The Troll Conspiracy On ATS

How do you choose which thread you will read? I believe alot of people look at the ratio of replies vs. Flags.
A thread with 60 replies and only 5 flags isn't too appealing and probably a waste of valuable conspiracy hunting time.
However, A thread with 60 replies and 100 flags never dissapoints..... well you get the point. It is sure to be a thread you at least click on.


Enter Government Disinfo Agents AKA Trolls.
It occured to me the other day that armed with this information it would be very easy to take a thread that gets too close to the truth and boost up the number of replies compared to the number of flags by simply inserting ones self into a thread and being a complete ass. This is sure to draw the fire of the ever loyal and vigilant ATS crowed and within a single page....Voila, a thread has been hijacked.

What could have been a thread with 30 replies and 40 flags turns rather quickly into a thread with 150 replies and 40 flags.

My conspiracy mind may just be working overtime but I thought I'd mention it so that maybe the next time you are confronted with a troll in your midst you will have the wherewithal to simply ignore said troll so he/she doesn't artificially jack up the numbers in his/her favor.


Just a thought.

reply to post by Screwed


Mind working overtime or not - I think you are brilliant

I don't ever care about a threads length or stars when choosing what one I will read. I'm however not as likely to reply to a thread as it gets longer in pages because I feel like the original message is what is replied to and what ever you add until it slows down will be missed. So its just a waste of time to post at that point.

Next thing we know, we have conspiracy for a conspiracy, inside of a conspiracy, wrapped in a conspiracy, and served with an infinite byproduct of conspiracies....seriously lol. I doubt your troll conspiracy is any more of a reality than many of the conspiracies are themselves. I don't think a troll could ruin a legitimate thread, if it has real truth anyway. For example, guy post images of crystal clear UFOs hovering above his house. A simple trolls(s) isn't going to bury the thread.

I'm going to leave a comment here, but not going to flag this thread. I personally choose the threads I look at based on title alone. You could be right though because there is no doubt that there are people on this site that seemingly have nothing else to do but attack other members all the while ignoring any and all limits to reality, logic, or respect for others. All you have to do is look in the 9/11 forums and this becomes painfully obvious.

I think the bigger conspiracy is the "one of the first replies replying to a troll post" conspiracy. I can't be the only one who finds it odd how often the 2nd/3rd/4th reply to a bad/troll thread always seems to have 50+ stars on it. It's like some people ask their friends to make a bad thread for them so they can post a witty reply and rack up stars easily.

reply to post by Screwed


The only problem with the approach listed here is that each and every reply puts the thread in question back to the top of the "recent posts" page and keeps it active. I've honestly seen threads that were out and out trolling, with no content or substance, stay on the recent posts page for days because they ignite flame wars and those wars, eventually, bring in a lot of attention, and posters who would never have given that particular thread a second glance. Curiosity eventually overrides concerns about flags. Eventually we all want to see what the fuss is about.

Therefore, trolling in this manner is quite counter productive.

Besides.. if I were the TPTB, or their paid agent... I would not seek to quell the discussion of sensitive information. I would want to track just who knew that information, in the most pure and undiluted form. Then I would analyze the best way to make those people doubt that information.

IE... if a member of the ATS community were to discover a "secret" and post it here, the best course of action, from the perspective of TPTB would be to adjust the acidic effect of that information by introducing a base. The best way of accomplishing this would be the manufacture and introduction of divergent information.

So... if person A posts a link to an interview with an astronaut who swears he saw a mothership, for example. My means of combating this would be to then manufacture and leak a false psychiatric "assassination" factoid and then create a counter thread based upon that manufactured information. Then my derailing of the OP would all be based around citing the manufactured source.

Further, I would get the OP to explain to me just how and where he got his information so that I could plug that hole in my security wall.

~Heff

reply to post by Screwed

How do you choose which thread you will read? I believe alot of people look at the ratio of replies vs. Flags.
A thread with 60 replies and only 5 flags isn't too appealing and probably a waste of valuable conspiracy hunting time.
However, A thread with 60 replies and 100 flags never dissapoints..... well you get the point. It is sure to be a thread you at least click on.

