Dream's End - Takedown: How to Disrupt Online Discussion Boards

cossack

Whether it is paid NSA agents, extremist ideologues, extremist ideologues in the pay of the NSA or just plain internet trolls out for lulz, there are people out there who know this game and how to play it. Here is how it works.

The goal is either to disrupt a particular discussion board or perhaps just a subforum on that board. The goal might also be to isolate a particular poster and run him or her off the board.

Here is an entirely fictional scenario to show you how it works. We will call our team of trolls “Maggie and the Moos”. The Moos might actually be separate individuals or just Maggie posting under different user names.

Maggie’s target is going to be a forum at parawhatsits.com. Her motivation in this case is ideological. That forum discusses many topics, one of which is granfalloons. Maggie wants everyone to know that granfalloons are actually part of a conspiracy by the Shriners. Her goal is to run anyone off that discussion board who does not agree. Fun!

First, Maggie sends in the Moos. They register under several user names. They have two goals: to befriend members of the community while not saying anything controversial and secondly, to datamine anyone who appears to be an obstacle to their evil plan. Datamining is about finding any personal or other details the poster has revealed in past conversations to use as ammunition in the upcoming flame wars. Have they ever expressed different views about granfalloons? Any personal connections to the Shriners, perhaps a family member in a fez?

Meanwhile, Maggie must register as well and her posts should also start out uncontroversial. After establishing herself a bit she can then begin her serious trolling.

Now here is the tricky part. Maggie can say all kinds of outrageous things that a reasonable person might see as red flags. Her tone might seem a bit more hostile than an online discussion forum would seem to warrant. But because the Moos come along and already have a reputation as reasonable people and continue to reinforce the idea that those who oppose Maggie are the real trolls, bystanders lose perspective.

I saw this in abundance on the Democratic Underground forum around Andy Stephenson.

Here was a guy who introduced not only the Franklin coverup themes with all the Larouche spin but also was actually acting as intermediary between DU and conman Delmart Vreeland. At one point, Stephenson even posted a warning that Minnesota was about to get nuked. Reasonable people might wonder about someone who would only post a warning about impending nuclear holocaust in an obscure subforum of a political discussion board. Maybe calling the FBI would have been a better approach?

But Andy had his Moos, and any who doubted the man were met by a hail of histrionic hagiography. Who would dare question the motives and veracity of this blessed saint?
But what, ultimately, did Andy do? He connected legitimate activism around electronic voting reform with such rather discrediting theories as the idea that GOP gigolo Jeff Gannon was actually kidnap victim Johnny Gosch.

But back to Maggie. Let us remember another powerful weapon of forum disruption, the private message. Maggie and the Moos will see who is on the fence about her enemies and provide gentle nudges via PM and complaints to the s about the disruptive activities of her targets. (Keep in mind this is a beginner lesson, in advanced trolling, she would BE one of the s.)

Another nice touch might be for Maggie to toss in stories of her own personal difficulties to gain further sympathy. Meanwhile, of course, anytime anyone voices any criticism of Maggie, however mild, the Moos are ready to express astonishment that someone would dare question her honor and integrity.

Played correctly, well meaning posters and even reasonable s are stymied. To oppose Maggie, who has ingratiated herself with the community, is to cause even further disruption. So Maggie’s target(s) leave the board altogether.

This is not quite enough, however. From time to time, The Moos (not Maggie herself) will need to start a thread or two about how horrible the former posters were and how much they harmed the community and how much better off the place is without them. How dare these Shriner Shills attack our forum family!

At that point, the lesson has been learned. If you don’t think the Shriners run the granfalloon conspiracy, you have no place on this board. Take your fez and funny cars and go play somewhere else.

Well, that is how it works, folks. Over and over again. And in the hands of paid professionals or even serious hobbyists, inexperienced forum s don’t have a chance.

Oh, and by the way, these tactics work pretty well in the real world, too, where they are called COINTELPRO, or at least used to be called that before so much of that activity was outsourced to various cults. Who can resist free labor?

