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Reddit's new paid ads look exactly like user posts (www.zdnet.com)

submitted 3 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Calling them "free-form ads," Reddit said the new advertisements are its most native format ever, designed to look and feel like community content shared by real people.

The ads, meant to mimic the site's megathreads, will enable advertisers to utilize a variety of formats in one post, including images, videos, and text.

According to numbers from Reddit, free-form ads got 28% more clicks than all other types of ads on the site and saw a jump in community engagement.

The next time you see an interesting post in your Reddit feed, take a closer look - because it might just be a paid advertisement.

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[-] llama@midwest.social 37 points 3 months ago

So now they're just charging people for what they were already doing anyway.

[-] PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

Yep. Reddit puts very little effort into preventing vote manipulation and astroturfing because it all looks like user engagement but they almost certainly know how common it is.

This is just them monetizing the astroturfing as they try and wring every cent from people ahead of their IPO.

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago

You're just splurging lies at this point, reddit has always put plenty of effort towards vote manipulation. I dislike reddit but stop making stuff up just for votes.

[-] Morefan@retrolemmy.com 10 points 3 months ago

You're both right. They are FINE with manipulation if it's something they want to promote. But if it's not allowed in their dogma then it's banned.

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 months ago

I'll agree with that.

[-] PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

People are welcome to try for themselves, which is how I originally learned they do fuck all. They didn't even clear the lowest bar of "20 upvotes from 20 accounts, on the same IP with no other activity, just switching with RES".

Maybe that's changed in the decade since, but the search results for "buy reddit upvotes" don't bode well.

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It has changed since, in fact for me the watershed moment of change came when RES stopped being able to calculate upvotes/dv's because there was no longer clear feedback that your vote counted.

[-] PoliticalAgitator@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Does that mean they fixed the problem or did they simply make it impossible for people outside of reddit to see the extent of it?

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago

At that moment they made clear upvoting hazy for people outside of reddit, I doubt it fixed it there but I have seen their anti-vote manipulation system in action since then that does impact "lazy" coders

this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024

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