Trolls, Sock Puppets and Operation Earnest Voice

I think it's a given that we've been "infiltrated". You look at some topics and there are the same posters, time after time, either supporting the government stance or denying any sort of conspiracy even exists. Some have been here a while, some are fairly new and no matter the hour, there they are. They may see it as a job to feed their families, but there's things you just don't do for money. To me, it a form of prostitution. But, at least with a whore, you get a honest opinion and know where you stand. [I know what you're thinking and NO, I haven't]

reply to post by robhines


Here is my take.....I recently joined as I wanted to discuss the Sandy Hook issue at length as it immediately looked like something either planned and or exploited to further an agenda. I also see many others did the same and maybe they will agree with me that the other options of boards that exist to discuss this or anything else, were not an option at all. It is clearly obvious to anyone who has read any board the last 10 years there are some people who are not just commenting on a given topic. They clearly have picked a side for whatever reason, maybe they are employed to do it maybe not. I have some advice of what to do with these more obvious suspects.

1) Ignore them no matter what.......
2) Think very hard before reporting anybody......how do you know who they may or may not work for.....why make yourself a target.
3) Debate the topic not the poster......
4) It does not take long to see who you should engage with. I have been here only a month and I have a list already.
5) We all make mistakes posting from time to time, dial it back a little, remember to try and search first, and post away.
6) Feel free to add to my list.

BTW if you would like to compare this board to others feel free to use this......Looks to me like this one is in good shape.

www.freewebsitereport.org...

reply to post by robhines


Pssssst. One post below you. Don't tell anyone.

reply to post by robhines


Why? See number 2 on my list. Although that was straight forward to the point and and pointed out the very thing I wanted to say, I continue to elaborate due to repeated warnings about short posts. No disrespect just trying to comply.

reply to post by DAVID64

I think it's a given that we've been "infiltrated". You look at some topics and there are the same posters, time after time, either supporting the government stance or denying any sort of conspiracy even exists.

Why does that mean they are trolls?
Can't they have opinions diametrically opposed to yours?

I have been called a troll on a few occasions because of my 911 views. I just can't believe TPTB are so good and comprehensive as to pull the whole thing off while hiding all clues. And I will post as such on a daily basis.

But that doesn't mean I'm a paid troll. I just have a job where half of the time I am on the computer downloading and researching things. So if I have a 10 minute download to wait for, I'll read and rebuff some of these silly conspiracies. So you will find most of my posts are between the hours of 9 to 5.

And to believe that someone is paying someone else to post against conspiracies is just adding another layer of people who are supposedly covering up said conspiracy. And these posters never lose their jobs in a disgruntled fashion? With all the layoffs in the past 4 years no one with inside knowledge of these conspiracies have been fired and wanted revenge on TPTB? Does that mean there is a secret database of people you cannot fire for any reason? Another layer.

Those you may see as a troll may simply be someone who sees things differently than you do. That's why we have republicans and democrats instead of republicans and trolls.

It would be appropriate to make a pledge of $$ that would go towards a specific fund solely used for background checks on ATS moderators.

Some of the items to investigate could be:
When did they first start their membership?
Where do they work?
Do the amount of posts they contribute correlate to the amount of "free time" they would have with their current occupation?
Do moderators have access to personal details of users such as their IP, email, etc.?

I'm sure you can think of more.

I have seen countless political and sensitive threads derailed by individuals that I would consider to earnest in their derailment efforts to be a valid forum contributor seeming more like a persona with an agenda.
I actually study the methods of such individuals to find patterns of both personality and intent.
In the land grab for your mind and opinion social media is the new frontier.
Approaching suspected plants/trolls as a learning experience is quite illuminating.
Personally I would like to see public schools roll out a social media awareness campaign. Social media being the new platform of advertising whether you are a business selling a product or a gov selling an idea.
Personally I think that there should be tougher penalties for personas who abuse threads by derailing them.

Originally posted by Shirak
I have seen countless political and sensitive threads derailed by individuals that I would consider to earnest in their derailment efforts to be a valid forum contributor seeming more like a persona with an agenda.
I actually study the methods of such individuals to find patterns of both personality and intent.
In the land grab for your mind and opinion social media is the new frontier.
Approaching suspected plants/trolls as a learning experience is quite illuminating.
Personally I would like to see public schools roll out a social media awareness campaign. Social media being the new platform of advertising whether you are a business selling a product or a gov selling an idea.
Personally I think that there should be tougher penalties for personas who abuse threads by derailing them.

Some have agendas, but if you watch.. people are their own worst enemy sometimes. No paid agent with an agenda needed

As far as derailing... I had been happily reading numerous threads today.. and then finally had enough of the BS. Posters who click on a thread and feel compelled to type something to the effect of " I dont like your thread, youre wrong and I dont like it".... with no more.. no thought, no nothing.I really dont think they even read the post, much less attempted to comprehend it. Its obvious they wanted NO conversatin or intended to participate in thread. Just verbally puke up a hairball and walk away.
I likened it to walking into a McDonalds and yelling I AM NOT FORCED TO WALK IN HERE BUT IM WALKING IN HERE AND YOU GET TO HEAR ME SCREAM THAT I DONT LIKE YOU BECAUSE THERE IS NO LAW THAT PREVENTS ME FROM BEING A PETULANT CHILD IN NEED OF ATTENTION AND TELLING YOU THAT YOURE STUPID. **bask in attention**

God forbid you tell them to shut up and go to Burger king then .. that no one forced you to walk in here in the first place and you dont give a damn to hear them whining. Don't EVER suggest they contribute to a conversation, youre stomping in their freedom to be a nitwit.

Its driving me up the wall on here recently. I voiced my opinion on how annoying this is, and was rightly disciplined for it.. but yes.. its getting entirely too prevalent and tedious. Derailing, empty idiot posts, posts by psychics that seem to feel they know what you mean and its opposite of what youve written. You can write something totally innocuous and include a link... and somehow the fight is on.. which makes the thread an unintelligible mess.

**angst**
**gripe**

I did a follow up that will probably follow this thread into here. It's not hugely in depth, but should help some people as an intro : www.abovetopsecret.com...

It is interesting to note that most forum owners can see the ip address of the poster in the superuser view. Perhaps a tool can be developed to identify users who post from the same ip with different logins. There are ways around this which are mainstream. A commercial entity selling social media dominance would be all over this. I have observed users on a forum I moderate do the whole "I think this" Log in 10 min later "I agree" I do not ban them instead they become the object of my curiosity as it allows me to observe the trade secrets of forum dominance by one user using multiple logins.

Personally I do not respond to identified trolls/dupli-ids and spend my valuable time working and sharing with valid users. It is interesting to Note that Google and Youtube addressed this problem by only allowing one youtube account per Gmail id. This helps curb click fraud.
Its a brave new world and social media is one of the new frontiers. Once you begin to understand the game staking a claim and creating something of immortal worth or public meme as it were becomes the art.

Originally posted by Dustytoad

Defeat trolls by keeping the topic on course and by getting all the stars.

calling them out only serves a troll purpose.

If you do bring up a picture of a troll or say there is trolling going on just don't mention any names, and don't drop hints either.. Just leave it for those who have eyes to see.

Star Dustys post as a show of support for his wisdom!

Priceless, just priceless!