1 .If you want to find out about people’s opinions on a product, google <product> reddit. You’ll get real people arguing, as compared to the SEO’d Google results.
This used to be my go-to strategy. However, I think brands are increasingly catching on to this. Anecdotally, I have been observing an increased amount of astroturfing in reddit product threads.
A good solution is to be skeptical and check commenters’ post history. If the account is old, they are active in diverse subreddits, and generally seem like a real person, it is likely to be trustworthy. If the account only has a few posts and most of them are about <product>, that’s a bad sign.
Also, I feel like I just read a LW post which mentioned #69. Haven’t been able to find it but I feel like the title may have been something like “The Curse of Optimization” (the point being the exact same one as #69). Maybe this will jog somebody else’s memory?
This used to be my go-to strategy. However, I think brands are increasingly catching on to this. Anecdotally, I have been observing an increased amount of astroturfing in reddit product threads.
A good solution is to be skeptical and check commenters’ post history. If the account is old, they are active in diverse subreddits, and generally seem like a real person, it is likely to be trustworthy. If the account only has a few posts and most of them are about <product>, that’s a bad sign.
Also, I feel like I just read a LW post which mentioned #69. Haven’t been able to find it but I feel like the title may have been something like “The Curse of Optimization” (the point being the exact same one as #69). Maybe this will jog somebody else’s memory?
I’ve found that searching on [name of product or company sucks] can turn up interesting results, or a significant lack of results.
Look at customer reviews, especially those with a geeky level of detail.
Yeah, I think the Reddit solution will lose its value over time. I think the important part is to find an argument (this applies to Hacker News too).
I’d be interested to find another take on #69, I think that’s one I came up with on my own through trial and error.