of the target of your link.
Rules:
- Follow lemmy.ml's global rules and code of conduct.
- Keep it on-topic.
- Don't promote illegal stuff here.
- Don't be stupid, noisy, obnoxious or obtuse (S.N.O.O.)
- Have fun, and enjoy the popcorn! 🍿
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If you're trying to sneakily manipulate karma and content, you don't want to be doing it through the API, you want it to look like legitimate users so it doesn't get blocked. This usually means some kind of browser automation.
Of course, reddit does so little to combat it, maybe there really were sleazy astro-turfing botnets just accessing the site through the API.
Back in like 2018, reddit posted some user stats, including a list of "most addicted cities". They forgot to scrub the results and Eglin Airforce Base was the top rank.
The fact that it wasn't blocked implies reddit admins are OK with the airforce's botfarm, and would allow them to use the API.