This whole Vatican thing has been hilarious

[hellofromreddit]

20. Some are paid to post here

Here's their pattern:

Their responses are all garbage--either smug comments, repetition of outright lies, or occasionally graphics (though that's uncommon on this board). If you try to engage in conversation with them they'll either be intentionally obtuse or just drop it and move on.

They generally move as a group and stick to one another's threads. So you'll see a swarm of similar posts in a short window, all full of activity to keep them at the top.

They generally stick to their own threads. You'll see them all over one another's threads, but authentic threads generally get ignored. For example, none have bothered with these: 1 2 3

If one pops into an authentic thread, the rest tend to swarm in and smear themselves all over it.

It's the same pattern in discussion boards all over the internet. They're like cancer--looks kinda like the normal content, but if you take a little longer view then the edges of the tumor become apparent. I keep a list of repeat offenders handy and it's always a small number of "users" posting massive volumes and sticking to the pattern. Super PACs buy this sort of behavior. reddit's /r/HillaryClinton sub is really infested and the spillover from there has ruined /r/PoliticalDiscussion.

Try it yourself: see who around here fits that pattern and start making a list. Draw a digraph of who replies to whose threads and the cancer will become obvious very quickly.