Clinton Super PAC Caught Spending $1 Million on Social Media Trolls
This is why I have given up arguing with idiots on the internet. I will guarantee GOS is filthy with these bastards. IIRC, GOS created a rule to Ban anyone who called another user a "troll". That may be a measure to protect the embedded trolls. Perhaps their true goal is to do a CIA-type communications operation to create uncertainty and doubt in the Bernie camp.
BUSTED: Pro-Clinton Super PAC Caught Spending $1 Million on Social Media Trolls
A Super PAC headed by a longtime Clinton operative is spending $1 million to hire online trolls to “correct” Bernie Sanders’ supporters on social media....
Correct The Record (CTR), which is operated by Clinton attack dog and new owner of Blue Nation Review David Brock, launched a new initiative this week called “Barrier Breakers 2016” for the purpose of debating supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders — or “Bernie Bros,” as they’re referred to in Correct the Record’s press official release — on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms.
http://usuncut.com/politics/clinton-super-pac-busted/
Another link on this story.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/pro-clinton-pac-in-cahoots-with-campaign...
Comments
Confirmation of What We Already Knew...
In the comments of GOS we were up against a boiler room of paid professional trolls...
Fuck That Shit!
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
It is bannable to call them that, but you knew it, correct?
Their diaries are so damn formulaic: lalalala, I used to be a blissful BernieBro and then one (or all) of his supporters were so very, very nasty, and now there is no one for me but HER.
And they all had titles which matched. If one were a collector, one could collect a whole set.
There was that Reddit confessional a couple months back of someone who said she had a stipend of $100/wk to do this.
One of my favs last week or so was a guy (or in my head he was a guy) who 'planned events' (which suggests to me he's in PR) talking about how paid speeches are produced so that what HRC was actually PAID for doing when she spoke to the Wall Street groups is was not because what she said had any content anyone anywhere would want to see, but they paid that much just because the wanted to touch the hem of her garments because she's someone who's been there in high places. Proof, he claimed, that the outrage about her not releasing the speeches is as nothingburger as the emails (ok, he probably did not mention the emails).
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Nothingburger speeches
OK, so getting paid five times the annual income of the median American household to give a nothingburger speech is somehow better than if the speech was important? That makes no sense.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
Logic
is not their strong suit. Born Again stories they play better.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
They aren't trying to make sense but to distract
they are trolls. Paid hacks.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
To sow seeds of doubt and distrust
and to make enough noise to rumormonger effectively.
Wonder how many of them are American citizens? If any of them are, they're traitors to the rest of us, IMO.
Hellery's new teevee commercial is disgusting.
With the little girl asking about her being paid the same as a man. It is soooo STAGED, with 50 or so actors sitting in bleachers like it is a "real town hall". Hellery with her Cheshire Cat smile. Such a friendly spider sitting on her web of lies.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
lol. hillary is a staged human being. she has no
'core', no 'center' just like slick willie.
Don't believe everything you think.
It was Too Obvious...
To not be true...
The instant concentrated attacks on diaries & comments...
The gang flagging of tip jars to ban new pro-bernie users...
The gang flagging of comments to give TO's & Bojo's to users...
The sock puppetry...
The zombie & rip van winkle users becoming active again...
The effective resource allocation where each diary had just enough trolls to disrupt the comments and render them into useless scrolling exercises...
The GOS is obviously infested with them...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
The speed with which the trolls find my diary or comment
or comment made me think they were doing a word search every minute. "Oops, someone just wrote "GMO," oops someone doesn't like "nuclear energy." Whoosh, trolls are on the scene.
To thine own self be true.
And somehow bruinkid was/is able to get in his new user id list
(along with his latest plugs for certain network TV shows, etc.) — in at the top of almost every single Open Thread, so there must be ways of automating a notification as soon as certain things are posted.
They wouldn't even need to do that
if there were, say, one or two different levels of DK user besides "admin" and "people who sign up and get an ID" (like you and I).
