The Gentleman's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.)

Technique #4 - 'INFORMATION COLLECTION'

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a 'show you mine so me yours' posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your 'favourite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favourite 'technique of operation.' From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Technique #5 - 'ANGER TROLLING'

Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to 'stage' a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to 'lead' the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you 'do not care what the authorities think!!' inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.

Technique #6 - 'GAINING FULL CONTROL'

It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavourable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the 'ultimate victory' as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a 'honey pot' gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.

CONCLUSION

Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precidence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.

2. Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation

Note: The first rule and last five (or six, depending on situation) rules are generally not directly within the ability of the traditional disinfo artist to apply. These rules are generally used more directly by those at the leadership, key players, or planning level of the criminal conspiracy or conspiracy to cover up.

1. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Regardless of what you know, don't discuss it -- especially if you are a public figure, news anchor, etc. If it's not reported, it didn't happen, and you never have to deal with the issues.

2. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the 'How dare you!' gambit.

3. Create rumor mongers. Avoid discussing issues by describing all charges, regardless of venue or evidence, as mere rumors and wild accusations. Other derogatory terms mutually exclusive of truth may work as well. This method which works especially well with a silent press, because the only way the public can learn of the facts are through such 'arguable rumors'. If you can associate the material with the Internet, use this fact to certify it a 'wild rumor' from a 'bunch of kids on the Internet' which can have no basis in fact.

4. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent's argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues.

5. Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary 'attack the messenger' ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach. Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as 'kooks', 'right-wing', 'liberal', 'left-wing', 'terrorists', 'conspiracy buffs', 'radicals', 'militia', 'racists', 'religious fanatics', 'sexual deviates', and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.

6. Hit and Run. In any public forum, make a brief attack of your opponent or the opponent position and then scamper off before an answer can be fielded, or simply ignore any answer. This works extremely well in Internet and letters-to-the-editor environments where a steady stream of new identities can be called upon without having to explain criticism, reasoning -- simply make an accusation or other attack, never discussing issues, and never answering any subsequent response, for that would dignify the opponent's viewpoint.

7. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could be taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive.

8. Invoke authority. Claim for yourself or associate yourself with authority and present your argument with enough 'jargon' and 'minutia' to illustrate you are 'one who knows', and simply say it isn't so without discussing issues or demonstrating concretely why or citing sources.

9. Play Dumb. No matter what evidence or logical argument is offered, avoid discussing issues except with denials they have any credibility, make any sense, provide any proof, contain or make a point, have logic, or support a conclusion. Mix well for maximum effect.

10. Associate opponent charges with old news. A derivative of the straw man -- usually, in any large-scale matter of high visibility, someone will make charges early on which can be or were already easily dealt with - a kind of investment for the future should the matter not be so easily contained.) Where it can be foreseen, have your own side raise a straw man issue and have it dealt with early on as part of the initial contingency plans. Subsequent charges, regardless of validity or new ground uncovered, can usually then be associated with the original charge and dismissed as simply being a rehash without need to address current issues -- so much the better where the opponent is or was involved with the original source.

11. Establish and rely upon fall-back positions. Using a minor matter or element of the facts, take the 'high road' and 'confess' with candor that some innocent mistake, in hindsight, was made -- but that opponents have seized on the opportunity to blow it all out of proportion and imply greater criminalities which, 'just isn't so.' Others can reinforce this on your behalf, later, and even publicly 'call for an end to the nonsense' because you have already 'done the right thing.' Done properly, this can garner sympathy and respect for 'coming clean' and 'owning up' to your mistakes without addressing more serious issues.

12. Enigmas have no solution. Drawing upon the overall umbrella of events surrounding the crime and the multitude of players and events, paint the entire affair as too complex to solve. This causes those otherwise following the matter to begin to lose interest more quickly without having to address the actual issues.

13. Alice in Wonderland Logic. Avoid discussion of the issues by reasoning backwards or with an apparent deductive logic which forbears any actual material fact.

14. Demand complete solutions. Avoid the issues by requiring opponents to solve the crime at hand completely, a ploy which works best with issues qualifying for rule 10.

15. Fit the facts to alternate conclusions. This requires creative thinking unless the crime was planned with contingency conclusions in place.

16. Vanish evidence and witnesses. If it does not exist, it is not fact, and you won't have to address the issue.

17. Change the subject. Usually in connection with one of the other ploys listed here, find a way to side-track the discussion with abrasive or controversial comments in hopes of turning attention to a new, more manageable topic. This works especially well with companions who can 'argue' with you over the new topic and polarize the discussion arena in order to avoid discussing more key issues.

18. Emotionalize, Antagonize, and Goad Opponents. If you can't do anything else, chide and taunt your opponents and draw them into emotional responses which will tend to make them look foolish and overly motivated, and generally render their material somewhat less coherent. Not only will you avoid discussing the issues in the first instance, but even if their emotional response addresses the issue, you can further avoid the issues by then focusing on how 'sensitive they are to criticism.'

