Reddit gimmick is that its an advertising website disguised as a forum.

What it did was collect people with similar interest so they could sell their attention.

This made it easy for the fly by night T-shirt seller or latest alibaba enthusiasts selling the latest trend. Post a meme about the trend. Use a socket puppet account or wait for a comment that said “wow that’s really crazy here’s a link where you can learn more”. In this case its to a video of a channel paid to act impressed by the quality. And then link or suggest where to buy them.

Not saying that’s what this is. That stuff happens just naturally. But this type of advertising is insidious and erodes a website quick which is why I hate it so much. And lately i’m seeing more and more posts on Lemmy like this