I'm posting this on a throwaway account, for obvious reasons...I know that what I'm about to share is going to seem far-fetched and maybe even a little crazy, but I hope some of the evidence I provide can shed some light in what I assume is Reddit's fairly secret backdoor marketing campaign.
Also, I'm not high and mighty or morally superior...I'm here because I didn't get paid. And I'm pissed. If I would have got my money I would have kept my mouth shut. But let me rewind.
I've been on Reddit for a very long time, and for the past year or two I've grown to find the mainstream subreddits to be pretty boring. I can only "awww" at a cat picture so many times, or laugh at posts on /r/atheism making fun of Christian fundies. Eventually, I found my way to such subreddits as /r/Circlejerk and /r/TheoryOfReddit. These subreddits combined the thing I loved (Reddit) with plenty of meta stuff to keep thinks interesting.
The funny thing about meta reddit is that the more time you spend on it, the more you realize there are a ton of communites. Places like /r/SRDbroke, /r/circlebroke, /r/circlejerk, /r/circlebs, etc. Many of the meta subreddits are tight-knit and made up of the same users. The Admins have been paying attention.
A few weeks ago, I was invited by a Reddit Admin using an alt in one of the meta subreddits. The subreddit that I was invited to is called /r/CircleCabal, and it is a private subreddit. The funny thing about private subreddits is you can pretty much do whatever you want in them. I have proof, of course:
The Admin had a simple proposition. The goal of the subreddit was to circlejerk. This isn't a huge deal, of course. There are subs like /r/BraveryJerk, and /r/CircleJerk, etc. These subreddits have and continue to operate just fine and dandy, poking fun at trends or things on Reddit. But /r/CircleCabal had a different intention. The goal was to circlejerk about Olive Garden. It seems silly, I know, but this is where the insidious backdoor advertising thing comes into play. The people recruited into /r/CircleCabal were messaged offsite (IRC) with the promise if they could create "positive affect" with respect to Olive Garden, they would receive a payment in the form of Bitcoin. That's it. Circlejerk about Olive Garden, talk about their tasty breadsticks, their customer service, their website, or whatever....and once Olive Garden reports back to Reddit, a small reward would be given.
Basically, it was a win-win. Circlejerk about Olive Garden/stir up shit, and get paid. If this seems silly I assure you it is. Here was what /r/CircleCabal looked like:
You may be wondering how people posting relatively jerky and harmless comments about OliveGarden.com and Olive Garden's unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks....or their house wine and welcoming family environment...could possibly work. And to be honest, I had the same question. But it's really a stroke of sheer genius. This is some deep psychological conditioning that I don't really understand, but it's sort of like the movie Inception. We were supposed to show up to threads, circlejerk about Olive Garden...and most people laughed at us, or were like, "this is gross." But some people really took to it. Here was an example:
I'll be honest, even as I went through Reddit telling people to eat Olive Garden, I MYSELF was getting a mad craving for some warm, doughy breadsticks, and unlimited soup and salad. I won't lie, I've gone to Olive Garden three times since joining /r/CircleCabal.
We even gamed /r/HailCorporate. Some of the threads were legit. Some users did notice an increase in Olive Garden advertising, but most of the posts to /r/HailCorporate were a ruse:
At the risk of doxxing anyone, and possibly hurting their chance to -- HOPEFULLY -- get paid, I won't say which threads are legit and which threads are part of the elaborate scheme to pimp Olive Garden. But there have been many efforts to spread Olive Garden through various subreddits. Some examples include efforts to publicize in:
I think you see where this is going. The Admins know that the meta verse is typically disregarded as pointless...throwaway drama. You might think that circlejerking about Olive Garden is harmless, and frankly, it is. Who gives a shit if they have unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Who cares about their house wine, or their family-friendly atmosphere, or their locations nationwide? None of that matters. And that's the point. The fact that you think it is harmless means you forget about the stupid jerking, maybe you even laugh at it. Maybe you upvote the random person who shows up in your /r/Anime thread to talk about Zuppa Toscana and breadsticks or whatever. And then you forget about it.
But that's why this is so insiduous. Because it plants that seed in your mind, and the following Saturday you find yourself at Olive Garden. Or you're like the person who I showed above, who went to go get Olive Garden. All of this is translating into backdoor profits for Reddit, namely the Admins.
I was told to shill, with the promise of Bitcoins. A silly promise, I know. I should have known that it was a scam from the get-go, given how easy it is to forge and fake something like a Bitcoin payment, or not deliver on it at all. I just thought it was worth pointing out that there is some shady stuff that goes on behind the scenes at Reddit, even in the meta verse. Who knows what kickbacks the Admins are getting for entire subreddits like /r/Android or /r/iPhone.
Thanks for listening. I think I'm done with this meta bullshit. =/