19. Ignore proof presented, demand impossible proofs. This is perhaps a variant of the 'play dumb' rule. Regardless of what material may be presented by an opponent in public forums, claim the material irrelevant and demand proof that is impossible for the opponent to come by (it may exist, but not be at his disposal, or it may be something which is known to be safely destroyed or withheld, such as a murder weapon.) In order to completely avoid discussing issues, it may be required that you to categorically deny and be critical of media or books as valid sources, deny that witnesses are acceptable, or even deny that statements made by government or other authorities have any meaning or relevance.

20. False evidence. Whenever possible, introduce new facts or clues designed and manufactured to conflict with opponent presentations -- as useful tools to neutralize sensitive issues or impede resolution. This works best when the crime was designed with contingencies for the purpose, and the facts cannot be easily separated from the fabrications.

21. Call a Grand Jury, Special Prosecutor, or other empowered investigative body. Subvert the (process) to your benefit and effectively neutralize all sensitive issues without open discussion. Once convened, the evidence and testimony are required to be secret when properly handled. For instance, if you own the prosecuting attorney, it can insure a Grand Jury hears no useful evidence and that the evidence is sealed and unavailable to subsequent investigators. Once a favorable verdict is achieved, the matter can be considered officially closed. Usually, this technique is applied to find the guilty innocent, but it can also be used to obtain charges when seeking to frame a victim.

22. Manufacture a new truth. Create your own expert(s), group(s), author(s), leader(s) or influence existing ones willing to forge new ground via scientific, investigative, or social research or testimony which concludes favorably. In this way, if you must actually address issues, you can do so authoritatively.

23. Create bigger distractions. If the above does not seem to be working to distract from sensitive issues, or to prevent unwanted media coverage of unstoppable events such as trials, create bigger news stories (or treat them as such) to distract the multitudes.

24. Silence critics. If the above methods do not prevail, consider removing opponents from circulation by some definitive solution so that the need to address issues is removed entirely. This can be by their death, arrest and detention, blackmail or destruction of their character by release of blackmail information, or merely by destroying them financially, emotionally, or severely damaging their health.

25. Vanish. If you are a key holder of secrets or otherwise overly illuminated and you think the heat is getting too hot, to avoid the issues, vacate the kitchen.

3. Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist

1) Avoidance. They never actually discuss issues head-on or provide constructive input, generally avoiding citation of references or credentials. Rather, they merely imply this, that, and the other. Virtually everything about their presentation implies their authority and expert knowledge in the matter without any further justification for credibility.

2) Selectivity. They tend to pick and choose opponents carefully, either applying the hit-and-run approach against mere commentators supportive of opponents, or focusing heavier attacks on key opponents who are known to directly address issues. Should a commentator become argumentative with any success, the focus will shift to include the commentator as well.

3) Coincidental. They tend to surface suddenly and somewhat coincidentally with a new controversial topic with no clear prior record of participation in general discussions in the particular public arena involved. They likewise tend to vanish once the topic is no longer of general concern. They were likely directed or elected to be there for a reason, and vanish with the reason.

4) Teamwork. They tend to operate in self-congratulatory and complementary packs or teams. Of course, this can happen naturally in any public forum, but there will likely be an ongoing pattern of frequent exchanges of this sort where professionals are involved. Sometimes one of the players will infiltrate the opponent camp to become a source for straw man or other tactics designed to dilute opponent presentation strength.

5) Anti-conspiratorial. They almost always have disdain for 'conspiracy theorists' and, usually, for those who in any way believe JFK was not killed by LHO. Ask yourself why, if they hold such disdain for conspiracy theorists, do they focus on defending a single topic discussed in a NG focusing on conspiracies? One might think they would either be trying to make fools of everyone on every topic, or simply ignore the group they hold in such disdain.Or, one might more rightly conclude they have an ulterior motive for their actions in going out of their way to focus as they do.

6) Artificial Emotions. An odd kind of 'artificial' emotionalism and an unusually thick skin -- an ability to persevere and persist even in the face of overwhelming criticism and unacceptance. This likely stems from intelligence community training that, no matter how condemning the evidence, deny everything, and never become emotionally involved or reactive. The net result for a disinfo artist is that emotions can seem artificial.

Most people, if responding in anger, for instance, will express their animosity throughout their rebuttal. But disinfo types usually have trouble maintaining the 'image' and are hot and cold with respect to pretended emotions and their usually more calm or unemotional communications style. It's just a job, and they often seem unable to 'act their role in character' as well in a communications medium as they might be able in a real face-to-face conversation/confrontation. You might have outright rage and indignation one moment, ho-hum the next, and more anger later -- an emotional yo-yo.

With respect to being thick-skinned, no amount of criticism will deter them from doing their job, and they will generally continue their old disinfo patterns without any adjustments to criticisms of how obvious it is that they play that game -- where a more rational individual who truly cares what others think might seek to improve their communications style, substance, and so forth, or simply give up.

7) Inconsistent. There is also a tendency to make mistakes which betray their true self/motives. This may stem from not really knowing their topic, or it may be somewhat 'freudian', so to speak, in that perhaps they really root for the side of truth deep within.

