# Why links to reddit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 29, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012 "2016-05-29T17:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/1 "2016-05-29T17:08:56Z")
Every so often some fool posts links to something at reddit (such as [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=794331), until it’s deleted), usually labeled live stream. Why? What exactly are they links to? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/2 "2016-05-29T17:15:00Z")
Live streaming events. Usually sports, sometimes movies. Always stolen content. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/3 "2016-05-29T17:29:14Z")
Thanks. So what does the poster get out of someone clicking on the link? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/4 "2016-05-29T17:35:42Z")
The poster is an employee of an SEO service that’s hired by the streaming [del]service[/del] thief. Or hired directly. Their job is to spread the spam links everywhere they can, primarily forums, comment sections, Facebook, etc. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/5 "2016-05-29T17:38:47Z")
I’m assuming the reason for reddit is another layer between the user and the actual streaming and reddit might not delete those threads as fast as other places. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/6 "2016-05-29T17:58:13Z")
The people posting those links don’t give a shit if any or all of them get quickly deleted, unless they are working directly for the people who profit from the existence of those links. Mostly, the people posting the links are doing piece-work, getting paid something like a penny for every link they post. It’s like those penny-a-piece jobs one sees at Amazon Mechanical Turk. Only it’s not actually AMT where you see those jobs advertised; but there are other penny-a-piece job sites that seem to specialize in posting jobs for stay-at-home link farmers. They don’t care if anyone ever actually clicks on those links, or if anyone ever even sees them, or if they get deleted instantly. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/7 "2016-05-29T18:29:33Z")
[Live Stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs_iL8v4LMw) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/8 "2016-05-29T18:37:34Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > The people posting those links don’t give a shit if any or all of them get quickly deleted, unless they are working directly for the people who profit from the existence of those links. > > Mostly, the people posting the links are doing piece-work, getting paid something like a penny for every link they post. It’s like those penny-a-piece jobs one sees at Amazon Mechanical Turk. Only it’s not actually AMT where you see those jobs advertised; but there are other penny-a-piece job sites that seem to specialize in posting jobs for stay-at-home link farmers. They don’t care if anyone ever actually clicks on those links, or if anyone ever even sees them, or if they get deleted instantly. This I believe. But, if nobody ever clicks on them, how can posting it be worth even a penny? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/9 "2016-05-29T18:45:59Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > This I believe. > But, if nobody ever clicks on them, how can posting it be worth even a penny? It improves search engine results (not Google, though). The more links to a specific site, the higher in results it will show up. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/10 "2016-05-30T01:30:24Z")
Anyone else glad to see **running coach** was the first reply, after 7 minutes? (For those not following along with our usual spammers, **running coach** is amazingly good at finding and reporting them…) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/11 "2016-05-30T01:56:49Z")
God forbid any Reddit _discussion_ would be of interest to Dopers. Not totally kidding here. We have, by and large, radically different styles of engagement than Redditors. Serious Reddit discussions tend to go in circles; serious SDMB discussions tend to go down the rabbit hole. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/12 "2016-05-30T08:30:17Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > God forbid any Reddit _discussion_ would be of interest to Dopers. > > Not totally kidding here. We have, by and large, radically different styles of engagement than Redditors. Serious Reddit discussions tend to go in circles; serious SDMB discussions tend to go down the rabbit hole. Different, sure. But not necessarily uninteresting. I mean, you know about how Reddit comments go for a reason, I presume. I engage on both sites as well. And I wouldn’t characterize Reddit as going in circles. It’s just separate conversations. You aren’t intended to read the whole thing as one long discussion, or even read the whole thing at all. Anyways, I’ve linked reddit stuff here before–AMAs, of course, and the more serious subreddits that have expertise in them (like the science or history subreddits). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/13 "2016-05-30T08:48:09Z")
Although SDMB members & mods are pretty good and quick at spotting and removing junk links, other forums and sites are not. I think the spam posters (or their employers) aren’t aware of that distinction, and benefit most from links that are active for a long time. People click on them, innocently, and that drives traffic to the site. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/14 "2016-05-30T14:08:18Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Different, sure. But not necessarily uninteresting. I mean, you know about how Reddit comments go for a reason, I presume. I engage on both sites as well. > > And I wouldn’t characterize Reddit as going in circles. It’s just separate conversations. You aren’t intended to read the whole thing as one long discussion, or even read the whole thing at all. > > Anyways, I’ve linked reddit stuff here before–AMAs, of course, and the more serious subreddits that have expertise in them (like the science or history subreddits). Their sorting algorithms are great at dealing with the volume reddit gets. Instead of reading a 7-page thread here trying to find the best posts based on the number of times it was quoted in replies, there you can just sort by Top (all time) or Best (recency-weighted) and read the top few comments to get the most salient points. With ever-decreasing attention spans, I wonder if younger users find the SDMB as antiquated as the OED… ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2016, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-links-to-reddit/756012/15 "2016-06-04T12:00:13Z")
haha awesome, now these people are spamming Kinja (Gawker.)