There could be a level of access that lets you see when people are composing diaries, and read along with them as they're constructed. Then you'd have a jump on whatever is about to be posted and you could prep your spoiler comment.
They were doing something, for sure, because always, always, always, they're right there with that First Comment. Same handful of personas every time.
Who the lurks for over a decade?
That's one of the phoniest assertions I've read in a diary on TOS. How much time does it take for people to hang out on a website before making an account? Certainly not an entire decade!
actually I did
And I still go over and read the BNR every AM, but I never wanted to jump into the fray. The vibe at the dailylost never attracted me. So I've lurked there for about a decade without joining. I never doubted trolls existed at TOP, and I think for quite a while.
Hillary hires mudslingers, Brock chief among them. It speaks to her character or lack there of.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Guilty lurker
Er, that would be me. I'm a lurker. Been lurking at the Orange Place for a decade, at least. At first it was because I wasn't sure my thoughts were anything anyone wanted to see, so I just read others to see how all that was done. Besides, who could possibly be a more clever word-smith than Hunter? Then I couldn't help but notice how caustic some folks could be, and I decided I didn't need any of that. So...I just lurked and read. I'm glad you guys started up. For a while I was wondering if it was just my imagination that "my people" were being such blind assholes--so much so that I stopped my daily check-ins. Apparently, David Brock is back to his old tricks in spite of all the mea culpa in his book. Underhanded is still underhanded even though he's switched teams. Who can we trust? Anyone? I'm not sure where to gather info anymore.
Feh
Listen to your gut. Really listen to it. Stop ignoring it. You'll find it easier to determine who to trust that way.
Mr. Scribe is one of those lurkers
He's not much of a writer (or even typist) but he's an avid reader, so he reads all sorts of websites without ever making an account or commenting. We balance each other well, as I'm the living proof of the adage, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
At YearlyKos in 2007, I met several lurkers who recognized my user name from comments and diaries. Someone commented that at the Lurker's Caucus, no one spoke; they just sat in a circle and looked at each other.
You're no "lurker" :)
I've met you and hubby a couple of times.
Go Sharks!!!
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
i did.
i found orangewater through news hounds in the mid-2000's and used to go there for kitm. didn't join til early 2015.
GIANT ALL-CAPS SIG
I actually just read for several years there myself, maybe 5?
I don't remember when I created my account (and don't feel like even going to that place long enough to check, lol!) but I lurked for several years before Obama's first term.
I mostly just went to read the articles though and didn't delve too deeply into the comments often then though as my internet access was shoddy and time was also an issue.
Got more of both now.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
To a certain extent, he's right
Businesses book "celebrities" for their conferences and such to add cachet to the events. A friend of mine runs a talent-booking service that features former athletes who go speak at business lunches and appear at charity events; being able to tell your donors that Sammy Slugger will be appearing at your charity golf tournament can be a Big Deal (especially if you offer the biggest donors the opportunity to be in Sammy's foursome).
That said, I doubt that Wall Street paid Hillary Clinton to lecture them on how they need to address economic inequality, nor to tell them to "cut it out". But who knows -- maybe she was as adept at lying to them as she has been in lying to the rest of us, and she'll turn out to be a decent if not outstanding President when it comes to economic policy. We just don't know which Hillary Clinton will take office...and that's the big problem.
After the way she has run her campaign,
you still don't know that Hellery from Hell is going to show up if elected.
I think you need to give it some more thought while you finish that glass half full of Bourbon.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
The problem is "Ethics"
Most celebrity and sports figures have little to worry about where they give paid speaking engagements...
Pete Rose might have a problem if he booked an engagement at the Mother's And Father's Italian Association for Oddsmakers annual convention...
Likewise a politician that will be running for office in the future grabbing money from every direction from special interests they will be making decisions on...
Both of these create an ethics problem where they may become indebted to the parties making the donations, and a perceived conflict of interest...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Pete rose didn't cheat on the baseball field
Just off of it. He should be in the HOF.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Why else would it be bannable?