I have noted that often, they will simply cite contradictory information which neutralizes itself and the author. For instance, one such player claimed to be a Navy pilot, but blamed his poor communicating skills (spelling, grammar, incoherent style) on having only a grade-school education. I'm not aware of too many Navy pilots who don't have a college degree. Another claimed no knowledge of a particular topic/situation but later claimed first-hand knowledge of it.

8) Time Constant. Recently discovered, with respect to News Groups, is the response time factor. There are three ways this can be seen to work, especially when the government or other empowered player is involved in a cover up operation:

a) ANY NG posting by a targeted proponent for truth can result in an IMMEDIATE response. The government and other empowered players can afford to pay people to sit there and watch for an opportunity to do some damage. SINCE DISINFO IN A NG ONLY WORKS IF THE READER SEES IT - FAST RESPONSE IS CALLED FOR, or the visitor may be swayed towards truth.

b) When dealing in more direct ways with a disinformationalist, such as email, DELAY IS CALLED FOR - there will usually be a minimum of a 48-72 hour delay. This allows a sit-down team discussion on response strategy for best effect, and even enough time to 'get permission' or instruction from a formal chain of command.

c) In the NG example 1) above, it will often ALSO be seen that bigger guns are drawn and fired after the same 48-72 hours delay - the team approach in play. This is especially true when the targeted truth seeker or their comments are considered more important with respect to potential to reveal truth. Thus, a serious truth sayer will be attacked twice for the same sin.

[quote] Technique #1 - 'FORUM SLIDING'

[quote] Technique #3 - 'TOPIC DILUTION'

Is this what the 2015 troll is doing by bumping threads started in the year 2015?

Bingo, r7 -- and also with all the Markle bullshit and Michael Jackson and infinite other trivialities that are burying important information

4. How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)

One way to neutralize a potential activist is to get them to be in a group that does all the wrong things. Why?

1) The message doesn't get out.

2) A lot of time is wasted

3) The activist is frustrated and discouraged

4) Nothing good is accomplished.

FBI and Police Informers and Infiltrators will infest any group and they have phoney activist organizations established.

Their purpose is to prevent any real movement for justice or eco-peace from developing in this country.

Agents come in small, medium or large. They can be of any ethnic background. They can be male or female.

The actual size of the group or movement being infiltrated is irrelevant. It is the potential the movement has for becoming large which brings on the spies and saboteurs.

This booklet lists tactics agents use to slow things down, foul things up, destroy the movement and keep tabs on activists.

It is the agent's job to keep the activist from quitting such a group, thus keeping him/her under control.

In some situations, to get control, the agent will tell the activist:

"You're dividing the movement."

[Here, I have added the psychological reasons as to WHY this maneuver works to control people]

This invites guilty feelings. Many people can be controlled by guilt. The agents begin relationships with activists behind a well-developed mask of "dedication to the cause." Because of their often declared dedication, (and actions designed to prove this), when they criticize the activist, he or she - being truly dedicated to the movement - becomes convinced that somehow, any issues are THEIR fault. This is because a truly dedicated person tends to believe that everyone has a conscience and that nobody would dissimulate and lie like that "on purpose." It's amazing how far agents can go in manipulating an activist because the activist will constantly make excuses for the agent who regularly declares their dedication to the cause. Even if they do, occasionally, suspect the agent, they will pull the wool over their own eyes by rationalizing: "they did that unconsciously... they didn't really mean it... I can help them by being forgiving and accepting " and so on and so forth.

The agent will tell the activist:

"You're a leader!"

This is designed to enhance the activist's self-esteem. His or her narcissistic admiration of his/her own activist/altruistic intentions increase as he or she identifies with and consciously admires the altruistic declarations of the agent which are deliberately set up to mirror those of the activist.

This is "malignant pseudoidentification." It is the process by which the agent consciously imitates or simulates a certain behavior to foster the activist's identification with him/her, thus increasing the activist's vulnerability to exploitation. The agent will simulate the more subtle self-concepts of the activist.

Activists and those who have altruistic self-concepts are most vulnerable to malignant pseudoidentification especially during work with the agent when the interaction includes matter relating to their competency, autonomy, or knowledge.

The goal of the agent is to increase the activist's general empathy for the agent through pseudo-identification with the activist's self-concepts.

The most common example of this is the agent who will compliment the activist for his competency or knowledge or value to the movement. On a more subtle level, the agent will simulate affects and mannerisms of the activist which promotes identification via mirroring and feelings of "twinship". It is not unheard of for activists, enamored by the perceived helpfulness and competence of a good agent, to find themselves considering ethical violations and perhaps, even illegal behavior, in the service of their agent/handler.

The activist's "felt quality of perfection" [self-concept] is enhanced, and a strong empathic bond is developed with the agent through his/her imitation and simulation of the victim's own narcissistic investments. [self-concepts] That is, if the activist knows, deep inside, their own dedication to the cause, they will project that onto the agent who is "mirroring" them.

The activist will be deluded into thinking that the agent shares this feeling of identification and bonding. In an activist/social movement setting, the adversarial roles that activists naturally play vis a vis the establishment/government, fosters ongoing processes of intrapsychic splitting so that "twinship alliances" between activist and agent may render whole sectors or reality testing unavailable to the activist. They literally "lose touch with reality."

