How to ruin a forum

[DCFusor]

Not sure this is correctly attributed, but it's interesting and as far as I can tell, mostly valid - you can see the tricks shown here being done all the time around the 'net. We know DARPA did a study on "how to control how the stories are told in our favor" with plans to execute that strategy - they admitted that one publicly.

This is "how to screw up forums and make them say what you want, for dummies", though...I guess we should be aware of it.

http://pastebin.com/irj4Fyd5

 

[Penn]

Nice read.

On this hobby- things are pretty straight forward. Stack the real thing and forget about it.

I have butted heads with paper stackers. What ever the cointel guys do- no matter what anyone says- my game plan IS to build my stack.

Nearly every forum I have ever seen has had problems. I dont think our goals are really a movement- but a mode of self preservation.

The thing is- posts do not get better with age. Life and event evolve. You have to have new stuff come in. If no new stuff was posted the internet would collapse in less then 6 months. It would cease to be useful.

Here is a question- so you wake people up and now everyone is mad- real mad- so now what??

 

[pmbug]

It doesn't take a conspiracy of FedGov agents to ruin a forum. With a large enough membership, egos and such will eventually generate friction. A good moderating team keeps the (public) drama to a minimum.

 

[HCA1961]

A good moderating team keeps the (public) drama to a minimum.

I think that is done well on this forum.

 

[pmbug]

Thanks, but this forum is too small yet to really take credit for moderating. So far, it seems we've just attracted a really good crowd of people.

 

[DCFusor]

I was just trying to point out a few "tricks of their trade", here. I know we're doing fine - we have the right people here.

The time to pay attention to wellness is before you're sick, after all.

While it seems like this place is pretty free of what I call "astroturfing" I have seen it develop in other places, and bigtime. We're not yet stepping on any big toes, so we're not seeing it. We are "mostly harmless". That was just some tips on how to notice before it gets outa hand. If we do step on the wrong toes, we will. Sometimes it's just amusing, other times, well, there's always the possibility of that knock on the door.

For example, say something bad - but purely legit and true - about MS on Slashdot, and watch the MS-paid astroturfers come out and say "that's not a bug, it's a feature" or similar. As someone who pretty well knows that community (both slash and MS developers) it's pretty transparent to me what's going on there.

That's pretty benign, they just don't admit they're getting paid to troll Slashdot and say good things about MS.

It does get bad in other cases. Florian Mueller is paid by Oracle, and is considered an expert on FLOSS IP issues - because he doesn't say who pays his rent. Therefore it's easy for him to spread FUD on mainstream media and sites covering legal battles - with a cause he never admits to (groklaw found him out, however).

Of course, say bad things about Apple, and plenty of volunteers will castrate you for failing to worship "the Jobs"...no scheming needed. They seem to be so insecure that this bling they overpaid for didn't bring them auto-coolness they'll fight to the death to defend it, w/o necessarily being paid (or correct) - just infantile.

Anyway, didn't want to lose that link. I use the web as a deep backup for some things like that. Mostly on my own site...but it was more relevant here, I thought, since my site isn't open registration - I have to know you first.

 

[DSAbug]

Thanks, but this forum is too small yet to really take credit for moderating.

Especially when you've got moderators like me picking up all the slack :banana:

So far, it seems we've just attracted a really good crowd of people.

That probably has more to do with it