I see 2 main types of shills. I’m sure there are more:
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Shills that strait up attack us. Insult, bully, and all round try to discourage and demoralize.
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Shills that infiltrate, pretend to be one of us, but subvert the movement by spreading disinfo, and bait gullible people to fall for stupid fake stories. They weaponized our confirmation bias.
Are there terms for these different behaviours? I think it would be helpful to have terminology to distinguish between them.
Can you think of any other prominent forms of shilling that we should be looking out for?
Sandbaggers, disinfo shills.
One eats up your time and baits responses.
The other one slips in half-truths and is non-aggressive, racking up karma in order to influence the direction of a board.
CONSIDER:
Gentleperson’s Guide to Forum Spies
Thank you for that. I’ll definitely check out that guide.
Excited shill: EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS URGENT!!!??? GET IN HERE!!! ?
Gloomy shill: Nothing is good enough, always passing the blame. Contribute nothing substantive, usually don’t think but repeat what they hear.
Assassin shill: Always quick to insult in an effort to discredit. Never present articulate ideas.
Dopey shill: Lots of emojis and new age acronyms like LOL ?. A quick browse though a dopey shills comment or post history will definitely leave you dumber.
All shills have in common: