Is this just AskReddit now?

Submitted by ex1stence t3_zs3cwu in television

Feels like every post that gets upvoted in this sub for the past two weeks is some variation of “What’s your favorite TV show to watch while you’re watching TV”.

The reason I’m raising suspicion is r/futurology had some recent issues with AI-powered bots flooding the sub with stuff that almost sounds like a human wrote it, but is just off a bit.

r/television feels like it’s just non-stop questions now, like the AI is trying to figure out what humans like to watch via mass posting.

I know, I know, I’m already opening up the tab for r/conspiracy. But still, wouldn’t hurt if the mods did a little vetting on these accounts that won’t stop asking us what our favorite blank show is.

(It’s currently The Bear, if you were wondering.)

EDIT: Front page right now.

516

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

nysraved t1_j16ejyx wrote

It feels to me that these types of basic posts always existed, but something about Reddit’s algorithm switched up recently and it’s pushing new posts from r/television and r/movies to people’s home page even though they haven’t really got many upvotes yet.

Whereas before they’d stay buried as new posts that nobody really bothered interacting with unless they were specifically browsing by new

Like even this post, no offense OP but I have no idea why this got pushed to my home page.

317

xenogi t1_j16w1xl wrote

Yeah, something is up. I just recently unsubbed from rmovies and rtelevision because I've been getting constant questions in my feed. Glad I'm not the only one whose noticed.

120

botoks t1_j1896gu wrote

And I thought I was crazy. Recently I was checking /r/movies and putting shitton of people on ignore list because of those threads. Like what the hell even is this, I thought it maybe was those blogspam shit websites looking for content to spit out or something.

17

Jad_On t1_j188s2w wrote

I have been getting quite a lot of Wednesday tv show threads on my home page lately, weirdly enough.

9

MitchOfGilead t1_j1924gl wrote

It feels like it's definitely happening reddit-wide. I've been tempted to leave r/overwatch because every other post is some stupid question that seems built to farm karma.

6

antarcticas_king t1_j174eg0 wrote

Something definitely changed since my home feed has been television, television, movie, random subreddit, movie, movie, random subreddit. It’s enough to make me want to unfollow.

62

botoks t1_j189bzq wrote

If you go directly to /r/movies it's super noticable last few days. Absolute flood of super low effort threads being spammed. Maybe mods decided to strike or something.

31

DynamicHunter t1_j1aj4n0 wrote

Yup same here just nonstop television and movie questions

5

mintardent t1_j1aofrp wrote

same! I wasn’t even active in r/television but it’s been pushed onto my page recently

3

ThinkThink23 t1_j16x52m wrote

>It feels to me that these types of basic posts always existed, but something about Reddit’s algorithm switched up recently

I've noticed the same thing from r/space recently. Every other post on my feed is some idiot on that sub asking "hur dur why explore space what is point"

Its bizarre.

26

BSG1701 t1_j178457 wrote

100% agreed. I thought it was just lots of teens out of school for the Xmas break, but you're right it's so much recently, it must be something with the algorithm.

17

abarrelofmankeys t1_j18fb8d wrote

I had to get rid of futurology, glad to know I wasn’t being dramatic about something being weird. There’s definitely been a change or bots in most of the default/mainstream subs. I’m also continuously getting suggested subs I looked at one time, something made fontpage once and now I see every post from just rolled into the shop or whatever. Something is fishy.

13

maxwon t1_j18nycc wrote

I noticed this across subs. Everyday my top post was “what’s your favorite track 5 from a Taylor Swift album”

9

Prax150 t1_j195p4t wrote

I'm a mod here and while I don't have any info on reddit's algorithms or anything like that I think part of it is also that the ask reddit style posts are also lowest-common denominator type posts that are largely inoffensive to most people. Perhaps Reddit knows those kinds of things tend to drive engagement and they're algorithmically pushing them up but I think people just like those kinds of prompts too. We've always had posts like that and even have rules to try and curtail the lazier ones (no low effort posts, keeping recommendation requests to the weekly thread, etc).

Not to mention it's kind of a dry time of year for new shows. There's some stuff coming out but it's not like the rest of the year where there'd seemingly be 2-3 big new shows premiering every week, and most of the big shows are done until next year.

Even so have you seen some people on here collectively lose their mind when a flashy big show that a lot of people actually like gets talked about too much for their taste? This sub almost imploded while Andor was on. So I think those kinds of posts are much less controversial for that lot. Or they'll just never be satisfied.