Now, ask yourself why it became bannable to talk about 9/11 there, too.
Don't even get me started how "played" I feel, even though I've "known it" for a long time. We've all been seriously played. The good news is, we made us a bunch of allies in each other. The bad news is, how in the hell do you fight back with this?
Bonus Really Bad News: There's a hundred of me for every one of you, if I understand this software correctly. And it's not even the only suite out there for sale...
Post a link to this in every fake user's diary...
What if each of us posted a link to this story every time we see one of those fake diaries, comments, etc. on GOS or Twitter? I just don't mean one link. I mean bombard the bastards...!
Sorry...I'm pissed off about this particular subject and have been for a while, but haven't known how to call it out without getting banned.
I know for a fact
Comcast used to (and may still) use Radian6 to manage social media - there worker bees would sit at there screens and if certain negative keywords/phrases appeared on FaceBook, Twitter, Google, etc, the software basically told the drone whether to ignore or engage (those with more influence were actively engaged while those with only one or two followers were ignored. All deeply cynical and I'd be really surprised if Team Clinton were not operating a variation of this.
Re Dkos - interesting how the flagging system became totally opaque at the exact time that Team Clinton were setting up this type of surveillance.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
After you've been watching/listening/participating for awhile
and if you dare look--because believe me, it's hard to look back at this shit and admit to yourself you've been duped too, but you have to, or your eye won't be critical enough--it gets easier to see.
Good point you bring up, too, to this end. It was nice having that flagging system visible to kind of help you suss out who the Bad Actors were, but now they've taken that away. Very interesting overall, coincidental timing or not.
The interesting is
Is Markos complicit or not in the troll takeover of his website.
Making the flagging system 100% opaque (allied with other behavior e.g. allowing/encouraging g FPers to troll the site at will) indicates that he is.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Of course he is!
I'm not sure if it's a matter of "he's trying to help TPTB" as much as it is "he just needs the clicks so he can sell off that domain without losing his ass financially", but I'm sure it's both on some level...but hell yeah, you know he knows about it. It's not so much about the trolls for me as it is the "sudden re-awakening" of hundreds of dormant accounts, but he's well aware of this infiltration, he couldn't possibly *not* be.
Heh. I keep waiting for a particular dormant account to raise its head, so I can call them out on it. Just haven't seen it yet. But boy, if I ever do....
And welcome to that new TV show.....
Trolling For Dollars! (As if anyone is old enough to remember Bowling For Dollars. Well I am. Damn it!)
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
I seem to recall
a "Dialing for Dollars", can't say I remember a "Bowling for Dollars", though. Of course, I'm getting senile.
The smaller the mind the greater the conceit. --Aesop
Pittsburgh had a local Bowling For Dollars show.
The side story is that the host, local personality Nick Perry (who also hosted the state's lottery drawing show), went to the Big House for fixing the Pennsylvania lottery in 1980.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Pennsylvania_Lottery_scandal
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Southeast Wisconsin
SE Wisconsin had both Dialing for Dollars and Bowling for Dollars. On the bowling one contestants would routinely win like 12 to 18 bucks. This was about 1975 so the value now is like $50 to $80. Still, I was always amused at the effort the contestants would put forth for such a sum.
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
OT: Boy, do I remember *that*!
I come from a family of bowlers back in Pittsburgh. None of us went that pro, but both my parents and a couple of sibs bowled frequently locally and my mom was in something called a "Traveling League", so she bowled all over the western part of the state. So that's how she and her team ended up meeting Nick Perry, so she got to be on "Championship Bowling" which was his Saturday morning bowling show. And I got to go along so I got to meet Perry--even at my young age (I couldn't have been more than 6 at the time), I got this really skeezy vibe from him. So none of us were surprised he got busted fixing the lottery.
Damn, that was a long time ago--I think Channel 4 had a "Dialing for Dollars", but I can't remember if they ever bowled for it too...
Song played over the Championship Bowling end credits that went,
“B, O, W, L, I, N, G — we go bowling, bowling, bowling / my baby and me.”
