Hello, I hope you remember my, Iām the fake poster. I did a full confession on Reddit, I compiled over 40 of my fake stories. I had chosen AmITheAngel because it is the most adequate place to talk about fake stories on Reddit.
Iāll also post the full text in here so you donāt have to go to reddit. Here it is.
AITA for making over 40+ fake posts on reddit?
This is my confession, and at the end of this post, you will find a list of 40+ fake post I wrote on Reddit. But first, let me introduce myself, so you might have a little insight on what was happening on my mind.
My name is Valentine. For almost a year I posted over 40 fake posts on Reddit. There are a lot more, but these are the ones Iāve been able to find and recover.
Let me tell you about me. Iām 24 years old, I was introduced to Reddit by my nephew, and for the following years, Iāve been hooked to the platform.
I started listening to many Reddit story time podcasts. Started with the Pewdiepie reaction videos, then people reading answers from AskReddit, and then Relationships and AITA. It was always entertaining, and sometimes educational. I even got my boyfriend hooked into them.
Sometimes I asked Reddit for advice on things that happened IRL to me, but they always died in new with one or 2 comments. Then I had an Idea. I created another Reddit account, and posted a Fake Story. The engagement was immediate and most people believed the story, until mods deleted it.
But then something had grown inside me. Some days later I made another story, from another throwaway account. A little time later, another one.
Before I knew it, it became a habit. Something would pop inside my head, then I would create another account and write it down to post it on Reddit. I became more methodical, I used character counters, LanguageTool, Deepl Write to fix my grammar, I would research a topic to make it more believable. I created these characters, and started roleplaying as them, while I wrote it and interacted with commenters, I became my own characters for a short period of time. I would let ideas for stories rest on draft to make them better and fix mistakes.
It turned into a unhealthy habit, constantly my stories would get deleted by mods, someone would catch a little mistake to call out the fake, it would turn time-consuming, stress inducing, anxiety triggering. I didnāt care about receiving hate on a character that was written to be a jerk, but the effort started to take a toll on my mental health.
This was never about Karma, awards, or followers. I gained nothing from this. I need to talk to a psychologist to try and understand my real motives since I donāt really understand it myself, but I guess the engagement was addicting, my ultimate goal was to have my story read on my favorite reddit podcasts, and I did it a few times. A few times I said ājust one more, this can be a hitā but you know how that ends, itās never just āone moreā.
My writing skills improved, a lot, you might not notice from this post alone because Iām not really taking care of my grammar alone, but Iām from Venezuela, english is my second language, and it really helped me to improve my english. I have so many ideas for books and stories to write, but I always freeze, still have many doubts about my storytelling, such as: Are my characters bland and boring? Are my descriptions good enough? Am I describing too much or too little? Is my story engaging? Do I know enough about this topic to write a story about it? Is my language too formal or too casual?
On Reddit none of that matters, I can write a complete story in minutes and people will find it engaging. I can make mistakes on my writing and grammar and nobody will care. Writing the stories I actually wanna write as full books is intimidating, and I feel bad for not trusting my skills enough to start actually writing.
But of course, now I feel as a psychopath, some people after reading my stories feel upset, emotionally distressed, I might have triggered some previous real trauma on someone, Iām playing with these strangers emotions for no real reason. And yes, I sleep well at night, Iām a heavy sleeper actually. I feel bad, and guilty.
I was hesitating making my list of fake posts public because the people that engaged on them might feel betrayed, played, and used. I spoke to many of them as if OP was a real person, some has told me their personal real stories, they trusted me. This is the most psychotic thing Iāve done, and is hunting me now. But maybe some people might feel better knowing these are fake since the OPs donāt exist, and none of these fake people are actually going through an abusive or dangerous situation. I donāt really know, the ideal situation is that the posts had never been written and posted in the first place, but is too late for that.
I tried to stop but I relapsed. I need coping mechanisms to stop me from the urge to create yet another reddit account and write another distressing story. Contrary to how Reddit makes it look, getting help for mental health is not easy, and BTW, not all mental health professionals are Therapists, psychologists exists too.
