Bots of ATS unite!

reply to post by schuyler


First off any free doggie is a good doggie, well any dog at all.
But really sock puppets and bots have been quite a big issue as of late and i just figured i'd pick some techy's brains and maybe help abit if possible, not all of us ketboard commandos have full control of our weapons.
Yep i r computer ignant.
But all info is good info, it helps guide.

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by Nobama

 

If it only cost an extra 10 seconds to post and could remove bots from ATS then why not?

I don't think you fully know what a "bot" is. Adding a CAPTCHA to posts on ATS would drive many away, me included. I think we need to work on trolls/political troll activists and how to keep them away. CAPTCHA won't stop them, the only real defense we have are moderators. Could also use Project Honey Pot when a post is posted to ensure that no spam makes it on the forums. (But this works against SPAM and not trolls...)

reply to post by schuyler


dont listen to this guy he's clearly a disinformation agent.


j/k I dont believe in those, but maybe they really do exist. I may never know.

Originally posted by bsbray11
when you see someone post something, and 4 minutes later it has 4 or 5 stars, and then an hour later, it still has 4 or 5 stars, and then the next day, maybe it has one more star.

Basically I am talking about seeing someone post something, then immediately they have an amount of stars to their post that makes it stand out, and then it remains with roughly that number over an extended period of time. The odds of this happening legitimately over and over again, are ridiculously slim. Just think about it.

Well actually, they aren't that unusual if you think about it. For the first 4 minutes, all new posts get listed on the "New Topics" section of ATS. So this is actually just what you would expect, a flurry of page views combined with stars, and then once the thread is no longer listed on the "New Topics" board, then the amount of views/stars will fall off. I personally use the "New Topics" board a lot, that is how I saw this thread. So I don't think the pattern you are describing is necessarily unusual if you think about it. About the bots, I'm not sure if this is a problem, because if there were a bot problem, I would expect to see advertising and other useless posts on the forums. But I don't remember ever seeing anything like that...thus I think the bigger problem is probably the dis-info agents. But a CAPTCHA would not do anything about them...does anyone know what the best way to deal with the dis-info dudes? I guess it's probably the truth, but it is annoying seeing them here, and I do see a lot of lies and ignorance spread on ATS.

reply to post by Frontkjemper


See there ya go i associated spammers/political activist together with the bots, now i know and yeah there are some angles we will just have to work out for ourselves.

reply to post by Nobama


Bot or not he / she got a pic of a doggie, i throw my hands up and surrender to teh doggie avatar!
Just so ya know put a doggie in your avatar and i'll agree with anything.

Originally posted by meeneecat
I do see a lot of lies and ignorance spread on ATS.

Agreed there, that is pretty much my angle.
You see a kettle you call it black, but some insist it is orange.
WTFBBQ!?

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by mr-lizard

 

I cannot say if we have ever had bots here, i'm sure bots exist but other than myself i cannot speak for anyone elses post, and on that same scale you do not know if i am a bot either.
As for trolls as TraptInTheSystem also mentioned above, i have no probs with trolls, they are easy to spot.
The mods corner them all of the time i'm sure.

Hell... I'm pretty damn sure your not a bot! If you are I really don't care.

Have a little consideration for those of us that can't see as well as you apparently can. I'm using a damn 27" widescreen, and it still takes me 5-10 attempts in many cases to navigate through that crap. I've been blind in my left eye since I was 16. Now I have a cataract forming in my "good" eye. If you want to know what it's like, put a piece of frosted glass in front of your monitor, and see how well you do. Make sure you let me know how you fared.

My number one defense against "bots", "trolls", "the man", "sock puppets", "disinformation", and other such garbage, is my mind. You should try to use yours for such... it really does work.

I'm sure you don't care, but if I have to struggle any harder than I already do, to post a response. I'm out of here without so much as a second thought.

See ya,
Milt

reply to post by BenReclused


LOL ya struck a nerve there, actually with my diabetes and age comes well....bad eyes, but i work with a 22 inch screen, ya show off!
Seriously i generally when using those verification things have to use the box in the side for us half blind old farts.
But i feel ya.
If the majority in the know here at ATS say it would be a waste of time / resources Etc. I'll buy into that.
Just had to pose the question as i truly did not know.

Well i'm against the idea of a CAPTCHA or anything that can interrupt the flow of ATS.

If this does become implemented, then I won't be happy. I think the mods do a good job already, why punish every single member just because of some low-level troll?

reply to post by g146541


See there... I knew you weren't a bot! I got a kick out of your response! What "box" are you talking out? I haven't found that yet! LOL

Anyone that loves dogs is alright in my book!