9

Soupjam_Stevens t1_j18xjdw wrote

the other weird algorithm thing I’ve noticed recently is that if I subscribe to a new sub it’s immediately half of my feed. I recently subscribed to the armored core sub because I wanted to follow updates about the newly announced game and I unsubbed like a day later because my feed was completely flooded with barely upvoted posts from that sub despite me following a ton of other stuff

8

NanoFin t1_j19mtru wrote

I’m glad it’s not just me. It’s driving me a little crazy because I miss seeing the random AITA and BORU posts I used to see all the time. I’m lucky if I see a couple in a day on my home page.

5

sizzlinpapaya t1_j18ig3s wrote

I’m suddenly seeing a ton of stuff from television and movies when I didn’t see a ton of it before unless I searched it out.

4

ardent_wolf t1_j191750 wrote

I don’t even follow this sub and I’ve been seeing it so much lately

3

ryoon21 t1_j19htjo wrote

Yes! I can’t believe the amount of similar stuff I’ve seen in this and the r/movies sub. It was night and day

3

Piano_Fingerbanger t1_j17ngtf wrote

I'm pretty sure that at least for mobile they'll push the fastest rising posts from the past hour or two in the subreddits you visit the most to your front page.

2

articwolph t1_j19gqg6 wrote

Hey it's just Skynet on training wheels, don't you judge it, we all sucked at something when we first started. We also have to be kind to the ai maybe the reddit AI will be nice to humans.......

2

bflatmusic7 t1_j1a9a75 wrote

Absolutely the same. TV movies and the such are 50% of my after one day.

2

WeDriftEternal t1_j161i6y wrote

I'd rather have TV discussion than the bots auto-posting every vareity/deadspin/marvel article in existence seconds after the twitter feed posts it

181

stumpcity t1_j16ig4j wrote

Jeez, even if it was just bots posting Variety, at least that's a legitimate outlet.

So many of the linkbacks people throw up as a veiled excuse to harvest rants and its attendant karma are just absolute Geek Culture trash sites that are all minimum 2 or 3 steps removed from where the story legitimately originated... which is almost always a trade paper anyway.

I can't count the number of horseshit Collider and Paste links in here that basically only exist so someone on r/television can post them for updoots. Nobody else seems to actually read them, including the people sharing them.

47

ijakinov t1_j16sgk0 wrote

This is what I hate about news that spreads on TikTok. The trash sites are featured in videos with often misleading, inaccurate & super sensationalized headlines; and because nobody reads the actual articles what spreads is a lot of misinformation & in turn sometimes creates drama. variety is generally pretty careful when they are reporting on something that’s not an exclusive.

13

OneGoodRib t1_j17orrg wrote

No sarcasm op is ridiculous. What's the point of this sub just being people linking to news outlets with nothing else? What's wrong with there being questions sometimes? There's really not THAT many questions in the sub right now, and if it's such a huge issue then op and the others can just go bookmark Variety for their tv news since they don't care for discussions.

20

WeDriftEternal t1_j17qjns wrote

Just to defend OP a bit, there's been a increase of potentially bot-like posts that look "normal" across various subreddits for the last couple weeks that have gotten some users suspicious, and reddit seems to promoting more self-posts than normal, even ones that haven't been upvoted. So, unusual activity is happening and many users are noticing it. That being said, the old default subs have always had issues with bots, but those were generally link posts, this may or may not be related.

15

badgarok725 t1_j18cs0r wrote

I mean tbf, Reddit is a news aggregator firstly

Obviously you need some discussion threads but it's been a blast of incredibly low effort ones recently

5

FirmLibrary4893 t1_j18tqsy wrote

> What's the point of this sub just being people linking to news outlets with nothing else?

How is that not a point? That is literally the point of subs like news, worldnews, etc

1

fadetoblack237 t1_j168g9d wrote

Sometimes multiple times. It's obnoxious.

9

riegspsych325 t1_j1a7k50 wrote

and most of all big news is posted by a single user. Anytime anyone expresses skepticism in that user’s posts, mods delete the comments. And when said user is mentioned by name in a complaint, people get banned. A post on r/movies talked about the issue and the user got banned and a warning from reddit admins

Just go to any entertainment sub, sort by top weekly and you’ll see that user responsible for more than half

5

FondleGanoosh438 t1_j17uixq wrote

I think people who complain about discussion threads need to hit the sports subs and see nothing but tweets from talking heads and terrible articles written by literally who.

7

Zachariot88 t1_j163yv4 wrote

This can't be r/AskReddit, as 75% of the posts aren't about sex (unless we're talking about how sexy it is to finally have some good Star Wars content in Andor, of course).

131

lordatlas t1_j18gmn5 wrote

"Which are your favourite TV shows to watch while having sex?"

19

-ColonelKurtz- t1_j18i9mw wrote

“What is your favorite sex scene in a TV show?”

12

nock_loose t1_j18iu61 wrote

“What is your favorite TV in sex?”

6

Warm-Enthusiasm-9534 t1_j1p98ya wrote

You could ask what TV is the best kind for having sex on top of, but flat screens ruined that. Technology sucks.

2

NicholasCajun t1_j160b3c wrote

People discussing television in the television subreddit is bad? Are there any specific posts you have an issue with?

48

ex1stence OP t1_j16ea5u wrote

The question is whether it’s actually people at all. The r/futurology dig by mods confirmed basically all the users who had tried to post to the sub within 24 hours were from sock accounts piloted by AI.

Now that we know it’s happening on one sub, could be anywhere right?

But anyway, back to those riveting discussions you were mentioning: What’s your favorite TV show that was on TV that had actors in it?

Karma pls.

28

NicholasCajun t1_j16mjfp wrote

> could be anywhere right?

Sure in theory of course. But is there a specific thread you have a problem with that you suspect is AI posted? Do you not want television being discussed here? The content is on-topic. Maybe I'm a bot talking to you, maybe you're a bot.

If you're asking us moderators to take action, being able to name specific threads you have a problem with is important, unless you want me to just randomly ban people and delete threads on the basis of vague suspicions that I would be unable to reasonably defend and articulate if anyone asked me to justify those actions.

8

ex1stence OP t1_j16sbm2 wrote

I mean this is the front page of r/television right now.

Might be that time of year, might be a change to what Reddit pushes to people's home feeds, as another poster suggested. But r/futurology was just having this problem a day ago, so I was curious if it might be the case here too.

Those accounts do check out for the most part, but it's all from today. I've noticed a change in my feed for a few weeks now in both here plus r/movies, and with kids off for vacay (easy marks)/chatGPT being the new hot thing, there could be karma farming AI working different subs already.

Just a theory, one that the government will never be able to steal from my brain thanks to my shiny metal hat.

8

Chataboutgames t1_j16luur wrote

What content would you like to see here? Without a doubt bots run the sub, but I prefer discussion bots to ad bots

−6

West_Path_1851 t1_j18zk3k wrote

asking same questions over and over is not a discussion, go back to posting trailers, posters, and ads please.

1

dieselmiata t1_j161xze wrote

I see it too. I don't click on hardly any of them, but scrolling through reddit I see tons of "what's your favorite tv show for (XXXXXXXX)" posts listed under r/television, and "Can anyone recommend a movie where (XXXXXXX)" posts under r/movies.

I had the exact though about an AI doing it as it's really ramped up in the last week or so.

I almost made a joke post this morning asking "what's your favorite tv show to watch while throwing eggs at your neighbors 2012 Altima?" just to keep in spirit with all the other posts.

39

fadetoblack237 t1_j168pdi wrote

I've noticed all the general entertainment subs like this one r/gaming, r/Music, and r/movies all have had these types of posts flooding them. If you want good discussion you really have to dig into some more niche subs.

21

crusader86 t1_j16dji3 wrote

Oh thank god it’s not just me, I was rolling through some of those threads and getting real confused with what sub I was in. My good old “predict” the top 3 replies game that I play in my head for some of those was getting scarily accurate.

9

ras344 t1_j16snsf wrote

/r/games is much better than /r/gaming. I don't know if there's an equivalent for /r/television

8

ghoonrhed t1_j17lpdt wrote

There was a while where it took over Reddit in nearly all subs, where somebody just asked a question but put an image as the post.

This actually got to the point where of all subs /r/gaming had enough and banned them. If you're gonna ask a question, just ask the fucking question.

4

yazzy1233 t1_j16o3xq wrote

You can easily look through the profile to see if its a bot or not, but I think yall would just rather keep holding on to yall conspiracy theories

−5

reddig33 t1_j16opef wrote

Better than the never ending “[your favorite show here] is the bestest show that there ever was in the history of the universe!” posts.

39

OneGoodRib t1_j17otgt wrote

How about "[show that gets millions of views that was on the air for 15 years] is really underrated! Anyone else like it?"

