Shill indicators and patterns:
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They have not submitted any or very little content to the forum, but are very active in comments. They do this because it is much harder to hide their non-supportive agenda in titles of posts, and they are not here to contribute. They are here to sow discord and doubt, disrupt, dampen morale, ect.
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Many of their comments will be "debunks", but they are not done in a respectful or supportive way. Their TONE is the biggest tell. They are not polite and are disruptive. There will be outright insults to subtle mockery. Also look for directives like "stop spreading bullshit", "don't be lazy", ect.
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Besides the insulting rhetoric, look for phrases like "you people", "the people here should", "you are all", "everyone needs to", ect. They do not see us as individuals, and judge us as a whole like a bigot. This bleeds into their commentary.
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They camp the new tab, so pay attention to the first few commenters on your posts. They do this to make sure other shills and their alternate accounts will upvote the disruptive comment to the top of the post. Many times they will comment to this first comment with another account, to attempt to legitimize the first comment. This is also a good way to forum slide, pushing legitimate comments further down the page.
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They attack sources instead of addressing the evidence and information. This is called the Genetic Fallacy. They also ask for sources just to use the fallacy to dismiss your comment. Learn this fallacy and call them out on it.
When you see subtle indicators go to their history and look for these patterns.
We should be diligent about spotting and deporting these types. They have changed their tactics since the initial purge of the more blatant shills.
Also see techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum for more.
Your post is true. Good post Pede!
Great useful advice, Fren!
Funny enough, I've actually been browsing r/conspiracy as of late, which is interesting because I'm one of the first people you'll see when it comes to bashing on Redditors (and for good reason). But I forget that even within the general Reddit swamp, there are people who aren't corrupted by the extreme leftist groupthink that goes on there daily.
Looks about right. Perfectly lines up with the behavior of the far left types I used to deal with on another forum. It's really easy to identify them just from the way they talk in general, but the ones around here just avoid violating rules most of the time.
Nothing to report them for, regardless of how much they may stand out. Coupled with this reddit style voting system that let's them control visibility and give themselves mountains of comment score, subversion is child's play.
"Many times they will comment to the first comment with another account, to attempt to legitimize the first comment."
^^^ This. Visit almost any couple-hours-old thread, and you'll often see a vapid, calorie-free post at the top with fifty upvotes followed by a string of nested nonsense designed to drive everything else down-page.
I call it "pack-voting". (It's a problem commonly seen on sites whose forums default "sorted by:" to "top".)
From ebay Seller Central in 2007-08 to now, the use of sock puppets is an established "art". Very nearly an indicator of schizophrenia... especially when the sock puppets argue between themselves.. ;)
Damn, and I was just convinced to turn on community styling yesterday, so I could see all the emojis and gifs and such frippery.
Mods, why can't we just have it all... or at least "it all" in terms of both downdoots on posts and being able to see the awesome pepe GIFs?
Even though most of your list might roughly describe me ? (I believe the real gold in a forum is found in the comments and that there are too many worthless New Posts; I don't like fake news being introduced here to discredit us and taking away from all the very encouraging, real news; I totally camp the New tab; I've probably said something like "everybody here should" at least once today; I believe some sources are simply fake and anybody resorting to citing them is intellectually bankrupt from the start)... I know exactly who you are referring to, OP, and I think you're are 100% spot on that he's absolutely a disruptive shill, and the mods really should review his "contributions", and understand what he's up to.
He just showed up here again today with a non-handshake account activated and seasoned weeks ago (https://greatawakening.win/u/SirPokeSmottington/)... and is already a spectacularly foul (and transparently disingenuous) presence.
Good spotting, right call bgny.
He was actually the last I spotted before making this post. I've been deporting those types for a few days now before deciding this post might be warranted.
If they’re all like that absurd scumbag, your efforts are on the side of angels, fren. Although I’ll admit, I haven’t seen anybody else that bad.
But I did have have to laugh at how closely your bullet point list described me... and I ain’t no troll. I think the basis of your list is fairly astute, so I won’t quibble on any of the bullets, but I want to make an important point that as you do the (tragically under-appreciated around here) work of uncovering the willfully destructive and disingenuous presences on this board, intent is primary.
I’ve used some strong words with people here who I believed made it clear they were not truly interested in the truth, just like you used some very choice words on that fake “fren” earlier today. But these are fundamentally different from the hatefully abusive way that guy was treating this board and its members based on a clear distinction of intent - his obvious intent was to harm this board (confirmed because gratuitous abuse was simply all he had).
Here’s a great recent piece (shamefully tanked by The NY Times, so run by the NY post instead) on the importance of intent in making judgements. https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/read-the-column-the-new-york-times-didnt-want-you-read/
Anyways, cheers!
I’m sorry but we need some clarification on #5. We DO need sources for claims, guys. But you don’t need sources for opinions or conjecture. You have every right to think out loud without actually making an argument. But if someone is making an argument and they’re referencing what should be verifiable shit, don’t assume someone is shilling by asking what they’re referencing. We don’t all know all the same things.
For example: today I asked someone not for a source on the claim that Paul Walker was likely killed by the cabal, but rather simply what facts contributed to him thinking that. He was a defensive asshole about it for some reason but he ended up giving me a really good verifiable fact that definitely lent credibility to his suspicion and I now too find myself suspicious (Paul Walker was involved in Haiti charities).
Understand the distinction.
Not sure why you think I’m saying we don’t need sources. Did you go to the link and read the definition of the fallacy?
u/#emopepedance
Asterisks * = Italics
Double ** = Bold
Triple *** = Both
QuoteSorry not I’m not saying you’re saying that. Just wanted to drive home the point a bit more. It’s a great post, bruv.
Thank you. Met a few jerks in the short time I've been here and came to realize they had to be shills-- the culture is VERY respectful.
Awesome Post!! This should be stickied
Great observations. I can’t read the reddit link so forgive me if this info is a replica of the previously provided information. Early on in my stay here info was posted About the shills from td.wn mods. Why changing the subject is an issue etc. good for understanding tactics. I found it really helpful for picking out the problems. For me unnecessary insults and sowing division are trademarks keys. I ran into a 2,3,5 the other day but wasn’t familiar with the fallacy. Thank you for sharing!
https://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm
We know how to spot them. This is now like a how to hide being a shill 101.
why do we care if they are shills commenting? they will never have the winning argument and if anything they will slowly come around to our way of thinking just like Jacob Vasquez the FBI agent that infiltrated Branch Davidian
I say bring it, F em
Why investigate and do all that just be a adult deport and keep it scrolling it’s easier and stress free, if you feed the AI it just comes back for more
Investigation may be necessary because sometimes they are subtle and you have to find a pattern of behavior in their history. Also, so you can report all offending comments to show the mods that they have a pattern making it more likely that they will be deported.
I also never said to reply or interact with them at all, so I have no idea how I am "feeding the AI".
I also don't know how it's not being an adult to investigate someone you suspect is an infiltrator to help protect the community.
trolls dont stress me out they actually feed into my ego and are very unhealthy in that way I guess they boost my sense of self to incredible levels and cause me to take pictures of conversations where they get wrecked and go full mad I make a jpeg and send it to my friend who laughs.