Activists who deny their own narcissistic investments [do not have a good idea of their own self-concepts and that they ARE concepts] and consciously perceive themselves (accurately, as it were) to be "helpers" endowed with a special amount of altruism are exceedingly vulnerable to the affective (emotional) simulation of the accomplished agent.

Empathy is fostered in the activist through the expression of quite visible affects. The presentation of tearfulness, sadness, longing, fear, remorse, and guilt, may induce in the helper-oriented activist a strong sense of compassion, while unconsciously enhancing the activist's narcissistic investment in self as the embodiment of goodness.

The agent's expresssion of such simulated affects may be quite compelling to the observer and difficult to distinguish from deep emotion.

It can usually be identified by two events, however:

First, the activist who has analyzed his/her own narcissistic roots and is aware of his/her own potential for being "emotionally hooked," will be able to remain cool and unaffected by such emotional outpourings by the agent.

As a result of this unaffected, cool, attitude, the Second event will occur: The agent will recompensate much too quickly following such an affective expression leaving the activist with the impression that "the play has ended, the curtain has fallen," and the imposture, for the moment, has finished. The agent will then move quickly to another activist/victim.

The fact is, the movement doesn't need leaders, it needs MOVERS. "Follow the leader" is a waste of time.

A good agent will want to meet as often as possible. He or she will talk a lot and say little. One can expect an onslaught of long, unresolved discussions.

Some agents take on a pushy, arrogant, or defensive manner:

1) To disrupt the agenda

2) To side-track the discussion

3) To interrupt repeatedly

4) To feign ignorance

5) To make an unfounded accusation against a person.

Calling someone a racist, for example. This tactic is used to discredit a person in the eyes of all other group members.

Saboteurs

Some saboteurs pretend to be activists. She or he will ....

1) Write encyclopedic flyers (in the present day, websites)

2) Print flyers in English only.

3) Have demonstrations in places where no one cares.

4) Solicit funding from rich people instead of grass roots support

5) Display banners with too many words that are confusing.

6) Confuse issues.

7) Make the wrong demands.

Cool Compromise the goal.

9) Have endless discussions that waste everyone's time. The agent may accompany the endless discussions with drinking, pot smoking or other amusement to slow down the activist's work.

Provocateurs

1) Want to establish "leaders" to set them up for a fall in order to stop the movement.

2) Suggest doing foolish, illegal things to get the activists in trouble.

3) Encourage militancy.

4) Want to taunt the authorities.

5) Attempt to make the activist compromise their values.

6) Attempt to instigate violence. Activisim ought to always be non-violent.

7) Attempt to provoke revolt among people who are ill-prepared to deal with the reaction of the authorities to such violence.

Informants

1) Want everyone to sign up and sing in and sign everything.

2) Ask a lot of questions (gathering data).

3) Want to know what events the activist is planning to attend.

4) Attempt to make the activist defend him or herself to identify his or her beliefs, goals, and level of committment.

Recruiting

Legitimate activists do not subject people to hours of persuasive dialog. Their actions, beliefs, and goals speak for themselves.

Groups that DO recruit are missionaries, military, and fake political parties or movements set up by agents.

Surveillance

ALWAYS assume that you are under surveillance.

At this point, if you are NOT under surveillance, you are not a very good activist!

Scare Tactics

They use them.

Such tactics include slander, defamation, threats, getting close to disaffected or minimally committed fellow activists to persuade them (via psychological tactics described above) to turn against the movement and give false testimony against their former compatriots. They will plant illegal substances on the activist and set up an arrest; they will plant false information and set up "exposure," they will send incriminating letters [emails] in the name of the activist; and more; they will do whatever society will allow.

This booklet in no way covers all the ways agents use to sabotage the lives of sincere an dedicated activists.

If an agent is "exposed," he or she will be transferred or replaced.

COINTELPRO is still in operation today under a different code name. It is no longer placed on paper where it can be discovered through the freedom of information act.

The FBI counterintelligence program's stated purpose: To expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and otherwise neutralize individuals who the FBI categorize as opposed to the National Interests. "National Security" means the FBI's security from the people ever finding out the vicious things it does in violation of people's civil liberties.

5. Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government. When the government lacks an effective, fact-based defense, other techniques must be employed. The success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.

1. Dummy up. If it's not reported, if it's not news, it didn't happen.

2. Wax indignant. This is also known as the "How dare you?" gambit.

3. Characterize the charges as "rumors" or, better yet, "wild rumors." If, in spite of the news blackout, the public is still able to learn about the suspicious facts, it can only be through "rumors." (If they tend to believe the "rumors" it must be because they are simply "paranoid" or "hysterical.")

4. Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspects of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors (or plant false stories) and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike.

5. Call the skeptics names like "conspiracy theorist," "nutcase," "ranter," "kook," "crackpot," and, of course, "rumor monger." Be sure, too, to use heavily loaded verbs and adjectives when characterizing their charges and defending the "more reasonable" government and its defenders. You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned. For insurance, set up your own "skeptics" to shoot down.

6. Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money (compared to over-compensated adherents to the government line who, presumably, are not).