29

West_Path_1851 t1_j18zcav wrote

As someone who used this sub as a way to find new things to watch becasue it was neat seeing all the trailers and ads, I hate this Askreddit saga now. Don't give a shit about sea of useless questions now. Sad.

2

Holdmypipe t1_j16ywx5 wrote

Yeah man wtf is going on? I’m seeing hundreds of these pots everyday now about tv shows and movies. What’s the best this, what’s the best that. Favorite this, favorite that. They need to fuck off with that already.

19

hijole_frijoles t1_j171fva wrote

I feel like the same thing is happening in r/movies

17

botoks t1_j189gto wrote

It is, there really should just be blanket ban on that sort of low effort spam.

2

sleepwithtelevision t1_j163kad wrote

r/movies is the same. And with every other top post on r/askreddit being “which actor should just stop” and the like, I’m having a hard time telling these subs apart

16

DaveShadow t1_j167wxa wrote

It’s karma whoring. Blatantly so.

It put me off Twitter when I started trying to use it more actively recently, where you’d get people posting five or six questions an hour,but never having genuine conversations. It’s to get engagement, get karma and upvotes and then move on to the next question.

It can somewhat lead to good conversations with other people, but you’ll notice a lot of the time, the OP asks a question but barely engages deeper in the thread. It feels so soulless and fake. Vapid.

13

[deleted] t1_j16qrfw wrote

[deleted]

2

DaveShadow t1_j182s49 wrote

At a complete guess, and with the greatest of respect, that sounds like you were downvoted cause you asked something that would have been easily found via the search bar. 99% of questions asking for recommendations have already been asked and answered extensively. Not every thought needs a new thread.

2

longdustyroad t1_j1ae58b wrote

I don’t need or particularly want the OP to engage in a thread. They aren’t the center of the discussion, just someone who kicked it off. I actually get annoyed when the OP (on any sub) replies to every comment

0

SirThatsCuba t1_j175zpy wrote

Dear Reddit, Have you ever sexed the sex so hard your sex sexed off?

Okay, now it's AskReddit.

10

hehehehehehehhehee t1_j19f7h9 wrote

Seriously. I've gone to tuning this and /r/movies out because it's just regurgitation of the same 'What's a tv or movie involving horses that made you cry?' . At least it's not how /r/damnthatsinteresting is largely just videos of people dying or whatever. YEESH.

8

Kvothe_Sengar t1_j18tatv wrote

I've noticed this as well with Space, Movies, and Futurology. I'm seeing dozens more posts from each subreddit, and have been seeing far fewer posts from subreddits that I'm more active in. It's very aggravating.

6

arcenceil89 t1_j18xavj wrote

Nowhere near as bad as movies sub but it's getting annoying. Can't tell if bots or karma farmers

6

jfflo t1_j16dhiy wrote

Are you asking Reddit that

5

DanaWhiteRelevantHue t1_j17zhbs wrote

Have you guys seen Station Eleven or can you believe that Wednesday did that dance BY HERSELF?

5

kiptheboss t1_j18gtmg wrote

Dude, I'm seeing the same thing on this sub and r/movies. I'm very glad to see that I'm not the only one to realize this phenomenon.

5

drupoxy t1_j19vw5r wrote

You should see r/movies late at night. I don't follow many subs, so it completely dominates my frontpage "best" sort with 20 out of 25 posts being "What movies did everyone hate but you think are top 10?" or "Name a movie in which <very specific thing>"

It's always completely useless to comment in them because the OP never replies back and so I'm forced to switch to the "hot" sort.

I have no idea how you prevent it.

edit: Here's an example of my frontpage right now, and it's much worse at night

5

I_Set_3_Alarms t1_j16zwr3 wrote

I like to watch a show I’ve already seen, like Community or Always Sunny, if I’m watching a sports game of a team I follow.

If it’s a neutral team then I’ll just watch whatever show I’m currently watching.

And that is the TV I like to watch while watching TV

3

PunisherASM129 t1_j18atvg wrote

OR some weirdos who want "reddit karma" simply scan for no effort posts that got upvoted? The subs r/unpopularopinion and r/askreddit are the most obvious examples of this.

3

DaveShadow t1_j18m9lj wrote

“Men, what is something women should know?”

4

jackofslayers t1_j18marw wrote

I feel like the reddit algorithm has changed recently. I have been getting suggestions for much newer posts than normal and a lot of them are simple questions like this.

I don’t mind. In some subs in has been annoying but 90% of the other posts on r/movies and r/television seems to be those fucking awful “articles” that are clearly just an ad for a popular show.