I'm shocked!
Shocked I say!
I would never imagine that those dozens of "long-time lurkers" that finally registered in order to write a diary about how "wonderful" Hillary is, could be paid trolls.
Heh, and of course they are using the playbooks...
Of online Injustice Collectors.
Some of that crap on TOP is just insane. And on twitter it's just as bad, if not worse. (I've been called a flat out "Traitor" for not being willing to hold my nose and vote D)
Shillary using Shills. We knew it, but it was of course a "Conspiracy Theory". Until of course it was proven correct.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
More proof of the depths of depravity that Hellery will stoop to
just to steal an election. I can only imagine what she'll be doing if she becomes the most powerful woman in the world. Gawd help us.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
If not Bernie, Jill Stein.
If not Bernie, Jill Stein.
I would sleep just fine with that vote.
Will note vote for HRC EVER.
My prediction for the future if $Hillary is "elected"
The Iraq war will heat up again, she will start a new war with Iran. Qatar may be sucked into it. Perhaps Pakistan and Afghanistan will be involved. Saudi Arabia will sit back and gather money for their oil from other countries and the US.
Everyone will go into the Bushista "Patriotic Trance" of "supporting the troops by sending more and more people to their needless deaths over false reasons for making yet another fucking war, and the DoD budget will go from just over half the national budget to about 3/4 the budget. (She's FAR too in love with the CiC title; she's had too many conversations with Dumbya about it, and neither has read the Constitution so neither knows that the title doesn't mean what they think it means.)
Taxes for the wealthy will be cut (again), corporations will get more tax breaks (again). What few attempts we've had to rein in banks (so far, unsuccessfully) will be eliminated and they'll be bigger than ever before - and expect us little peons to suck it up and bail them out again.
TPP will pass (if it doesn't pass between election day and Jan 20 next year and Obama signs it). Other "trade agreements" will be renegotiated and further damage employment prospects in the US.
Fracking will be freely approved on all lands, including in protected parks and wildlife areas that are traditionally protected for one reason or another. The rate of earthquakes caused by fracking will increase, get worse.
Any and all reasons to install solar and/or wind farms or find other viable sources of renewable non-polluting energy will be nixed in favor of idiocy like coal, gas, oil energy, thus further polluting our air, land, water. Goodbye to any attempts at trying to cut back on the pollutants that are accelerating climate change. The rest of the world will be even more pissed off at us for such careless disregard for the planet that we mutually share and the pollution that will affect them, too, not to mention the wars that will be started and/or re-started which will further piss off our fellow travelers from other countries on this planet.
Oh, frack. I have depressed myself with this list of potential disasters waiting to happen if $Hillary is elected.
Add your own predictions of what you fear will happen if she is "elected...."
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960
Another video. I like Lee Camp - he's another Jon Stewart
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960
Great Predictions NonnyO
Here's a few more:
Her "No Fly Zone in Syria" will draw us into another MidEast quagmire, with Russia raising the stakes.
Treasury and the Fed will be led by former Bankers-Execs from Wall Street.
When TPP becomes the diaster it is destined to be, she will actually advocate for a lower Minimum Wage,
-- so we can "be competitive" with our "counter-parts" around the world.
Guessing it's still treated as CT regardless of the admission
I'll have to pop over to find out later. But facts very often to not change bias over there lately.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Basically the response
is that Bernie has been doing it longer and paid a progressive digital services company, Revolution Messaging (clients Obama, AARP, ACLU) $16 Million for trolls attacking Clinton. So, once again Bernie is the bad guy who did it first, though they can point to nothing that connects the services provided by Revolution Messaging (hired over a year ago to promote Bernie on YouTube, make ads, use email for fundraising appeals, etc.) to these allegations.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
How interesting. The kind of thing they would have brought up
much earlier if it were actually based off anything but their incredibly uncreative imagination.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
yup and it was fast too
at least at TOP.
