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by justboxing 3036 days ago
> This conflict over IOTA has been unfolding for a long time and the guys on that subreddit defend it fanatically, accusing DCI of "FUD"ing IOTA

It's not just IOTA. It's more or less any of the top 10 / 20 (by MarketCap) Crypto-currencies on the respective sub-reddits. It's especially bad on r/Ripple where anything critical of Ripple / XRP is instantly deleted by the mods in the name of F.U.D (Fear, Uncertainity, Doubt), and even a small +ve news is posted several times in a day, even trials of Ripple that doesn't even use XRP for the transactions.

And then there was this self-proclaimed shill who described in great detail how he made tons of money shilling various coins on reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7xkm0z/i_wa...

From what I've observed on r/Cryptocurrency and related coin subs on reddit over the past month or two, Reddit is being carefully manipulated by whales and scam coin creators to attract bag holders and manipulate the markets for a quick profit. And many of the mods engage in circle-jerk postings, maybe they are in on it too. Who knows.

6 comments

Usually you can trust ~50% of the information in popular 'specialty' subreddits, but the crypto subs are straight up useless beyond major headlines. Even then, the discussions are 90%+ trolls and shills and 10% memes. Steem and Bitcoin Forum have been better, but all around the larger problem is that things move so quickly that the information you're looking for is probably no longer accurate.

The chaos is one of the most interesting factors for me. It reminds me of the internet circa 1995 - you have to do your own research, estimate/predict larger trends in information flow, and have a finely tuned bs meter. The biggest barrier to entry is that no one is trustworthy, so even your tools need to be properly vetted or self-made because unlike the 90s internet, the thrill of finding a vulnerability may carry a substantial reward.

I do think there is a legitimate opportunity in the crypto space and 'believe' in the underlying tech. You just have to ignore all the folks building their rockets out of lead and toilet paper while rofling about their moonshot, sneak past the whales, and slip between the trading bots.

One other interesting aspect I don't hear mentioned often is how this comes on the heels of the Russian election meddling and the similarities in tactics. If crypto has any real immediate use for the average person, it's a good way to gauge how susceptible you are to propaganda. Invest (enough to sting if you lose it all) and see if you can turn a profit. Force yourself to put part of that money into an obvious scamcoin and keep track of how you relate to discussions surrounding it. Crypto can be a psychological playground if you let it.

There may be people in on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's overwhelmingly just people defending their position. I've seen the exact behaviour I see at r/cryptocurrency in video games. No Man's Sky pre and post launch was exactly the same. Sensible people casting doubt on what it is you actually do with the game, being shouted down by those who are convinced it's going to be the greatest thing ever. Then lots of defensiveness against all the post-launch signals that it's a mess.
People who have bought into something will become more entrenched in their views because doing otherwise will cause a "loss of face." It's understandable really, nobody wants to admit to being duped.
The desire to remain consistent with one's previously established positions is one of the great psychological motivators:

https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Busin...

People will often act against their own best interests to do so.

Same with Trump? South Park recently had an episode titled "Doubling Down", which I find a good descriptor for this behavior.
you have a severe case of hindsight bias. nms has perhaps the most outspoken hatred of any game launch ever. heck how long ago did it come out? Year+? and you're still whining about it.
It appears the content of the Reddit post has been deleted, but can be found at: http://archive.is/vvwl5
Do you (or anyone here) have any recommendations regarding subreddits for technical discussions regarding blockchain/cryptocurrency tech? I've seen /r/CryptoTechnology recommended in the past, but I haven't seen too much interesting discussions there yet.
I've also been looking but haven't found any better communities. A cryptocurrency StackExchange has been suggested [1], but hasn't happened. Bitcoin.SE and Ethereum.SE do have some good general content, but you have to filter through a lot of BTC/ETH specific content to find it.

[1] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/271576/stack-exchan...

UPDATE: Reddit shill appears to have deleted / [REMOVED] his story (must've seen the traffic from HN lol).

Here's the archive link http://archive.is/vvwl5 to his post that @chrononaut here located.

http://archive.is/vvwl5

> It's especially bad on r/Ripple

That's just not true at all. Why are you even going after Ripple?