3

sigmonater t1_j179jix wrote

This is the 7th r/television post in a row that I’ve seen, and I literally just left r/futurology after leaving a ton of other subs for the exact same issues. I want to see posts that stimulate thought, but most everything I keep seeing feels like a 6th grader posted it. I’m 29 with a finance degree and currently pursuing and engineering degree so I can get my PE. I’m about to leave this sub too. It seems like the only subs that remain interesting are those related to my work and hobbies.

2

OneGoodRib t1_j17oymu wrote

It's the 15th r/television post in a row that I've seen, but to be fair I was on r/television's front page.

3

sweetpeapickle t1_j1a00hw wrote

Probably because people don't search other threads to see if their question has been asked. Or sometimes they want to post their own thread. And especially towards the end of the year, you're going to have a lot of what was your favorite.... of 2022?

2

AutoModerator t1_j15yvfn wrote

The 2022 Edition of the r/television Favorite Shows Survey is now open!

You may vote by clicking here.

If you have any questions or concerns, please comment here.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

bnetimeslovesreddit t1_j17kzkp wrote

You could ask chatgpt to write a positive title that get more karma based on how you pose the question

1

ghoonrhed t1_j17lsxs wrote

How much of this is bots or redditors seeing a trend and jumping on it like they always do?

1

Bouron t1_j17m1tf wrote

I’m convinced it’s AI spam bots run by those spammy websites that just repost Reddit comments.

1

PappaDukes t1_j17ridj wrote

That being said, what is the best Christmas movie??

1

BlackSpinedPlinketto t1_j17sgf2 wrote

Well some may be bots, but I checked the most recent ones and it just seems like people who want to talk about tv.

I don’t mind a few if it breaks up the ones about one specific show, which is a bit dull. It’s always the same few shows.

1

fothergillfuckup t1_j17zy5n wrote

I never watch tv shows when I'm watching the tv. I prefer the black square void of despair.

1

Eenvy t1_j18lh23 wrote

It's time for the buzzfeed year end round up

1

leazypeazyyy t1_j18qd7v wrote

Buzzfeed needs more content would be my honest guess. I've been seeing more and more stories on social media based off these posts.

1

ishtar_the_move t1_j192ya2 wrote

Have you read Robert J. Sawyer's WWW trilogy where the web itself developed consciousness and eventually became sentient? Maybe that's what is happening now. If the world wide web needs to know what my favourite shows in the last half of 2022 in order to become the next dominant lifeform, who am I to stand in the way?

1

TheAres1999 t1_j19n6nv wrote

I'm sorry, but that's just a yes or no question. We are looking for something more open ended. Please rephrase it, and try again

1

WozKhalifa1 t1_j19wxc5 wrote

Thank you! Those posts are so annoying.

1

VSBakes t1_j19wyas wrote

Apparently.

1

spinereader81 t1_j1bfglm wrote

I have no problem with questions if they're about something interesting, or at rarely asked. It's just crap like "what show deserved a second season" I could do without.

1

MeronDC t1_j172bw1 wrote

this is always common here at the end of the year when people are looking for a recommendation. Wait until January and everything is back to normal...

0

OneGoodRib t1_j17onc4 wrote

Ugh I hate people... asking tv-related questions in r/television! It's much better when it's only tv news so everybody can say "what are you, a bot that's shilling for [tv show]?" on every fucking thread! Grrr!

0

longdustyroad t1_j1adu2n wrote

Not sure if it’s bots but I think it’s a good thing. The subreddit is more interesting to read than it’s ever been.

0

yazzy1233 t1_j16nyhc wrote

Yall want everything banned, there wont be anything left on this sub.

−1

GalleonStar t1_j19dzk9 wrote

You realise you've just added another topic that's just a question, right?

−1

Outlier25 t1_j17yc89 wrote

Conspiracy says the person asking a question!

−2

MenInBlerg t1_j16eiiz wrote

Ironically, this would be a pretty weird question to ask if the sub were AskReddit.

−5

Chataboutgames t1_j16loia wrote

As opposed to what? Another article saying “HoTD star says season 2 will probably be good!”

−5

QuintoBlanco t1_j16gl2v wrote

Its seems to me that this post is made by a Russian bot promoting r/conspiracy.

I don't think it's a coincidence that ex1stence happens to link to r/conspiracy on the day that r/conspiracy suggests that Ukrainian soldiers are Nazis.

I have no prove that ex1stence is a Russian bot, but it just feels that way.

−9