Meanwhile... so was Team Sanders:
Ive come to the conclusion that (among other things) this astounding "leak" that Brock's PAC was launching this 'program' was a big set up. Not to say it isn't true, just... more games.
It's clear to me, at least.
Kos sits on a throne of lies.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
sits?
aren't you missing an "h"?
Touche'
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
It's not too late, he could still fix it. We have editing here!
And Woohoo for that!
Too many times do I hit enter and then realize, "Oh shit, I left out a word that completely changes the context of what I wrote." lol!
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Interestingly enough
I managed to get my Twitter feed such that I don't really see a lot of that--what few that show up are dispensed in short order.
I hasten to add, it was a lot of work to get there
Nobody has ever offered to pay me
Nobody has ever offered to pay me to write posts and comments, although I've been doing it for around 15 years -- though sometimes others have accused me of being paid to disagree with them.
During the Bush administration, I lost count of the number of times I was called a "traitor" for daring to criticize the policies of "Our Commander-in-Chief While The Nation Is At War." Of course, the President is never "our" commander-in-chief - he commands the military, not the citizenry.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
The only people who can not criticize
The commander in chief are the military. Criticizing the CiC is a violation of the uniform code of military justice.
The rest of us have this little old thing called the 1st amendment which protects our right to criticize away.
Loved Teddy Roosevelt's take
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
The smaller the mind the greater the conceit. --Aesop
The Tea-GOP forgot their own rule
I think we all recall the exact day that the Tea-GOP forgot their own rule about never criticizing the Commander-in-Chief during wartime. It was Tuesday, January 20, 2009.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
spice girls
so much for the 1st amendment and freedom of thought.
When I poked my head up and complained about our invasion of IraqNam, I felt like I was swiss cheese.
Technically, the Congress commands the military
That's the only mention of the title CiC, and notice he must be called into actual service.
The only time I know of where that happened is when George Washington was prez and was called to personally command the militias to settle the Whiskey Rebellion in 1791. We did not have a standing army until the beginning of the 19th century (just before or after the War of 1812).
Dumbya is the one who fell in love with the CiC title, used it wrongly because he wanted to be remembered as a "war president," and Dumbya claimed the CiC & AUMF power to fight the criminal gangs and invade Iraq for false reasons. All Obama, $Hillary, et alia, are doing is regurgitating the incorrect way Dumbya and Dickie used the CiC term, even saying we 'elect a CiC' (wrong, wrong, wrong!).
We elect a president who is president for all of the people in the US. When asked to personally lead the military, the Commander in Chief title is only valid when a president is asked to personally lead militias or armies, now used wrongly to indicate military leadership where none exists compared to how it's used in the Constitution which explicitly says only Congress has war powers and authority over the various military forces, but it's become custom now to use the term wrongly on a near-daily basis so no one goes back to the Constitution to see how it is supposed to be used (gee, thanks, Moronic Media, Dumbya & Dickie).
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960
Pretty sure the meaning of Article II Section 2 refers to ...
when the states militia's are called into service.
The President is CinC of the army and navy and if the states militia's are called to federal service he becomes their CinC rather than the states Governor.
If I'm recalling properly, the constitution originally called only for the creation of a navy and the provisions for the army were added later (out of common sense). There were no provisions for a standing army thus the original need to make clear the chain of command should the militias be called to serve.
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
I quoted the US Constitution in block quotes
What the Legislative branch is responsible for (Article I), and what the Executive branch is responsible for (Article II) regarding the military.
US Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
I wish modern politicians wrote as clearly as the Founding Fathers.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960
I didn't say it was misquoted
I said you misunderstand what you're reading.
The President is CinC of the army and navy at all times and he/she is the CinC of the militias when they are CALLED to service.
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
I am not surprised . . .
. . . have been thinking about writing an essay about where these super pacs are spending their money. This article presents evidence of one area.
I suspect super pacs are financing these efforts:
Any other suggestions?
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
You don't have to suspect.