I might end up leaving Reddit entirely, the API fiasco certainly helped with that, Iāve used reddit a lot less since then, and Iāve been on Lemmy ever since.
BTW, I never posted a fake story on this, my main account, I posted here about my relationship and my crazy Mother in Law, that is 100% true, Iām not stupid enough to make fakes posts on my main. Iām not a liar IRL. Iām actually very honest, brutally honest actually, and yes, that many times makes me an asshole.
This is my confession, feel free to ask questions. I wanna turn some of these stories into actual books, maybe you can help me to choose which ones. I really wish other fake posters come out, that might be another stone thrown at Redditās castle of glass.
And finally, Iām sorry. And please donāt think anything on Reddit is fake, real life is sometimes crazier than fiction, I have real family stories that sound crazier than the fakest fake posts, and thatās why I never tell them.
The Fake Post List:
- AITA for Greeting my Biodad in Public
- AITA for cutting finantial support for my family
- AITA for reporting my boss over a nickname
- AITA for dropping my uncleās APās name at dinner after he tried to slutshame me?
- AITA I sold the ps4 my brother gave to my son
- [AITA for selling my uncleās car because I needed the money to move into a new place](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/search?q=flair_name%3A"No A-holes here%22&restrict_sr=on)
- AITA I created a tech support Help Desk for my family and now theyāre mad at me
- AITA for letting my ex-step daughter live with me? My ex wife is now trying to ruin me
- AITA for refusing to eat meat, and making my dad āwaste foodā?
- AITA for cooking my BFās family Chinese food instead of āChinese foodā
- Update about my boyfriend.
- AITA for selling my wedding dress, so my sister canāt have it?
- Update: AITA for selling my wedding dress, so my sister cant have it?
- AITA for spending a lot of time in my bunker away from my family?
- Things are getting better. Update to Bunker post
- AITA for not giving my blessing to my daughterās BF?
- My daughterās roommate talked to me. Told me they will take care of her
- Mormons came into my door. Iām worried
- My daughterās Mormon ex boyfriend made her choose between him and her family, she didnāt choose him
- AITA for cancelling the summer vacation with my sister in florida?
- AITA Iām not allowing my daughter to hang out with her older friends?
- AITA for inviting only one of my 2 moms to meet my girlfriendās parents?
- AITA for telling my sister that she named her daughter after a prostitute?
- AITA for not wanting my autistic daughter at my home anymore?
- AITA for leaving my friendās dog at a dog shelter after she abandoned him at my home?
- AITA I didnāt celebrate my daughterās High School Graduation
- AITA for not celebrating my 3yo sonās birthday?
- AITA for getting myself to the hospital and making my dad get medical debt?
- AITA for telling my daughter I already knew she is a lesbian?
- Iām planning to redo my daughterās coming out. Am I doing it right?
- UPDATE: Redoing my daughterās coming out
- A customer freaks out after seeing a pride flag in my bakery
- AITA for telling my sister that she is a bad example? And that I donāt want her husband around my future child?
- AITA for telling my girlfriend she is a bad mother for making her daughter pay rent?
- Update for my AITA post.
- Someone reposted my story. Hereās some new events that happened
- AITA for not adopting my niece and sending her to foster care?
- AITA I shouted at the brideās son at her own wedding after he broke my camera.
- AITA for not complimenting my niece at her quinceaƱera party?
- AITA for not warning my brother about the meaning of his Tattoo?
- A crazy woman attacked my daughter at the movies
- AITA for refusing to let my husband buy our dream home because is next to a school?
- AITA for the way I reacted after my wife came out?
You can usually tell itās fake when the characters feel engineered to generate maximum outrage or sympathy.
Itās possible you replied, but I only ever saw these posts when they would get enough traction to appear in r/allāso usually my comments came pretty late and never got more than a handful of votes. The few times OP did reply it was nonspecific stuff like āFine, donāt believe me.ā
Iād check but all my reddit comments are gone now.