7. Invoke authority. Here the controlled press and the sham opposition can be very useful.

8. Dismiss the charges as "old news."

9. Come half-clean. This is also known as "confession and avoidance" or "taking the limited hangout route." This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal "mistakes." This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken. With effective damage control, the fall-back position need only be peddled by stooge skeptics to carefully limited markets.

10. Characterize the crimes as impossibly complex and the truth as ultimately unknowable.

11. Reason backward, using the deductive method with a vengeance. With thoroughly rigorous deduction, troublesome evidence is irrelevant. E.g. We have a completely free press. If evidence exists that the Vince Foster "suicide" note was forged, they would have reported it. They haven't reported it so there is no such evidence. Another variation on this theme involves the likelihood of a conspiracy leaker and a press who would report the leak.

12. Require the skeptics to solve the crime completely. E.g. If Foster was murdered, who did it and why?

13. Change the subject. This technique includes creating and/or publicizing distractions.

14. Lightly report incriminating facts, and then make nothing of them. This is sometimes referred to as "bump and run" reporting.

15. Baldly and brazenly lie. A favorite way of doing this is to attribute the "facts" furnished the public to a plausible-sounding, but anonymous, source.

16. Expanding further on numbers 4 and 5, have your own stooges "expose" scandals and champion popular causes. Their job is to pre-empt real opponents and to play 99-yard football. A variation is to pay rich people for the job who will pretend to spend their own money.

17. Flood the Internet with agents. This is the answer to the question, "What could possibly motivate a person to spend hour upon hour on Internet news groups defending the government and/or the press and harassing genuine critics?" Don t the authorities have defenders enough in all the newspapers, magazines, radio, and television? One would think refusing to print critical letters and screening out serious callers or dumping them from radio talk shows would be control enough, but, obviously, it is not.

[quote] Bingo, [R7] -- and also with all the Markle bullshit and Michael Jackson and infinite other trivialities that are burying important information

Have you been around DL for long? Royalty and popular culture is a mainstay around here. It isn't all politics and "important" information.

Many of these techniques are what the professional web washers use to hide negative posts about their clients. I’m quite sure this is happening with the Meghan Markle posts on this site. A supposed crazy person throws a wacky wrench or racial accusations into a thread and it works to frustrate all other posters, who simply stop posting. Thing is, these aren’t crazy people. They are sophisticated web experts. It’s a brilliant technique, really.

r17, the Markle posts are entirely that. She, as a subject, is a just a strategic glitter toss for the Neo-KGB/GOP. They use almost all the techniques listed on this site -- other than the seeds planted to urge violent action, which are used on sites for InCels, right wing conspiratards, 4Chan, etc. Here, they work mostly to sow division and dilute the conversations with distractions.

I was wondering why a cluster of old Janeane Garofalo threads periodically get bumped - ALL at the same time. It must be an inside joke or secret code of sorts. These operatives certainly have a warped sense of humor!

r19, I suspect that it was mistakenly assumed, based upon her history as an Air America host and sometime 'liberal perspective' current events show guest, that she would have more of a following than she does on a left-leaning site.

I caught one! The Tito Jackson thread which had been inactive for 2 weeks became active again today after someone posted simply: [bomd]“Haters will hate you know.”[/bold] They just search for something triggering and post a boilerplate response to resurrect the thread. What lazy asses.

r21, it's not random. The Jacksons are repeatedly used, like Markle.

R21, perfect example. I noticed that too.

We’ve all complained about trolls, imagining them as some goofy jerk with nothing better to do than annoy people. But it’s a new world. These are pros. And the Russians are really good at it.

DL is small potatoes. Imagine how they manipulate political websites and Facebook. Have you read any comments on Yahoo News lately? I’d say at least 2/3 of the posts are professional disrupters or bots.

I think republicans actually tried to kill me in 2012.

The reason they choose the Jacksons, Markle -- right now Beyonce -- is part of the Digital Blackface operation to stoke racial tensions. It's all about sowing divisions.

R25 - YES. It’s very transparent and annoying AF. They probably hire failed journalists with OCD for this tedious line of work.

r26, I actually suspect most of the Troll Farm keyboard mercenaries are inmates in Russian gulags.

I've been here since 2003, long before you, long before the Neo-KGB/GOP trolls, long before the Frau Sleuths and the Banned From LSA Conspirafraus. And I'll be here long after you're gone.

............

I knew that Janeane Garofalo and the Janeane Garofalo's Wig troll where spook threads!

OP is about 3-4 posts too much for me, highly suspect the OP is not mentally well. Writing a multi-post essay is a huge red flag.

R31, it’s a copy/paste job.

Which should be obvious from the fucking link.

Ahem...They're back.

Again

The Tito Jackson thread is a slow burn... every time it’s ready to flicker out, someone throws another log in.

A reminder....

R8 So basically anything that you personally are not interested in is just an attempt to suppress information you are interested in?

I'm sorry dear, but the world does not revolve around you.

I reckon the newbie trolls are sent here to earn their stripes. We're a hardened bunch on DL and very awake to their bullshit.