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/
Excellent observation
Once it is demonstrated that she is the troll controller, then the other whispered CTs become much less theoretical and much more likely. And this is what is so insidious about the Clintons. They thrive in the sewers, treating minute, anonymous "threats" to their political survival as if they are potentially fatal to them. Again, the judgment thing rears it's head using jackhammer to push in thumb tacks and battling personal phantoms rather than dealing with threats to the citizenry. The Clintons, they are insane.
I'd bet the worst so-called BernieBros aren't Bernie supporters
but sock puppets ... which would make them sock puppet straw men (or women), which is a very strange confluence of metaphors.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
FB is chock FULL of these people, and they've managed to take
down the ElectionJusticeUSA page already. Ima gonna post one of those articles every single fracking time I read the predictable BS spewed by her kraken, ie, "She has more votes" "She helps down-ticket Ds" "She's more experienced" (I gotta say, posting a Hendrix vid there may also be helpful)
God, this is disgusting.
Bragging the have "corrected" 5,000 Sanders supporters? Yeah, that doesn't sound sinister at all. Once she's elected, I guess we'll all need to be "corrected" about how great Dear Leader actually is.
She's a terrible person.
I called them out for months
and got flagged every single time, so I knew I was correct. It's why I don't engage with them. Their sole purpose is to threadjack with nonsense. Why would they do it unless there was something in it for them? No surprises here.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Not surprised one bit. It's troll overload at GOS.
Nice to hear their traffic is down about a third since the Ides of Kos.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
I've visited like 3 times...
In the last month. I used to post half-dozen comments a day. And it's not just the troll infestation. The advertising is making the site unvisitable under any social circumstances. Fucking autoplay Acrobat is bringing my computer to its knees.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
Back when I used to go there I always had AdBlock on.
It did seem to handle it really well.
So well I completely forgot it even had ads.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Why I switched from Bernie to Hillary
All the diaries with that heading were by trolls. This website will be an obvious target. Maybe we need to have a plan to fight them or ignore them.
Beware the bullshit factories.
It's worth considering
See the Bloomberg piece linked in comments above for why http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Did you see that last paragraph???
Why wait until the primaries are wrapped up? Why not begin now to skew the primaries in one direction?
Hmmmmmmmmm... Let's see now... Whose campaign has enough money and international connections to get this kind of thing accomplished...???
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960
One thing C99 should do is expose user sign-up date
That way when some newbie starts trashing and thread jacking, you can at least learn his arrival date. Usually an big clue.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
We just need to use the truth
If we stick to information and have open and constructive discussions- it will expose trolls. If this community sticks to the discussion points instead of naming calling or non factual arguments (because I said so), we be self policing.
Agree with, Borkrom--generally, if one is armed with 'facts,'
one can easily turn around a troll's argument, or erroneous declarations.
IOW, they can use them to make their own case!
(Music City) Mollie, C99P & DKos
'No Labels' - CIVILITY IS OUR NAME; AUSTERITY IS OUR GAME
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
At one point my understanding is that
GOS was a "reality based community".
The Truth didn't work there. I see no reason to believe it'll work here or anywhere else without substantive moderation. Right now this site is sane because it's too small to be targeted.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Agreed. As we grow, we will need some trusted mods.
It happens on every forum. Things start small and pleasant but Trolls eventually come in and start shitting up the place disrupting communication.
The hard part is finding people that will enforce the rules without allowing their personal opinions to taint their moderation.
It can be tough, and isn't a roll that anyone should take lightly, because it really does change the way you spend your time on the site and make it less enjoyable if you are not prepared for how much work it can entail and may at times prevent you from weighing in on discussions if you have to "Moderate" one of the comments in the sub-thread.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
I was a temporary mod a couple of times
on a political blog whose owner died after he went insane and thoroughly trashed his place. Being temporary gave me some work, but it did not go to one's head, either, because your task and power was, well, temporary.
I found that to be a very effective way of sharing the burden, while maintaining a fair approach. It may seem as though this place is small, but in reality, it is not.
