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[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 5 fun -  (25 children)

These trolls really don't have a life, do they?

[–]magnora7 10 insightful - 5 fun10 insightful - 4 fun11 insightful - 5 fun -  (24 children)

It goes beyond that, they're clearly being paid to do this. No one spends hours a day doing this every day for years. Even psychopaths have limited attention spans. The only explanation for the level of sustained intensity (and complexity of the attacks) is that they're paid to do it.

[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 4 fun -  (23 children)

But this site is not big enough to get sirious attention from whomever is paying them.

Why is this site worth the trouble? Because of free speech?

[–]magnora7 7 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 3 fun8 insightful - 4 fun -  (22 children)

Apparently, it is big enough. It's not hard at all to pay 3-4 people $12/hr to destroy a forum if you're a government, or a giant corporation. They don't like competition and don't like people saying things they shouldn't say. This kind of forum destruction is becoming very widespread across all forums. If a forum gets more than 1,000 pageviews a day, it will probably be attacked until it dies. This is what the internet is like now, apparently.

[–]PanzerFauts 6 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 4 fun -  (21 children)

Haven't they been making demands though?

Seems a bit untypical for a government/corporate campaign just trying to take us down. Why aren't they just focusing on spamming and are instead writing such long-ass effort posts w/ screenshots like every other day?

[–]Lahontan 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Experimentation. Sometimes it's bots, sometimes spam, sometimes years old accounts with actual human role playing effort. They're just gathering data.

[–]magnora7 5 insightful - 6 fun5 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 6 fun -  (19 children)

Because drama that seems legit is more effective at destroying the userbase than simple spam ads that everyone knows are just spam. They need people to believe this community is falling apart, and that the admins are unstable. So that's what they talk about every day, and it's successful in driving people away because they begin to believe it because there is an appearance of a group consensus about it, when in actuality it's just one person using many puppet accounts

[–]Jesus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Read Cass Sunstein's thesis on 9/11 truth. They would hire agents to become front persons for said movement and these agents would Ballkenize the movement via infighting amd stirring up drama and propagating disinformation.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

It's not that black and white.

You're not considering that there are legitimate issues and different people with different ideas as well as some in common, unfortunately.

[–]Node 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (6 children)

there are legitimate issues and different people with different ideas as well as some in common

That's what they depend on to stir up unrest. Find a concern or issue, begin amplifying it, and the person or group you've targeted begins at least partially to see you as 'on their side', and the lines between the attacker and their 'patsies' begins to blur. Then keep driving the wedge deeper. Very common in real life too.

When the admin (or government) tries to fight back against the trolls, the blurry lines make it hard to avoid friendly fire. In real life, this is what revolutionaries and terrorists use, sometimes skipping the 'on your side' module, and going right for the friendly fire result through increased provocations. It's a powerful technique, and hard to defend against.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Yep. I feel like a broken record, but know I need to keep repeating for clarity in this maze called SaidIt. It also helps cement how different our approaches are if I can try to be articulate and they can't even use decent grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Further, I can clarify and refine expressions as well as come up with new concepts.

If I didn't have "grander" plans I'd consider trying to organize some kind of SaidIt counter-troll awareness and resistance campaign. Something like a weekly newsletter cautioning people on their techniques, recent events, and maybe some creative fun or interactive projects.

[–]Marginotions 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (4 children)

have "grander" plans than a SaidIt counter-troll awareness and resistance campaign

Seems like a bittersweet dilemma, except the result is a foregone conclusion. Let it be, the seeds have been sown.

[–]jet199 4 insightful - 5 fun4 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

Little they know we love the drama.

[–]magnora7 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

That's the reason they do it, they know it gets peoples' attention while simultaneously destroying the quality of the website. Concern trolling is a powerful tactic to create attention-grabbing drama, which is why it's seen so frequently

[–]Panzerfauzt 6 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 5 fun -  (7 children)

Wait, so now this is just one person? Weren't we talking 3-4 at a time? (probably from a much bigger pool, since this is a global concerted government/corporate effort more than one year in the making)

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

It's not that black and white.

M7 is not considering that there are legitimate issues and different people with some different ideas as well as some in common, unfortunately.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 5 fun3 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 5 fun -  (5 children)

Could be one, could be 3-4. No real easy way to tell, tbh.

Yeah I assume it's from a bigger pool of people, and they have a list of like 100 forums they attack all the time on a cycle. And I'm sure they're for-hire too if you know who to contact

[–]SaidOverRed 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Can I get PM'd a list of other sites? Not to, er, join the competition but I am tempted to monitor.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

They'll be announced on saidit when they happen, don't worry

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Take a look at nicks on this thread more closely ... Panzerfauzt PanzerFauts

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I saw it while it was happening and banned the names