Trolls?

[AriLea]

Moved from another thread...

JEBar said:
with Elio, as time moved on most every thing became heated issue .... size and placement of the bottle holding the windshield washer fluid was such an issue .... you know what they say about opinions, well here's one ---- as frustration grew with missed deadlines, Elio chose to answer them with silence .... some trolls jumped in so they could create controversy and the atmosphere got more and more toxic .... they did a good job stirring up and creating problems about most any point ....

And you can expect if things seem more successful, they may return. But by success, I mean appears to be of notable consequence.
At the moment, this (Mark Bex) project looks like just some small custom car project. And positioned in a area (2F1R commuter car start-up) that appears to be failed(yet again).

But those failures (up to now) by Elio and others are a good guide on how to go forward if medium to large production comes back onto the table. I think it is good to not talk about that now, to keep it stealthy, but also because it is not in the moment of focus.

I became suspicious of the trolls at the time, and kept an note of what they seemed to be up to. And it didn't make sense from the point of view they claimed to represent. And some use of language was not quite right. Admittedly my own language skills in writing don't fit the norm, but my flaw is to fit too much thought and complexity in. (just like now)

So at my most basic conclusion, I feel, they had an unspoken agenda. So who can have that? Chev,Ford,GM enthusiast's (and other makes)? Real makers worried about impact to their business model? Oil companies? People who hate 2F1R preferring 1F2R? (yes I have found many in the past). People who are just cynical? Those worried they were duped? How about we throw other possible political aspects on top of that.

But ElioM had the potential to rev-up the US economy to the tune of several trillion(intentional exaggeration) over a dozen years, IF it had become very successful. So could the Russians or Chinese be involved? Iran, North Korea?

Given how the internet gives all individuals power to have a say, and the awareness that it's easy to find at least a few people easily duped, I can easily see that individuals (independent contractors) might exist that want to troll on behalf of the sources I noted above. And one or two could easily be foreign. Just tossing in a controversy easily distracts from the current subject, and puts doubt on the table.

Frankly, right now the big tech is into this, making A.I. that can run robot trolls (and marketers) that seem human to press forward any agenda (or product) you want. In any language you want. Sounds far fetched? But I'm a programmer, and I can say with authority, they are at least researching and testing that now. (who? Institutions of all kinds) They will also toss in common imperfections, since that is how humans actually are. It has already been documented that humans agents have been doing this since Obama was in office.

Are there any robot trolls operating right now? Yes, likely in test mode. You can consider such things to ALWAYS be in test mode. Remember MAX-Headroom(1985)? The idea, has been in serious consideration a long, long time. The prime test result of interest? What is the minimum troll input you need to cause a given level of affect? What affects are possible? What trolling dialog methods work best?

You know trolling has two meanings? To troll for fish (or anything else for any use), and a troll under the bridge, looking to damage the innocent.

So now and in the future, you have the same necessary dual skills as before; Think for yourself, Do your own research.

 

[Made in USA]

Remember reading a book for a high school class (1973) called Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard. It dealt with subconscious motivations. Words, colors, sounds, it makes me think that JFK used the techniques for his speech writing. (Pink Floyd - Don't worry, we'll tell you what to think). Perhaps we are being programmed. Just saw where the average price for cars last year was $41,000. Got to buy a new car to keep up the facade that I'm doing well I guess is the thinking of the average person nowadays.

 

[JEBar]

I've helped with this forum for over 7 years .... having folks join to spread discontent is nothing new .... at first eliminating them upset those who came here to bitch and moan, to stir up other members, to vent their anger, and for a host of other negative reasons .... what is different today is an explosion in their numbers .... not a day goes by that we don't get applications from scammers and others who seem to get a kick out of creating discontent .... screening those applications takes time and fact that very, very few ever get to the open forum .... what I can say is, we will not allow the forum to get back into the verbal war zone that it once was ....

 

[AriLea]

Are there automated tools to help you purge scammers, robots and trolls? It seems there should be more methods(link) than just capcha.
I see 'Journal of Information Warfare'(started 2001), so I am way-way undershooting this subject.

Posters have an interest, trolls have an agenda. Oh boy, I just figured out I'm a white hat, um... troll. I just want to see a true, freeway ready, autocycle/cabinscooter/kabinroller go into production before I leave this world.
I'm likely not alone here, yes? Canadian version..., eh?

 

[JEBar]

the way we handle it on this forum and 2 others I work with as well, is based on a mixture of experience and technology .... for obvious reasons, we won't provide details ..... we've processed and banned 14 since late yesterday afternoon .... after a while processing an application can usually be handled in a few minutes inclucing notifications authored and sent

 

[JEBar]

make that 15, just processed and had to ban another one since finishing the post above

 

[JEBar]

now up to 19, four more since the post above

 

[AriLea]

Study by Big-Data;
"...
In all, the 50 trained human coders sniffed out roughly 250 bots among a thousand or so Twitter accounts that tweeted about Russian politics during events surrounding Russia's annexation of Crimea. But a thousand accounts are only the tip of the Twitter iceberg. To investigate further, the researchers had to borrow the power of computers themselves.

Using machine learning algorithms combined with data curated by the human coders, the researchers trained computers to analyze almost a quarter of a million Twitter accounts that tweeted more than 15 million times in 2014 and 2015.

They found that out of the 250,000 accounts, 97,000 were active throughout the period, of which roughly two-thirds may be bots. On certain days, more than half of all tweets related to Russian politics were posted by these presumed bots. As expected, the bots were less likely to share their location or tweet from a mobile device, but they also tended to retweet more than humans did, and when they did, they tended to only retweet the text without including any links.

Contrary to what the researchers previously expected, these bots don't simply tweet and retweet intensively like the old-timey bots that started inundating online forums and comment threads with Viagra ads in the early 2000s. Instead, they seem to have developed some finesse in their approach.
..."

Such fun. (NOT!)

 

[Made in USA]

I wish we could use a special call forwarding system for our phones. In my dream version it would allow me to individually forward different numbers. If I get a robo call, I could then forward that caller to another number. The number I would forward to would be another robo caller. Let them talk between themselves. Perhaps a system like this could help with computers too. Instead of blocking, send them to each other?

 

[AriLea]

Speaking of weird security issues, arigar095, always seems to be logged on, but never posts anything ever, and doesn't even have a profile you can look at.

Is that normal?