At any particular time, we have 100+ peepholes on board peering at what wit writ what. That isn't small taters, more like a first big step. Plus, the quality of writing, the wide breath of issues and topics, and the general genial nature of our conversations has a lot to offer a growing number of folks.
Again, given the lackluster nature of KOS' writing, plus his insipid ideas, not to mention the Ides of KOS, I still do not understand how he grew that place to the size that it recently was. A lot of free labor and ideas from others, to be sure, but I suspect that is being repeated here. Because there are some universally important ideas, and we can write about them here in relative peace.
Once upon a thyme, using basil humor, and salting my view with peppery language, I used to look forward to reading what was new and hot on the Orange Satan. That has not been the case for a month and a half. And I understand it is worse now that the sock puppets are so numerous and visible.
That said, I now have that anticipation and enjoyment here. And that is a very welcome feeling.
Zackly!
And probably a lot more than anyone imagines...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
This is is naive
When I read this essay this morning, my immediate reaction (as a tech nerd) was to consider how to make a "tar baby" bot that would follow various Twitter handles that we identified as being hrc trolls and have canned responses to particular phrases or keywords using a set of accounts that had been set up by real humans. Then the trolls would start arguing with the bots. Eventually you could build up a tree of arguments to follow and keep them going for a while. I think such a system would take a small, competent of engineers about two weeks to set up.
To get around the lurking delay, it would just have to wait a resonable amount of time. I've only been on this site myself for a few weeks, so how do you distinguish me from the trolls?
The only thing I know of that works to combat this kind of crap is trust networks. slashdot.org has a moderation system that does a good job of this. This site does not have that kind (or any kind) of moderation, so it is incredibly vulnerable to this sort of attack.
If they come here, we will need to harden the site somehow. I don't know if the hosting environment has any way of doing that.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Yeah, Slashdot is cool...
I used to go there constantly, not sure why I stopped.
Partially I think because it became a huge time sink once I set it as my homepage, lol!
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Well, first you must submit to my QUESTION.
Then, we do a long distance brain scan of your mental pathways, sample your DNA, and then, we hire Pinkerton's to follow you to your Scientology meet-ups.
Seriously, I completely agree about the need to harden the site, just because there are a lot of nice things going on here. And that will make us a target, if we aren't already.
Speaking of potential attacks, whatever happened to AEIOU and sometimes Y?
Oh, Jesus H. Christ...
you think I'm not prepared to bounce some asses out of here if they raise their fucking heads? The last thing we need here is a pack of troll hunters. Give the management a break, alright?
Sorry, I was responding to the comment
I got the sense that the site was gated somehow, and another comment I read afterwards made that clearer.
Mostly I'm concerned about scaling you oh fearless leader! Right now, the trust network is centered on management and that works up to a point.
Also, I didn't encounter much friction creating my account and I'd hate to see someone with a large budget who took a dislike to us piling on accounts using Mechanical Turk to crack the capchas...
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Let me worry about it...
paranoia and roving packs of troll hunters can fuck up a site just as fast as trolls can.
Just an overactive imagination
But yes, I'll shut up now. Sorry if I caused any trouble. And thanks for all you do.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
I respectfully disagree...
Having built several on-line communities, I know how easily Spammers & Trolls can become a full time job for moderators...
When you start getting 150-200 sign ups an hour and 90% of them start spamming or trolling with diaries and comments it can get messy very quickly...
I'm not familiar with the software here, I've used WordPress, V-Bulletin, BuddyPress, PunBB, and a few others I've forgotten, If you can't "Ban User" & "Delete All Posts" in a couple of clicks you are in trouble...
In addition you'll be needing to search IP Addresses, and email accounts to find sock puppets and related users like name?@trollsrus.com...
Then you might also run into IP Address Spoofing, VPN's, etc...
When your site is getting 400 hits a minute you know it's rockin...
It gets fun! BTDT!
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
JtC does a great job
of vetting new users here. This is not to say that we won't have some problematic users here in the future, but we try to head things off in terms of trolling early on. We want a free exchange of ideas, but we also want it to be respectful.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
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