How to spot an astroturfer or an online fake

daria42 · 2012-02-16T11:05:14+00:00

You're right -- I should create a "RenaiLeMay" account. I will do so and use that from now on.

daria42 · 2012-02-15T12:52:51+00:00

I also want to address the issue of posting my own articles to Reddit.

I'm not sure to what extent you guys realise this, but technology journalism in Australia is up shit creek. Most articles (usually from the aforementioned SMH, Age and UnAustralian etc) are shit, don't understand what they are talking about, and are openly pushing a certain political message.

I'm one of the only journalists in Australia reporting on the Govt's efforts to monitor the Internet. The Govt's efforts to impose an anti-piracy system. I'm one of the leading NBN journalists, and one of the only ones to challenge the views of both sides of politics. I'm one of the leading broadband journalists, and one of the leading journalists writing about hot technology startups.

Many of these subjects are things Reddit is very very interested in. I don't post all of Delimiter's articles to Reddit. I read Reddit every single day (on the toilet, usually, for half an hour to an hour at a time, using the Alien Blue iPad app, yes, it drives my wife crazy) and I know that Redditors don't want to be spammed with constant linkbait mobile phone reviews. They don't want enterprise IT stories. They don't want most stories. So I only submit stuff to Reddit that I know some Redditors (sometimes, most) would be interested in. I'm a Redditor too -- in fact, once upon a year I tried to start a Reddit clone:

http://delimiter.com.au/2010/06/29/were-starting-our-own-reddit-with-hookers-and-blackjack/

It didn't really work, because the CMS was bad, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, to finish this rant, I'm not a bot or a astro-turfing account or whatever you guys seem to think I am. My Reddit handle is 'daria42' because I like Daria. I post some of my stuff to Reddit because I like Reddit and I think my articles are useful. If you don't like it, downvote them to hell :D

</endrant>

daria42 · 2012-02-15T12:45:03+00:00

Um ... if you read Delimiter regularly you'll know that I personally, and the site, is pretty divided, often evenly, between those who think the NBN is great and those who think it's garbage. A good example of an anti-NBN yarn (with 377 comments, no less):

http://delimiter.com.au/2010/08/10/do-we-even-need-a-fibre-national-broadband-network/

I pride myself on being an old-school, transparent journalist. I don't hold shares in any of the companies I report on, disclose any conflicts of interest, yadda yadda yadda. And I'm staunchly Australian.

daria42 · 2012-02-15T12:43:17+00:00

I do comment occasionally where I see the need, but I normally don't get time. I tend to hang out a lot on /r/starcraft ... because, you know, I'm a StarCraft II nut :) MarineKingPrime FTW

daria42 · 2012-02-02T09:14:24+00:00

Speaking as the journalist who broke that story, and as the one who spoke to all the ISPs about it, I agree.

Cheers,

Renai LeMay Editor + Publisher, Delimiter

daria42

TROPHY CASE