Kbay

We know for sure Tradervic, Seneca and Manoj10 are paid trolls, eyes and ears.
What fools would spend hours writing threads no one can read or reply back?

Kbay

I was a bit surprise yesterday reading an article in a leading UK press discussing why the Chinese currency was called the Yuan and also the Renminbe.

I had raised this same question in CDBBS only two days earlier.

In fact many of these foreign guys here are 'workers' for the foreign gangster press or spy networks.
They would occassionally troll for a particular point of view of Chinese  members.

ganzhuolin

Originally posted by cossack at 2010-6-29 07:02
Whether it is paid NSA agents, extremist ideologues, extremist ideologues in the pay of the NSA or just plain internet trolls out for lulz, there are people out there who know this game and how to  ...

Canadian Government Pays Organization To Troll Political Chat Forums

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 24, 2010

Canadian Government Pays Organization To Troll Political Chat Forums

The next time you struggle to comprehend how someone could spend their time trolling the Internet in order to defend and downplay whatever government cover-up or abuse is in the news this week, consider the fact that they may be on a government payroll.

The Canadian government has been caught paying a media group to monitor online political discussion and respond to “misinformation,” in order words to spread state-sanctioned propaganda, in the latest scandal to hit the Harper administration.

“Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt,” reports News1130.

“The government has a lot of power, that it feels the need to monitor public bulletin boards, or places where people express views and then to respond to that, seems to me going beyond a reasonable action the government should be taking,” said UBC Computer Science professor and President of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, Richard Rosenberg.

A poll carried on the News1130 website shows that the majority of respondents, 77 per cent, are not intimidated by the fact that the government is monitoring their online conversations, and would not regulate the information they post on the Internet.

Accusations that people who defend the seemingly indefensible in the aftermath of government atrocities, wars and scandals are in the pay of unscrupulous authorities, circulate on a regular basis. But the fact is that governments and transnational corporations have made a habit of using the Internet to spread propaganda by using individuals who pose as neutral observers.

The innovator of these “black propaganda” techniques was undoubtedly Monsanto, who as far back the late 90’s were creating “fake citizens” via their PR front company Bivings to post messages on Internet bulletin boards lauding the virtues and scoffing at the dangers of genetically modified food.

In the 21st century, governments try to harness the power of manufacturing fake consensus in order to dictate reality and justify their actions.

Last year, the Israeli government announced that it would be setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state following a massive online backlash to Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza.

Israel’s goal was to flood Internet message boards in English, French, Spanish and German with their own PR agents who would attempt to manufacture a contrived consensus that the IDF’s actions were justified.

Like Israel, the U.S. military industrial complex hires armies of trolls to spew propaganda in defense of the war on terror and in support of bombing whatever broken-backed third world country is being targeted next.

CENTCOM has programs underway to infiltrate blogs and message boards to ensure people, “have the opportunity to read positive stories,”presumably about how Iraq is a wonderful liberated democracy and the war on terror really is about protecting Americans from Al-CIAda.

In May 2008, it was revealed that the Pentagon was expanding “Information Operations” on the Internet with purposefully set up foreign news websites, designed to look like independent media sources but in reality carrying direct military propaganda.

More recently the New York Times published an exposé on how privately hired operatives were appearing on major US news networks promoting the interests and operations of the Pentagon and generating favorable news coverage of the so-called war on terror while posing as independent military analysts.

This operation was formally announced In 2006 when the Pentagon set up a unit to “better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet”.

Again, the Pentagon said the move would boost its ability to counter “inaccurate” news stories and exploit new media.

Last year, the US Air Force announced a “counter-blog” response plan aimed at fielding and reacting to material from bloggers who have “negative opinions about the US government and the Air Force.”

LCSULLA

75,000$
not really a big budget for a western project,
not gonna reach far.

would you mind to reveal the overall budget for the wu maos as well?