Cheers ya old fart! I'm becoming one too! (57)

See ya buddy,
Milt

reply to post by BenReclused


I sometimes have problems reading what the box says and if my jewelers eye does not help i scrub the first couple of attempts and it gives an alternative box to use, the oldfart option if you will.
And yes, Doggies rock!

Originally posted by meeneecat
Well actually, they aren't that unusual if you think about it. For the first 4 minutes, all new posts get listed on the "New Topics" section of ATS. So this is actually just what you would expect, a flurry of page views combined with stars, and then once the thread is no longer listed on the "New Topics" board, then the amount of views/stars will fall off.

That would make sense except I've seen this on very lengthy threads that have long gone off the main page. It's still possible to follow the threads using MyATS, but still I have personally seen examples of what I'm talking about enough to really force me to stop and think. Every thread on ATS has plenty of posts that get stars, and it's very mundane and nothing unusual about it at all. So when there is something "unusual" happening it must really be standing out to me like a sore thumb, and the instances I'm thinking of did stick out like sore thumbs.

It comes down to whether or not I would believe that a few select posters (including 1 that stayed exclusively in the 9/11 forums) have a personal "fan club," let's say, of 4 or 5 people who hound their posts 24/7 and consistently starring them within a small time frame only, but only when they post on certain topics. And in the case on the 9/11 forums, even someone I was arguing with agreed with me that he thought it was "funny" too, which says a lot if you've ever been around the 9/11 forums. After we became aware of this and were discussing it for some time, the poster in question eventually stopped posting until the very day the 9/11 forums went under "close staff scrutiny," and then this poster ended a months-long hiatus to begin the same pattern. He has since stopped posting yet again...



Anyway I know this may be hard to take even for many ATS'ers, but you must realize only three things.

(1) Firstly, ATS is the largest conspiracy theory forum on the internet. It has the most concentrated group of "conspiracy theorists" as well as the largest collection of conspiratorial topics.

(2) Secondly, internet discussion forums and conspiracy theories in particular have been labeled threats to "national security" by Senator Rockefeller from W.Va, and Obama advisor Cass Sunstein, as two examples. In other words our leaders take these discussions seriously, seriously enough for Cass Sunstein to even suggest there should be legal limits to posting conspiracy theories on the internet, and the mentioned senator also wanting more control and regulation of internet content.

(3) Finally, the Pentagon/DoD has admitted to paying people to post on forums and blogs. I have personally read articles to this extent online, and it's widely discussed on YouTube, but if you do a Google search, it will come back squeaky clean. Not really a surprise for those familiar with Google. I'm still looking for the original sources where I read this.


I understand the complications that arise from trying to initiate a "witch hunt" to find these people and expose them. It's not a simple process and the room for error is large. But when you take into account the three points above, a picture is painted that we shouldn't be so naive about. I'll be frank. The people that frequent this forum make it one of the most intelligent and vigilant communities on the entire internet. Of course "they" are "interested" in the content here.

reply to post by mr-lizard


Agreed, if there is no real threat and the mods have the situation under control then to add something would be unnecessary, i truly just did not know.

reply to post by mr-lizard


I don't have a solution. Yes it would be nice to have the trolls gone, but you can't get rid of them all.

So I'm here, wheres the party?

Okay, here is exactly what I'm talking about from another thread by ProtoplasmicTraveler:

US government wages sock puppet war against its own citizens

Recently here on ATS I authored a thread about the controversial HB Gary Software made for the Department of Defense that manufactures Internet Personas for propaganda use by creating fake bios, updating the persona's arguments by automated RSS Feeds, with the ability to both multiple stars and thumbs (depending on the site), by creating multiple IP Addresses, that allows one user to game Message Board and Blog Sites to run and manage multiple accounts (personas) from a single virtual machine or thumb drive.

www.abovetopsecret.com...



So I suppose it's just a "coincidence" that I notice "certain people" posting, who immediately have at least 4 stars after their post and then hardly get another star over a period of several hours (again, this has to do with statistics and probabilities), and also this DoD happens to exist...


I think we can officially call this an "open secret" that we have been and will continue to be infiltrated by professional disinfo agents/automated DoD bots on ATS.

neo-bot reporrting for duty ...

sorry ive got hiccups i cant help right now.

reply to post by g146541


Well...it would be annoying...if it was for like the first 10 posts it would be ok.

I'm confused... What exactly is a Bot? Is it a computer generated program or an actual person posting? And why would anyone star themselves? I didn't even know you could do that.