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[–][deleted] 129 points130 points ago

Uh, Reddit has had these sort of people for a long time.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]Askol 4 points5 points ago

And honestly, in my opinion that's a perfectly good reason to do an AMA. That doesn't mean it is okay to refuse to answer questions about anything other than the thing you're trying to promote.

Most famous people don't just "feel like" answering questions about themselves to strangers on the Internet. If publicity is their motivation to do an AMA, that's fine, but it shouldn't be more than that.

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]Askol 0 points1 point ago

Yes, obviously he can do what he wants, but then neither he nor reddit is going to get anything out of it.

Also, he said ask me ANYTHING. This caused people to spend their own time crafting thorough questions which had no chance of being answered.

[–]misnamed 0 points1 point ago

Wait, I'm both. What about me?

[–]nepidae 1 point2 points ago

But never before has it been recognized as having any sort of power.

[–]3brushie 53 points54 points ago*

That ship has long sailed.

[–]Bouffont 10 points11 points ago

Nice try, guy that's selling upvotes on ebay.

[–]Articuno 2 points3 points ago

I wonder how effective those types of things are. I doubt it could get a post to the front-page.

[–]hadhad69 7 points8 points ago

Give a man one hundred IPs and he will give you one hundred upvotes, distributed over time so as not to seem suspicious.

[–]JLow1864 6 points7 points ago

[–]k3n 2 points3 points ago

Yeah, it almost invalidates the karma is worthless argument I think.

[–]lahwran_ 0 points1 point ago

buying karma != buying stuff with karma.

you can buy all kinds of useless shit that has no value once you own it.

[–]Grognor -1 points0 points ago

Karma is said to be worthless when looking at someone's karma.

A post's karma is far from worthless, since it can make something hit front page.

[–]McHomans 2 points3 points ago

It's like a pimp paying customers to fuck his girls so they will somehow feel like better whores.

[–]Shaper_pmp 0 points1 point ago

Reddit also has a whole suite of voting-bloc and spammer-spotting code that looks for voting-patterns exactly like this - large blocs of voters who frequently tend to vote the same way - and disregards their votes.

You can advertise anything you like on eBay - that doesn't mean it's worth shit in the real world.

[–]Tercotta 58 points59 points ago

I don't think it's wrong to do something like an AMA as a means of promoting a product if you're upfront about it all. The Louis CK ama was during his promotional run for his latest special. But he put the time into te answers and people loved it.

If Harrleson did the same people would have been cool. Especially if that means we get high profile amas in the future.

[–]lahwran_ 6 points7 points ago

you give us free entertainment (in the form of fun/informative responses in your AMA), and we'll get excited about your product.

You pitch your product, we'll burn you in the fiery pits of downmation.

[–]AnalogDan 0 points1 point ago

Instead, we anonymously and baselessly accused a celebrity of hooking up with an underaged girl and roasted him over the fire for not having a good-enough AMA.

Yeah, I bet celebrities are just lining up to come talk to us.

[–]Occams_Beard_Trimmer 20 points21 points ago

This is nothing new, just take everything with a grain of salt.

[–]notharley 11 points12 points ago

Ingesting that much sodium might be really hazardous.

[–]Occams_Beard_Trimmer 3 points4 points ago

Don't be a wuss. Eat the salt.

[–]k3n -2 points-1 points ago

No you're thinking of sodium nitrate. He meant ordinary see salt.

[–]Xeeker 1 point2 points ago

Here's where you're wrong, because he was talking about sea salt!

[–]lahwran_ 1 point2 points ago

salt is pretty bad for you in quantities not much higher than normal food amounts.

[–]Incursus 0 points1 point ago

Fuck salt!

[–]ju2tin 22 points23 points ago

Banded together.

[–]misnamed 0 points1 point ago

Band of Bros

[–]MaoThatHurt 10 points11 points ago

It's been that way for a while. The problem is that by upvoting things like the Doritos videos (first example that comes to mind but I'm sure there are better - in fact, Doritos is one of the more transparent examples) we're incentivizing more dishonest types of marketing. Lots of people who have been on reddit for some time have been offered compensation to advertise products. It's easy to game reddit if you speak the language and can be subtle about it.

[–]RogerfuRabit 4 points5 points ago

1) a little advertising $$ could be invested to make the site better via new servers

2) cant we just dont vote shit like Woody AMA? and if it gets more upvotes than downvotes... isnt that the spirit of.. Reddit?

[–]k3n 2 points3 points ago*

You know how in print media they're forced to print ADVERTISEMENT in the margin anytime the ad approaches a realistic imitation of something non-commercial? I'm pretty sure that's to prevent deceptive trade practices.

We don't mind ads so much on reddit, just don't misrepresent yourself or try to use us as your personal advertising vehicle (unless of course you're an actual redditor, then sometimes we help you when we deem necessary).