Unfortunately they may have had some success in driving off quite a few of our lesbian sisters by piling on with the misogyny (yes, I know there are quite a few actual gay men who hold similar views). It just feels like there are less women on DL these days (Elder Lez, we love you!).

Ditto with all the race-baiting. It's sad that many gay POC might have mistaken these professional trolls for real DLers (again, I don't doubt that some prissy racists here have been emboldened by the influx of race-baiting troll posts).

Luckily, most of us have very acute bullshit detectors and are able to step over the frequent cointel turds left in our way to trip us up.

I feel like the troll farm operation is operating under the same mistaken guidelines as ad agencies, thinking that even if you annoy people you’ll still get ‘the brand’ in their head and they may buy in just from ‘product recognition’. That fact is that most of us would be magnitudes less hostile towards DumpCo./GOP/Neo-KGB/BernieBros if we weren’t subject to relentless swarms of their idiotic lies & laughable rhetoric.

No one likes to troll the threads I read. I'm pretty boring I guess.

We need more dykes.

Lack O’ Dykes

So where exactly are the agents provocateurs on DL? The Klan Grannie ones are about as subtle as a roast pig at a Muslim wedding.

The Fake Former Congressional Intern makes several mistakes in his narrative, getting his backstory wrong often.

If you point it out on the Treason threads, suddenly three or four defenders immediately pop up, using several of the tactics above to cover up for him.

Go read the “Daily Beast turns against Ellen” thread.

Every other post is a tactic listed in the booklet.

They have keyword alerts and then rush in immediately to discredit a post.

OP: Do you happen to know which STD's have paranoia as a symptom?

R48: the topic at hand live in action

Go read that Ellen thread now! It is completely ripped from the booklet. They keep on and on with their tactics.

The agents really don't want this thread seen, do they?

Keeping bumping it

It's hard to read, OP, so here's another link with the content..

Additional information on the subject (ironically from The Intercept)

R51 is bringing down the man one DL post at a time.

R55.

R56, c’mon, commit to your blocking, don’t do creepy shit like sneak peeks, that’s no different than the psychos who stalk posters across the board from thread to thread

I'm supporting you, OP. You shouldn't be attacking me for blocking an agent who mocks you.

R57, ohhhh is that what he’s doing? I kept wondering who was following me around on here doing that. Thanks for explaining it to me.

R58, you (as have I), already decided that poster was Noise and blocked them; why the fuck keep peeking in the window? Commit.

This document looks like it was written by an incel, for incels and is being used as "proof" by fraucels.

R61 That’s exactly what a Ruski WOULD say, Svetlana.

r62 = low IQ and easily duped sheeple.

Interesting reading....

I recently blocked R55 R56 and R62 for being bump bitch trolls.

Check out Reply in this linked thread.

Reply 5, sorry.

Yes, R7. They've been here a very long time. They used to log in very early in the morning, 5AM Eastern or so, and bump old threads on one specific topic (different topic each day) just to hide the current crop of active threads. Happened every day, and for whatever reason, Mediapolis didn't (and still doesn't) care. They pretty obviously had a script they would run, too, because there wasn't any way they could find all those discrete threads quickly by using a manual search.

This article is written by someone who wanted to sound smarter than they are, and because of that it's almost impossible to read, but the techniques they mention are the exact same as what the GamerGaters used a few years back.

[quote]the Markle posts are entirely that. She, as a subject, is a just a strategic glitter toss for the Neo-KGB/GOP.

If you look at pretty much any dedicated anti Markle account on Twitter, they're also pro-Trump, they're saying the coronavirus is a hoax, they're pro Brexit, have DemExit hashtags in their profiles, etc. It's a very specific Deplorable type. The Daily Mail worked very hard to make the rightwingers associate Meghan and Harry with The Evil Libs (tm).

[quote] just to hide the current crop of active threads.

The Brock shills are upset it is harder to push their panic porn.

Believe

HEROIC R69!

Number 4 is popular around here:

Technique #4 - 'INFORMATION COLLECTION'

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a 'show you mine so me yours' posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your 'favourite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favourite 'technique of operation.' From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Fascinating. Thanks OP. This behavior was picked up and flagged on LSA over a year ago. One person on the Unpopular Meghan thread has at least 5 accounts. They think it could be closer to ten. Over the last two days links to a White supremacist journalist, CCN not CNN news site and some pretty blatant racist tweets were linked by some people being watched due to this exact behavior. It is assumed by the people watching this site and threads that they are pushing the boundaries to see what the site will allow as they are being watched due to complaints of pack stalking of Black fonts and can't engage in their usual disruptive behavior.

r73, yes, originally, I had believed they were marketing lackeys trying to do surveys without having to pay anyone. But, no, it's just intel gathering.

r74, LSA pays sockpuppet trolls to post. They are a disinfo operation, not unlike what happened to Crazy Days & Nights, and are among the most useful outlets for the Kremlin's 'Digital Blackface' output. Their domain is registered by a company that is a safe haven for overtly white supremacist groups. More info at link:

Looks like they turned on DL's resident provocateur and now he's back with a vengence to expose the shit show that is modern American surveillance.

Who is Pat?

No one really knows...

