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[–]magnora7[S] 41 insightful - 2 fun41 insightful - 1 fun42 insightful - 2 fun -  (22 children)

I literally get DMs that are almost exactly this on a weekly basis. Sometimes even from mods on saidit. Not even joking. It gets real old.

[–]TokLwdSaNthg 19 insightful - 4 fun19 insightful - 3 fun20 insightful - 4 fun -  (10 children)

Sorry for any PTSD the joke may have caused - you’re doing gods work. The “Protection Racket” is real but it’s not clear (to me) who and what they want. ruqqus was also having trouble around the same time

[–]magnora7[S] 32 insightful - 2 fun32 insightful - 1 fun33 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

No worries, it's just part of the job.

Yes these same things are affecting ruqqus and notabug and many others. It's gotten to the point where if you try to start a forum (especially a modern reddit-style one), this style of cultural attack just part of the territory. It didn't used to be like this 15 years ago, maybe even it wasn't like this 5 years ago, but it is now.

Alternative forums need to learn from each other, to build the best defenses against these cultural attacks, because this problem is becoming more and more of a "thing", much like DDOS attacks. On average Saidit gets DDOS attacked literally 9 days out of 10, so the fact they'd be doing cultural attacks around the clock would also be unsurprising.

It could be any number of people or organizations doing this. It's very hard to tell. That's part of what makes the attacks so hard to stop. They're all just normal users until they show their true colors

[–]bobbobbybob 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Seemed to pick up around the time the saudis built their internet ops division, imo. about 2016

[–]magnora7[S] 24 insightful - 3 fun24 insightful - 2 fun25 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Interesting. I've had run-ins with JIDF before. And I've had run-ins with ShareBlue and Cambridge Analytica as well. Didn't know the saudis had a branch too. I guess everyone will soon, every country and every corporation. It'll be the new "native advertising" to hijack forums and sway minds by creating false consensus. What a future to look forward to /s

[–]Exconduckducktor 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I wish I wasn't alone in my friend circle in being aware of this madness

[–]soundsalad 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Just curious - how do you know they were from JIDF, ShareBlue and Cambridge?

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Well the JIDF ones are because they literally put a JIDF flag on a sub they stole from me through a fraudulent attack through redditrequests https://www.reddit.com/r/undeleteundelete/

The Shareblue ones are because they run most of the political aspects of reddit, and Cambridge Analytica because they run thedonald.win

[–]whistlepig 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It was definitely happening 5 years ago... but its definitely worse and they've gotten much better at it.

[–]magnora7[S] 12 insightful - 2 fun12 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah I guess 5 years ago I wasn't an admin or mod, and was only seeing it from the user perspective still, which makes it not seem as bad.

I miss that 1998 internet when it was just people talking to people, and these forum-destroying tactics didn't really exist.

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

I would bet money that it's either one of the U.S.'s political faction or intelligence agencies trying to destroy political opposition.

[–]whistlepig 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

You should make posts out of them. That would be entertaining. ;]

Maybe make a sub for them.

[–]magnora7[S] 20 insightful - 3 fun20 insightful - 2 fun21 insightful - 3 fun -  (9 children)

Ugh I don't want to give the attackers one more bit of attention, they thrive on that, so it'd only be inviting more attacks, imo. I think that's why most admins don't speak out about this stuff, because even just talking about it often causes more attacks.

[–]brbmodule 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

i beg to differ. the attacks happen, putting up a banner that said something along the line "currently under fire from geo region X" doesn't give more attention to them. you just point out an obvious fact. furthermore it looks like saidit can fend of the brunt of it, the countermeasures are working. so you're ahead of that game keep doing that.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

furthermore it looks like saidit can fend of the brunt of it, the countermeasures are working

Yeah this is the only reason I feel comfortable talking about it at all. In the past when we couldn't handle it, talking about it was frightening because it would likely just invite more attacks

[–]whistlepig 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

you may have a point....

[–]magnora7[S] 21 insightful - 3 fun21 insightful - 2 fun22 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

This kind of thing is the stuff that eats admins up inside... I want to be transparent, but I also don't want this place to be an endless battleground, and I don't want to bring any more attacks on saidit. It feels like an impossible choice, tbh

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

We are with you, if only in spirit, Magnora7.

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

Yeah, don't let them get to you. Treat them like pets. Ignore them when they want attention.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I understand, but I also don't want to become so hardened that I can't recognize a legitimate concern when it comes along

[–]quipu 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

What about publishing regular reports (quarterly?) to show the number of DDOS attacks, the number and category of personal attacks, unusual activity from various IP/geographic regions, a summary of suspected cultural attacks, and anything else of interest?

This would demonstrate Saidit's resilience, and may help admins of other sites better understand the kinds of attacks they will face.

Edit: it also depersonalizes and minimizes the attacks, so it should make the attackers feel less rewarded.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Not a bad idea, I will consider that some more.