[–]sadwer 6 points7 points ago

To play devil's advocate here, AMA tends to upvote some fairly terrible questions. If I weren't a redditor but decided to do an AMA, after a few "tell us about some random chick that you did twenty years ago" questions I'd start setting ground rules too.

[–]Xiroth 4 points5 points ago

It's sad, if that AMA (about my movie) had been posted with a slightly more appropriate title to /r/movies, it would have gone really well. Having stars come on just to talk about their movies is perfectly fine so long as they don't set up false expectations about what they're going to talk about (such as posting to IAMA and writing AMA :P).

Reddit's a big ecosystem - just about everything can fit in here; it just needs to be placed and pitched appropriately. Perhaps the admins should prepare some sort of press guide for this kind of thing.

[–]butyourenice 11 points12 points ago

reddit has no more "credibility" than any mass of people. there's nothing special that is making people target the reddit market but the fact that that reddit is an easy target.

[–]CheapyPipe 4 points5 points ago

Are you kidding me? Those types of celebrity AMAs have been happening for a long time.

[–]alexthesock 14 points15 points ago

I enjoy the idea of being a vigilante.

[–]respectwalk 1 point2 points ago

I think you misquoted him. He wants us to BE vigilante. Own it. Become it. ;)

[–]k3n 2 points3 points ago

That's the joke; vigilante is much different than vigilant, but the way it was phrased:

I think we should be vigilante about trying to keep reddit as authentic as possible

Paraphrasing:

I think we should take the law into our own hands to keep reddit as authentic as possible

Gives it a new, humorous, yet still context-relevant connotation ;)

[–]uncleawesome 7 points8 points ago

The Internet sucks now. It's always sucked and will continue to suck. The cool thing is, you can pick where you want to see it suck.

[–]Xeeker -2 points-1 points ago

Nah bro. Its fucking awesome. You're just a pessimist.

[–]KirbyTails 3 points4 points ago

What?! That never happens? By the way, guys, did I mention I'm a self published author? That's right! I have 4 titles on Amazon! AMA!

[–]DrJulianBashir 7 points8 points ago

AMA!

But only about the books!

[–]Basildon 5 points6 points ago

Also all the answers are in the books!

[–]staiano 0 points1 point ago

It's the secret.

[–]KirbyTails 2 points3 points ago

Oooo...you haven't read them yet. By the way, my other works were totally insignificant.

[–]poubelle 5 points6 points ago

I think the lot of you should be ashamed of how you behaved, which was like a bunch of bratty kids having a tantrum. Truly, just spoiled, bratty little turds.

[–]jediherc 1 point2 points ago

You forgot entitled. How dare a professional come here and try to promote his work?!

[–]SJ_Zero 0 points1 point ago

This word gets thrown around a lot.

[–]jediherc 0 points1 point ago

Probably because it describes the attitude very well.

[–]SJ_Zero 0 points1 point ago

when comparing the multi-millionaire hoping for some free publicity to the free community he's trying to get it on, entitlement at least goes both ways.

Frankly, the moment marketing companies started hiring actors to astroturf, the scales tipped. What have I done to entitle them to deceptive covert advertising at me?

[–]jediherc 0 points1 point ago

free community

That's what entitles his promotion. Reddit can be used for whatever means someone wants. People post pictures of their cats. What entitles them to do that? Or asking why the sky is blue? Or asking you to listen to a song they wrote? No is forcing you to ask a celebrity a question, no one is forcing you to read his replies. If you feel a connection with someone because they did an interview with a few hundred strangers on reddit, cool. If it's just a lame attempt at getting the word out on his new movie, downvote and don't read the interview. Do admins actually have to protect us somehow from a douchey actor?

[–]SJ_Zero 0 points1 point ago

I wouldn't suggest admin intervention, but I do suggest that if ad companies want to spread the word on something, they should follow the established unwritten social contract: if you want to hawk your wares during my lesiure time, provide some value to me.

Its the reason why people tolerate ads on TV and the radio: The understanding that advertising is what helps pay for the content. In this case, they aren't paying for the content, they're parasites leeching resources paid for by someone else to sell their crap.

As a webmaster, I want those leeches to die in a fire. Parasites are the reason my website can't have an open forum -- their bots nearly got my website shut down from SQL overload on a forum with 4 legit posts and 300000 ads. I paid for the resource they misappropriated.

People are free to complain, and even scheme against such parasites. If they don't like it, they should find a way to fulfil the social contract.

[–]Mr_Trollyagi 1 point2 points ago

This is why it is good to fly under the radar, people know you are there but you don't get much attention, start being too awesome people start using you and expecting things from you.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

For all you know, they might pay reddit for the ability to post on this site and promote. I wouldnt doubt it at all....

