Downvote Brigades
9 2014-05-17 by fenixrisin
I'm speaking mostly to the European folks here.
Traffic comes to a crawl when the American's go to sleep, often bringing activity here nearly to a halt.
But if we look at recent post many have negative gross vote totals. Some of these posts are periodic posts from alternative news sources that are always here and often receive a couple up votes and that is it.
Now, almost every post is downvoted immediately. There seems to be an active campaign on going now to disrupt this forum.
Has a new bot just gone on-line that is changing the voting trends here? What else might it be?
28 comments
9 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
I gotta say, too, that there appears to be a more subtle version of downvote brigading going on, where shills/bots don't simply pile on the downvotes (where that would be too obvious) but rather downvote just enough to neutralize the upvotes and minimize visibility.
For example, an undesirable comment with 27 upvotes will be given 27 downvotes -- so it has 0 net votes and appears to be a weak comment.
edit: More troublesome, this brigade neutralizing will keep posts off the front page, minimizing their visibility to the greater community. It is of some help that brigade neutralized post will show up under "Controversal".
Use RES Reddit Enhancement Suite for more visibility into this appalling behavior.
1 fenixrisin 2014-05-17
Exactly, using RES, I look for these controversial posts.
But what does that mean for the lurkers? or those who do not subscribe? They experience a much different 'feed' of news then others.
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
For the record, this very post has a score of 12 (37 upvotes / 25 downvotes). Exactly what I'm talking about.
How can we address this??
1 Sabremesh 2014-05-17
Yes, it's a fairly obvious sign when the downvotes match or nearly match the upvotes. The objective is to keep the post off the front page, and a very low score ensures that, so there is no need for them to pile on extra downvotes so that a post is in minus territory.
0 KnightBeforeTomorrow 2014-05-17
I see that a lot where the total is 0 or 1 although a lot of votes were cast. This is especially in the predawn hours.
Mostly it's on comments that most of us would strongly agree with.
edit, votes not cotes.
0 alllie 2014-05-17
That has got to be admins.
3 KnightBeforeTomorrow 2014-05-17
Social media manipulation
Air Force requests software to manipulate social media. (scroll to 'synopsis')
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51066167/Online-Persona-Management
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51066167/Online-Persona-Management
http://politicalblindspot.com/leaked-intelligence-agencies-running-mass-number-of-propaganda-accounts-on-social-media/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
http://boingboing.net/2011/03/17/us-military-launches.html
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/22/exclusive-militarys-persona-software-cost-millions-used-for-classified-social-media-activities/
Persona management, Operation Ntrepid Operation Earnest Voice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntrepid
3 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
Well check this out.. I posted a little test I did under a throwaway that showed evidence of "upvote nullification", and it got deleted within minutes, no reason given.
Here's a screenshot of the post
Here is the deleted thread
WTF is going on here??
But here's the gist of the post:
Do a little experiment... Take a "controversial" but low-scoring post.
http://imgur.com/ttPEk21
Give it an upvote and refresh once or twice. Watch as a downvote is immediately added to keep the post at a low-scoring level -- and keep it OFF THE FRONT PAGE.
http://imgur.com/i314IUE
This downvoting happened within 30 seconds.
Seems to me pretty clear evidence that bot-based upvote "nullification" is going on here...
...And one or more admin is in on it...
...And I await shadowbanning...
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
Is there any way to see who deleted this post and why?
http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/25t6sy/evidence_of_upvote_nullification/
2 alllie 2014-05-17
Yes. I'm seeing that on my own posts, posts that would usually do well. Usually 4 downvotes as soon as I post then sometimes more later. Maybe a single shill has four accounts.
2 totes_meta_bot 2014-05-17
This thread has been linked to from elsewhere on reddit.
Respect the rules of reddit: don't vote or comment on linked threads. Questions? Message me here.
2 Lerajie_Archer 2014-05-17
If it's that fast, it's bots.
Bots are easy to spot by the admins.
2 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
This post is a great example:
+9 points = 40 upvotes / 31 downvotes
screenshot: http://imgur.com/07rtgOR
ADMINS, WHEN WILL THIS BE ADDRESSED??
2 fenixrisin 2014-05-17
It also seems like the comment threads are being disrupted.
Comments which are heavily up-voted on many threads have just about as many down-votes.
Might we say that /r/conspiracy is under attack?
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
Certainly. Please collect screenshots of the most egregious cases and we'll go to admin.
(I'm new to Reddit, but I'd guess that's the right thing to do?)
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
If we could see the upvotes and downvotes split out, rather than totaled -- for both posts and comments -- that would go a long way towards exposing and neutralizing the brigade/bot influence.
A comment with 2 upvotes is just a weak comment. However, a comment with 49 upvotes and 47 downvotes is a voice that's being actively silenced.
5 FB777 2014-05-17
Use RES. I am seeing the split since I began. 3 months ago the downvotes started to be automated and almost everything was downvoted to 0.
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
RES = nice; thanks for the tip! Anything like that for iOS?
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
Ironic:
score +2 = 8 upvotes / 6 downvotes
1 SevenOneKing7 2014-05-17
Seeing as that totes_meta_bot autolinks the tard threads, then people actively downvote the bot. Cause who else would brigade a bot?
Too bad none of us has the time to just click refresh on r/conspriratard/new and downvote every new submission all day.
1 fenixrisin 2014-05-17
The internet has become our source of news...for 'our' generation.
In order to control the internet and the flow of news, like T.V. and Newspapers, they have to subvert every site which goes viral, like reddit has.
What we are seeing now is that process in action, almost on the ground floor. This is becoming more the norm than the exception on almost every site which hosts a comment section.
i.e. Just read on espn.com a story about the gay football player. Commentors were highlighting the role of disney, espn, and Oprah in shaping social change. Those comments were highly upvoted and viciously attacked.
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
So RES Reddit Enhancement Suite lets us split out the upvotes vs downvotes, giving us more visibility into brigade downvoting.
Is there a way to see which users are involved?
And is there a trusted admin who could help resolve this? The credibility of Reddit and its future as a free and open exchange of ideas is at stake.
0 fenixrisin 2014-05-17
Sorry, I don't want to omit the Aussies and Kiwis who also frequent the forum!
What do you think?
2 RacistAsianFont 2014-05-17
6 upvotes / 6 downvotes
We're onto their little game.
0 IntellisaurDinoAlien 2014-05-17
Seems that the banning of trolls and disrupters is working to a degree, the only recourse for truth-haters and their masters is to downvote automatically, it never happens to shit-posts. As if that would stop anybody caring about blatant injustices.
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
+1 score = 9 upvotes / 8 downvotes
2 IntellisaurDinoAlien 2014-05-17
Like I said, whatever :)
0 badasspiggy 2014-05-17
-.-
1 LetsHackReality 2014-05-17
For the record, this very post has a score of 12 (37 upvotes / 25 downvotes). Exactly what I'm talking about.
How can we address this??