The fucker who always uses the word "loon." I've been telling DL since I first got here over two years ago that you had NO anonymity on this forum or any others for that matter. Whenever this asshole or another(s) just like him started a thread titled along the lines of "What Is Your Most Shameful Secret?" I was leaving a comment as soon as I saw it warning folks NOT to divulge their personal affairs here on this website because you have no anonymity. And before you go "Well, I haven't ever done anything criminal. I've nothing to hide!" They can always LIE and say you did. And they DO!

Once again - here at DL and all over the internet for that matter - these are Data Lounge's most frequent and constant visitors:

I use “loon” to describe the QAnon crazies and one particular unhinged Madonna Stan.

Whatever

"Gentleman's Guide" to me always sounds like code for how to be a whoremonger, sexual predator, child porn connoisseur, etc.

^^ go back to your Fancy Man!

Wow. A really informative thread. I've been on DL since forever! and didn't pick on quite a few of the troll strategies and maneuvers mentioned in the thread. It really should be mandatory reading. Great job, you guys.

Could this thread be pinned above all the other threads on DL? These are the survival skills very much needed until at the very least 2021, and most likely forever. Muriel?

20. earrings

21. caftans

Sigh.

On the Coronavirus Freakout threads, the Corona Poll Troll posts "updates" that are straight from a one-click link, but he is praised like he is delivering manna from Heaven.

Well, if you use Ignore-dar on him, you will see his many (unsigned) posts which are very pro-Trump, very anti-Democratic Nominee, very concerned and "troubled" and divisive.

I pointed it out many times but so many of the brainless posters think he is "doing a good thing" with posting the stats and they shouted me down. I gave up there and no longer go to that series of threads.

But right there is an example of what is talked about in the booklet, and no one wants to even acknowledge that it's happening.

This thread about Russia interfering in the upcoming election is constantly being buried here.

r90, I started that one, too. They like to gang up on me.

But it's PROOF!

It's mind-blowing how passive the gay men are here, DEFENDING the ones who are secretly working against them.

Fucking wild.

Agreed.

This is so kooky

One guy in the Adam Schiff thread is REALLY trying to defect from Russia and is using shouting down tactics, "OH, FUCK OFF!" thinking he will squelch anyone pointing out his trolling.

Keep this thread at the top during this right-wing siege.

And, as is typical, the right-wing nut in the Schiff thread is calling me a McCarthy-type oppressor. Defect!

R79, I was so happy to read your post about the person who so frequently uses the unusual word “loon” on Datalounge. He/She called me that just yesterday on another thread where I referenced school busing in an historical way. I immediately received the following response:

“What the fuck are you talking about, [R43]? You're a loon. —Anonymous“

Of course, the above comment - which I know now was posted to cause trouble - stirred the shit, which it did... effectively shutting down a good line of conversation.

Hey, just realized I used the phrase “school busing” in my post above. Do you think the loon robot will come after me again?

Where has this guide been?

It is THE playbook for Deplorables.

They just need to add that they always ww their own posts.

Bump to keep at top.

Thanks R101.

Loon is commonly used to describe Poo Shoes and people like her aka Q-Anon Loons.

The Corona Poll Troll is a Trumper and a divisive troll. Be aware.

[quote]R98 ... the unusual word “loon”...

Best thread in ages. Vital, in fact.

Bump for awareness.

I've posted some heartfelt anecdotes here and there, and (despite Muriel's recommendations to the contrary), it's satisfying fun to flout Muriel's rules and expose the trollishness of trolls who troll (pros and amateurs alike). Happily identified one threateningly abusive DL poster as a "loon".

But -- with all due respect to any number of sharp-as-tacks posters -- when was DL ever a place to carry on serious extended dialogues about anything important, unless one's sole intention is to firmly declare pre-set boundaries and walk away? It's an anonymous [italic]gossip[/italic] site.

[quote]Where has this guide been?

I'm sufficiently paranoid already. I don't need yet another copy/paste of this "Guide", which Google tells me appears and re-appears on one site after another down through the years.

As they say: "Paranoia is its own reward".

R89 Booklet? Oh dear.

1. How are these "Svetlanas" paid - do they earn salary, or is it per post? If per post, it would explain how motivated they are at times.

2. Can they earn bonuses? What if the content is especially "triggering" to their targets?

3. Do they even believe their postings, or are they simply doing this as a way to earn money?

The thing is it's best to stay classy when it comes to disinformation. Share that you don't believe it and state your reasons why and if you can back your argument up with a quote from a legit source, do so and then don't engage further, because the opposition will try to get you on the defense and make you and your argument look weak (as described in the earlier comments).

Nowadays internet newbies don't exist anymore. Mature people, able to vote in the upcoming election, are well aware of what's going on, on social media, and made up their minds about Trump vs. Biden already. And they also figure out DL quickly enough and get that there are trolls and haters that don't really contribute anything of value and the means how they can be ignored or blocked, thanks to the ignore feature.

This is NOT random cunts trolling the internet doing this. This is NOT Russian trolls pulling up a chair at DL just to bs the patrons. This IS - I repeat IS - your own government, the US government and its various alphabet agencies.