[–]iamamemeama 1 point2 points ago*

I've got 3 Old Spice deodorants at home telling me this may have happened before.

[–]Neil_young_freak 2 points3 points ago

I've got about a three years supply because I moved to a country that doesn't sell it, and what it does sell is shit. Been using Old Spice for over ten years now, even without the brilliant marketing.

What I'm saying, I guess, is that it doesn't hurt having a good product, too.

[–]Beatle_Matt 7 points8 points ago

Yeah but the nice thing about the hive mind is that we're smart enough to smell the bullshit and react (the abysmal Woody harrelson AMA) and dumb enough to enjoy the stuff that we like (anything with Bill Fucking Murray!)

I don't think we're going to get inundated with media advertising...the odd one may sneak through...but I think we're gonna be okay.

[–]JavaLSU 15 points16 points ago

There has been plenty of bullshit that the hivemind has embraced.

[–]genuinepolitician 1 point2 points ago

Old Spice

[–]Xeeker 3 points4 points ago

Cause its fucking genius

[–]lahwran_ 4 points5 points ago

the difference is, old spice ads are /funny/.

[–]xieish -1 points0 points ago

Doesn't matter, you still bent the knee and gobbled the proverbial dick for this product and pretended like it was a cultural phenomenon, when in reality it was a commercial.

[–]xebo -1 points0 points ago

No it's not. It's just old Japanese, "Oh look at all of this crazy unrelated shit going on at once" advertising.

[–]staiano 3 points4 points ago

Obama?

[–]ju2tin 2 points3 points ago

What about Zombieland? It had Harrelson AND Murray...

[–]TheRealBillMurray 6 points7 points ago

Please don't lump me in with Woody.

[–]Slivilth 3 points4 points ago

And Kingpin. The hipster combination.

[–]ju2tin 1 point2 points ago

Damn, you're right! How could I have forgotten Kingpin?

[–]grandmoffcory 2 points3 points ago

The hivemind is an all-around bad thing in almost all cases not related to charity.

It usually results in childish crusades over petty issues.

[–]TheShadowFog 0 points1 point ago

hive mind

smart

Pick one.

[–]proddy 3 points4 points ago

That's what downvotes are for.

[–]k3n 2 points3 points ago

[–]mattyizzo 1 point2 points ago

Lol @ people getting upset at what "reddit has become"

[–]CalmSpider 1 point2 points ago

Actually, Reddit got a lot better a couple months ago because I started using it.

[–]virkot 2 points3 points ago

I disagree.

[–]MrJinx 0 points1 point ago

Everyone talking about Woody on reddit (3-4 frontpage posts when I write this) and now he´s on urban dictionary and stuff. Any publicity is good publicity for some people, maybe the viral advertising worked way better than we thought

[–]Kardlonoc 0 points1 point ago

Whats worse is that political forces are probably at work here and you don't even know about them and they are very very competent in both influencing the hivemind and keeping secret.

[–]Delslayer 0 points1 point ago

I think you severely underestimate how fickle reddit can be.

[–]oaksparcel 0 points1 point ago

I still don't know what AMA is.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

Reddit is the new Digg

[–]mship 1 point2 points ago

Ate you ready gorgeous reddit 4.0? Only problem is there is nowhere to go once the great exodus happens. Guest we all will just come back to reddit.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points ago

msn groups?

[–]TheShadowFog 0 points1 point ago

hubski?

[–][deleted] ago

[deleted]

[–]xieish 1 point2 points ago

Pretty much untrue. Posts that get buried from the new queue don't get recognized, and a new account is free/instant.

[–]jediherc 0 points1 point ago

Yeah and I'm pretty sure Woody didn't "destroy himself" by a what boils down to a failed promo attempt.

[–]joepiped -1 points0 points ago*

Watching the Woody AMA crash and burn was more entertaining than an actual AMA anyway. What we need is more Woody's. We need 1000 Woody's!

Let me explain this in another way. Where I live there is a fucking huge Mormon temple. A lot of people don't like it because they don't like Mormons or they are atheist or they say it's an eyesore. Myself I think Mormons are ridiculous, but the fact is they built a medieval looking castle with towers and garrisons and it's fucking gleaming white and it's fucking huge(already said that) in the middle of the city. I think it's bad ass. Mormons are my favorite group of religious nutjobs, not because I agree with thier teachings, but because they build castles.

Reddit is the same way. It's a giant ridiculous castle. Don't hate it because people want to walk through the drawbridge, just enjoy it for what it is.

[–]deadseasquirrels[S] 0 points1 point ago

please post pictures of this mormon castle.

[–]joepiped 0 points1 point ago

I didn't take this photo, just did a quick image search:

http://www.okland-const.com/images/flyingsensors.jpg