And I'm honestly not sure what to think of it. To me, it feels like the messages being portrayed there aren't organic. Maybe I'm too cynical about these types of things, but I constantly see the same few names day after day, - the second page isn't any better, mostly the same names again. I know some of these names are staples here on Voat as people believe to be "trusted users", but I honestly don't give a shit. We reject the mainstream media for the same reason, being fed inorganic messages, having narratives pushed upon us to be led around like sheep. I don't care if I'm wrong about some of these users or any of these users, as any time an honest discussion is ever had about it, it becomes largely ignored.

Really, I understand where the "there's only maybe 100 real users on Voat" comments come from. It's because of things like this. We keep telling ourselves and each other that we're somehow better than "the others" while seemingly falling for the same things they fall for, just with different narratives.

Is this website Voat? or is it the @tendiesonfloor, @dietcokehead1, @fluxusp, @shadow332, @tobyfox_undertale show? (I'd ping more, but you know, only 5 pings work at a time.) I know other Voat users exist who are rarely on the front page of Voat, who have SCP in the 30k to 50k range, and almost never show up on the front page. They seem like legitimate users because they tend to stick to their subverses which tend to be niche and much smaller, but post often in there trying to grow their communities. The one user I pinged, 9 days, over 1k SCP. Looking through the second page, I see other users with a low time frame here - less than 6 months, but tons of SCP. That doesn't seem organic to me. Not enough of us are questioning this.

(And yes, I realize I could block every single one of those users and the one subverse, but that only helps me, not the rest of the community where my larger concern is at.)

Let's have that discussion. Let's clear the air. Voaters, do you actually mind this? Does this concern you? Do you trust those users? Is there something fishy going on? Am I and others who call these things out being overly paranoid? If we're not being overly paranoid, how is this any different from any other discussion forum and link congregator? If we believe ourselves to be better as a whole, how is this any different?

inb4:

• How dare you attack content creators. - Don't care about your fucking feelings.
• The resident shills hop in to stir more shit up. - We know who you are.