Well not everyone chooses their threads like that, I personally go by the title most of the time, if it's something that sounds interesting to me I will take a look, if it has lots of stars/flags I will also take a look most of the time. If it has lots of replies I will also take a look most of the time to see what all the talk is about.

Enter Government Disinfo Agents AKA Trolls.
It occured to me the other day that armed with this information it would be very easy to take a thread that gets too close to the truth and boost up the number of replies compared to the number of flags by simply inserting ones self into a thread and being a complete ass. This is sure to draw the fire of the ever loyal and vigilant ATS crowed and within a single page....Voila, a thread has been hijacked.

That's not quite how it works...often lots of replies will bump the thread up to an active new topic (receiving lots of replies), that puts it in the current topics and even on the front page some times. The real way is to simply provoke emotional response and derail the thread completely so that is has to be "closed for review".

Actually, a thread on this subject has already made the rounds. There is a confirmed "Isreali truth squad" that came out in droves to deny it...There are also several right wing "troll squads" and several "christian" troll squads.

I would hope people read threads because the title or subject matter is of intrest, not high flag numbers.Many excellent threads get buried do the popularity of the more "emotionaly gripping" threads.

Originally posted by Screwed
Enter Government Disinfo Agents AKA Trolls.
It occured to me the other day that armed with this information it would be very easy to take a thread that gets too close to the truth and boost up the number of replies compared to the number of flags by simply inserting ones self into a thread and being a complete ass. This is sure to draw the fire of the ever loyal and vigilant ATS crowed and within a single page....Voila, a thread has been hijacked.

Hijacking a thread is much more effective when one can actually put forth a coherent and convincing argument and not just "be a complete ass".

That is why I wouldn't really call the Disinfo Agents "Trolls". The Disinfo Agents are actually highly intelligent and effective posters, capable of swaying and influencing popular opinion, that puts them at a level way above "Trolls".

I enjoy threads based on the topic, not the popularity. On a conspiracy-driven site you'll find that conspiracy threads get the most flags. Often, the threads with the most rational viewpoints get the least flags. Who cares? It's the content that matters, not the popularity contest.

I have heard several ideas which makes sense and thank you for them.
However, I think we can all agree that they (trolls) need to be ignored. I don't mean make a snide comment or a snappy insult and THEN ignore them. I mean completely ignore from the get go.

This theme is nothing new here I know. I have been on this website in one form or another for YEARS now and this issue remains. I do believe times are getting stranger and things are heating up though. People are being polarized more and more. It is getting worse not better. I just hope we can all double our efforts and remember that there really are people assigned to do nothing but infiltrate discussion boards and chat forums like this one and they take their jobs as seriously as you take your job. Probably moreso because I'm sure that they were spoonfed a line of crap about it being a matter of ..........say it with me now........"National Security".

reply to post by Screwed


Some people like myself may not check the replies vs flags. I prefer to look in recent posts to see the currently active topics...so if other people did the same as I do, then the dis-informants strategy of raising the replies wouldn't work...as the topic would constantly be on the top of the recent posts list. I like to think I am not the only one who uses the feature.

I wish people wouldn't throw around the word "troll". It doesn't mean what you think it means.

Can someone please explain to me - What is a "troll"???

i'm pretty new to the site but am a member of several other forums. i tend to pick what i read based on titles or subject matter most of the time but i do agree that there are trolls all over the net that just like to tork people off and suck them into a good ol' fashioned flame war.

Stars and flags are warning to me that there is so much crap to shift through to actually find out if someone has come up with a solution to the Op.
So I may as well give five minutes and check the new topics, because someone will start a new thread from the earlier OP stating the combined efforts from the othe posters.

Yes I know I'm lazy, but that’s who I am.

Now I can go and look at the new topics to see who is starting a thread on how lazy Whateva is.

I read what seem interesting and intrigueing. S&F doesn't matter much.

Originally posted by the_0bserver85
I read what seem interesting and intrigueing. S&F doesn't matter much.

Me too. Usually by the thread title or category. Sometimes I start reading and just doesn't interest me or way over my head.

reply to post by Screwed


I usually read the title and if I'm interested.
I came to this one mostly to see what your theory was and honestly to rip on it because there are trolls on every forum on the net.