I mean, it's not hard to tell shilling, and truly authentic, quality shilling falls along a border of marginally still useful content.
Like, I'm hoping to find a specialized community discussing products relevant to that hobby or interest, often posting images or discussions of data gathered.
For example I am starting a container garden on my patio using fabric pots and have searched reddit for a wide variety of gardening products. Perhaps I fell for shills but I looked for people posting images of their gardens and discussing opinions and results, so if companies reselling chinese factory sourced fabric grow containers are hiring people to literally make home gardens and shill online about products, then so be it, thank you for the content? And even then, I don't think I saw anyone specifically pushing any brand at all, and even calling the top brand (SmartPot) overpriced . Everyone seems to use a different brand and they all seem to do fine.
I think that's a strength on reddit. It's harder to shill in a specialist community than it is in an Amazon review or personal blog.
Another reddit community I would look at often for opinions and brands is chef knives and knife sharpening tools. I really don't think there's a lot of shilling there that gets upvoted and promoted.
Like, I'm hoping to find a specialized community discussing products relevant to that hobby or interest, often posting images or discussions of data gathered.
For example I am starting a container garden on my patio using fabric pots and have searched reddit for a wide variety of gardening products. Perhaps I fell for shills but I looked for people posting images of their gardens and discussing opinions and results, so if companies reselling chinese factory sourced fabric grow containers are hiring people to literally make home gardens and shill online about products, then so be it, thank you for the content? And even then, I don't think I saw anyone specifically pushing any brand at all, and even calling the top brand (SmartPot) overpriced . Everyone seems to use a different brand and they all seem to do fine.
I think that's a strength on reddit. It's harder to shill in a specialist community than it is in an Amazon review or personal blog.
Another reddit community I would look at often for opinions and brands is chef knives and knife sharpening tools. I really don't think there's a lot of shilling there that gets upvoted and promoted.