Because I feel it’s relevant if people are coming into the community misrepresenting themselves as leftists and posting please-don’t-vote memes alongside Biden-is-old-and-in-trouble-in-the-election news stories, over and over and over again, to engineer a particular result. I feel like there’s some level of indication that that’s going on.
It’s with good reason that non-identified bots, and sockpuppets, are disallowed in a lot of places. We can all come together and have a discussion, and you can say whatever you want, but an important part of maintaining the integrity of the discussion is that you can’t come in and deliberately manipulate it by misrepresenting the source of your postings. Certain social networks can be substantially degraded by the influence of shills distorting the organic conversation; it’s happened plenty of times before.
Maybe this is all some kooky conspiracy theory of mine, but it seems weird that there are particular users that post a constant stream of a-little-out-of-place posts with a singular political slant, so if I see someone doing that, I get curious about their account. There are some other odd features of these accounts too (e.g. they are the only accounts I have ever seen specifically bring up some sort of personal “qualifications” – like where they’re from or “I’m far left” or “I’m a gay man” – as a defense against someone who’s disagreeing with them on something, instead of just talking about the non personal facts of what they’re talking about.)
IDK, maybe I’m nuts and this guy just really likes posting “please don’t vote” memes. The truth is I have no idea and maybe it’s unfair to be throwing accusations around. That’s why I phrased it as a question. But it does seem odd.
I agree a look at someone’s posting history can sometimes give a lot of insight to their character.
I just assumed you’d be able to find something more recent if it was that obvious.
Not that it matters, but I became suspicious of this user a while back, and saw that post I-don’t-remember-when; I didn’t just today do an extended scour through their history.
But again, it’s not that relevant to the central question; I think looking in detail into someone you suspect of being a shill is a sensible thing to do.
I take a quick check through people’s post histories for context, but generally I don’t assume they’re bots. I just want to make sure they’re drinking propaganda instead of having just one or two bad takes.
I respond with much more vitriol to the former than the latter.
Because I feel it’s relevant if people are coming into the community misrepresenting themselves as leftists and posting please-don’t-vote memes alongside Biden-is-old-and-in-trouble-in-the-election news stories, over and over and over again, to engineer a particular result. I feel like there’s some level of indication that that’s going on.
It’s with good reason that non-identified bots, and sockpuppets, are disallowed in a lot of places. We can all come together and have a discussion, and you can say whatever you want, but an important part of maintaining the integrity of the discussion is that you can’t come in and deliberately manipulate it by misrepresenting the source of your postings. Certain social networks can be substantially degraded by the influence of shills distorting the organic conversation; it’s happened plenty of times before.
Maybe this is all some kooky conspiracy theory of mine, but it seems weird that there are particular users that post a constant stream of a-little-out-of-place posts with a singular political slant, so if I see someone doing that, I get curious about their account. There are some other odd features of these accounts too (e.g. they are the only accounts I have ever seen specifically bring up some sort of personal “qualifications” – like where they’re from or “I’m far left” or “I’m a gay man” – as a defense against someone who’s disagreeing with them on something, instead of just talking about the non personal facts of what they’re talking about.)
IDK, maybe I’m nuts and this guy just really likes posting “please don’t vote” memes. The truth is I have no idea and maybe it’s unfair to be throwing accusations around. That’s why I phrased it as a question. But it does seem odd.
I agree a look at someone’s posting history can sometimes give a lot of insight to their character.
I just assumed you’d be able to find something more recent if it was that obvious.
Not that it matters, but I became suspicious of this user a while back, and saw that post I-don’t-remember-when; I didn’t just today do an extended scour through their history.
But again, it’s not that relevant to the central question; I think looking in detail into someone you suspect of being a shill is a sensible thing to do.
I take a quick check through people’s post histories for context, but generally I don’t assume they’re bots. I just want to make sure they’re drinking propaganda instead of having just one or two bad takes.
I respond with much more vitriol to the former than the latter.