|
Annapurna1
liberal pussy


Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,646
Loc: innsmouth..MA
|
mia culpa ..*do* believe the comments on yahoo!...
#14153825 - 03/20/11 01:17 PM (13 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
in my earlier thread..i posted the following link to a conspiracy theory about about the use of astroturfing software to generate right-wing rants on yahoo! ..
http://www.alternet.org/media/150049/corporate-funded_online_%27astroturfing%27_is_more_advanced_and_more_automated_than_you_might_think/
this might sound plausible at first glance ..and the proportion of far-right posts on yahoo! boards is much greater than that of respondents taking the same position on the gallup and even the rasmussen polls...
OTOH..the "astroturf-bot" theory nevertheless sounds too much like a cop-out to begin with...not only that..but i doubt that theres any software that could generate tailored responses and counter-responses to liberal posts...the level of anger in the right-wing rants on yahoo! also seems way beyond the level of a computer too...
so either yahoo! is to the right or the pollsters are to the left.. but in either case..its not some bizarre right-wing computer software...
--------------------
"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...
|
JT


Registered: 02/28/07
Posts: 7,027
Loc: athens
Last seen: 4 years, 10 months
|
Re: mia culpa ..*do* believe the comments on yahoo!... [Re: Annapurna1]
#14153948 - 03/20/11 01:42 PM (13 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
*mea culpa
|
Annapurna1
liberal pussy


Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,646
Loc: innsmouth..MA
|
Re: mia culpa ..*do* believe the comments on yahoo!... [Re: JT]
#14156362 - 03/20/11 09:28 PM (13 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
i was thinking about mia...
|
ScavengerType


Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 5,784
Loc: The North
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
|
Re: mia culpa ..*do* believe the comments on yahoo!... [Re: Annapurna1]
#14156935 - 03/20/11 10:54 PM (13 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
It's definitely not beyond the means of any computer to repeat a lot of dogmatic nonsense in the way right-wing trolls do currently. It would not be difficult by any means for a computer to do this in an advanced way. In actuality presuming all the posters on this website were real it would not be difficult by any means to simulate the type of engagement that they show. I don't know if you realize this but there are a few chatbot competitions and it would not be difficult for a company to employ resources to develop a sophisticated one.
However I suspect that FNC as a higher number of right wing respondents as well, so don't discount any possible factors that would cause more respondents to go there. The only person I've ever seen link to yahoo is a right-wing troll, hell it's possible I've seen 2 right wing trolls link to it and nobody else in the past 10 years. Further if yahoo makes itself more open to abuse it could be more easy a victim to bots or manual astroturfing with puppet accounts.
What I'm wondering is what made you aware of yahoo's right-wing trolling? The article never mentioned yahoo.
-------------------- "Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?" "The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God. Montesquieu said, "There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of God." And I begin to feel that’s true. The shareholder is the excuse for everything." - Author and former M6/M5 agent John le Carré on Democracy Now. Conquer's Club
|
Annapurna1
liberal pussy


Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,646
Loc: innsmouth..MA
|
Re: mia culpa ..*do* believe the comments on yahoo!... [Re: ScavengerType]
#14158907 - 03/21/11 11:44 AM (13 years, 2 months ago) |
|
|
its hard to miss the comments on yahoo! if you read the news stories.. and just as difficult to miss the hard right slant of the "respondents" there...when i read the story about the astroturfing software.. yahoo! was naturally the first thing that came to mind...in any case..no liberal wants to confront the possibility of a large right-wing consensus.. and blaming a computer programme is too much the easy way out...
Edited by Annapurna1 (03/21/11 02:39 PM)
|
ScavengerType


Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 5,784
Loc: The North
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
|
Re: mia culpa ..*do* believe the comments on yahoo!... [Re: Annapurna1]
#14167021 - 03/22/11 09:20 PM (13 years, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I dono I just did a yahoo news search and checked the stories for comments as far as 3 pages. For the first two pages all of the comments were criticizing Obama or progressive policies and they were all consistent with dominant tea party or conservative rhetoric most articles had few or no comments. On the third page I finally found some comments that were somewhat leftist (defending unions/npr) and a high number of responses to some select articles, before I found these I suspected that leftist comments were simply being edited out. IMO it is unlikely that people are using a bot-ing program on there. One of the reasons was the lack of use of the rate up/down feature. If they were being bot attacked this would likely be used to high hell to make the preferred comments look more supported, but in actuality it's like a fraction of the people who even comment scarcely use it. Further, if they were being bot-ed I would think that a higher number of news articles would be effected, but the amount of articles with comments is more indicative of select articles being linked to in blogs or whatnot. I am suspicious something is causing the demographics that use yahoo news to be skewed and it is not the result of a program. For example if a popular right-wing news source or blog linked to ap articles through yahoo.
-------------------- "Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?" "The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God. Montesquieu said, "There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of God." And I begin to feel that’s true. The shareholder is the excuse for everything." - Author and former M6/M5 agent John le Carré on Democracy Now. Conquer's Club
|
|