So it’s the deep state?

It looks like the Chinese skipped the low rent Facebook ads an went straight for a bio weapon.

No, dude. Not the "deep state." It's the government from the Federal level on down to the local. Not many people realize that even your local police departments were FEDERALIZED years ago after 9/11. That means that your local small town police have access to all the surveillance being done on a national level - online, text messages/cell phone calls, all the products your purchase in store and online etc etc etc. The United States as it once was and in the way they want you to believe it still exists - it is no more. America has turned into the USSR - no, seriously.

Bump.

After the 2016 election, it was discovered that many of the black lives matter social media postings were created by troll farms in the Ukraine.

We don't know them, but they know us inside and out.

They know simply stating black lives matter is enough to send white Americans into a snarling, spitting rage! Why was this relevant in the 2016 election and now? Because they haven't recovered from Obama's two successful terms, Trump was installed to make the white house white again.

R1 through R119 are all from Russian troll farms

The demonization of hydroxychloroquine is coordinated. That level of hysteria is not from gays chatting on a gossip board.

The block feature works though and I am blocking r120.

I already had r121 blocked.

twiiter is infested with these freaks and fuckups!

More flooding at work

People must be more adept at curating their own internet, social media experience. Spot the trolls and haters who don't bring anything to the discussion and block them from their view.

Especially the "guys, I just heard this from a friend / got this from friend's social media account and would be so interested to share this obvious piece of misinformation with you discussing it and treating it like it's worth being discussed!" trolls deliberately spreading misinformation.

A favourite of mine is the "Have you ever done something really shameful?" or whatever other damaging data-gathering question you would never dream to ask a stranger. There are threads that start like this over here. They never really go anywhere, DL posters are not that dumb.

Is it the Megstans who are flooding the board with threads from 2015?

R127. Exactly ... be interesting to find out who ends up getting blackmailed ...

See, I thought those threads and the ones asking people's middle names and where they work and shit like that were just psycho stalkers trying identify people -- they types who follow posters from thread to thread just to harass them. I didn't even put it together that they might be part of the digital warfare.

There was a troll written about in the news several years ago who went viral under the fake name "Veronika Larsson" and was exposed as a troll. They were using some lady's Facebook photos as their own. Anyway, I found them again on Twitter right around Christmas and several of us on a political forum were pretty certain it was the same troll operation. What was interesting is that one of our regulars alerted two well-known "troll hunters" on Twitter, and both those troll hunters acted completely disinterested in the reappearance of "Veronika Larsson."

Since then the thread has been bumped a few times where people have seen both the "troll hunters" be friendly with obviously fake accounts.

We may all have our tinfoil hats on too tight but we're now wondering if the big "troll hunter" accounts on Twitter aren't honeypots or fakes themselves.

Anyway, someone contacted the lady who had her personal info stolen and Twitter has deleted the account, but Veronika Larsson's most recent fake account was @dornigsilber

Here's the Veronika Larsson article. A while back som

Just ignore that "a while back" non sequitur at R131, I forgot to delete it.

The lady who has had her info stolen repeatedly since 2012 by "Veronika Larsson" tweeted about it recently:

I've mentioned that those posts are fishy R130 and always get at least a couple of people insisting that there are no such things as trolls on Datalounge, it's too small a forum and who cares about us anyway? That's pretty suspicious, too.

I suspect those posts are more about social engineering to try to guess identities and passwords than they are anything political, but you can't be too careful.

I'd estimate over half the threads (not posts) are from paid shills or trolls. Simply look at the titles and you can figure out who is funding the shills.

We used to have a HuffPo shill here years ago and would get banned if we complained about them. So yeah, we get shills.

I think it's almost all political.

Yes, I use Ignore-dar all the time, but I've learned just how many posters are spouting out contradictory ideas. Like I said, the Corona Poll Troll is one of the most recent. He made himself "indispensable" (by cut-n-pasting) and then stealthily puts in pro-Trump statements (that he doesn't sign). He also starts concern and worry threads (unsigned).

NOW the Corona Poll Troll has been exposed so he is making these silly anti-Trump posts (signed) while holding off on his true mission until he thinks it's safe to start spreading dissension once again.

The People Over Commerce/Commerce Over People thread is another example of stirring the pot, gathering information, spreading fear and worry.

It's ALL OVER the DL, this insignificant little site with zero traffic.

Where it's most obvious now are the threads where the OP starts a topic which he's seemingly interested in and has some thoughts to add but then never appears in the thread again, even after hundreds of posts.

This is evident right now in the 'Slept With A Celebrity Part 2' and 'Crazy Gay Sex Scene in The Seventies' threads.

WHY is the OP starting those threads and then seemingly abandoning them?

'Celebrities Into Extreme Fisting' has over 200 replies and the OP never posted again.

Taking notes?

Is what the bumping of 2015 threads is all about?

^^^ da

Now they are going after the left groups, while the Russians are ignored.

Where do we report the Russian trolls?

[quote] Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a 'RESOURCE BURN.' By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a 'gossip mode.

The old 1990s maxim holds fast. Don’t feed the trolls. But if course, it could be one person taking two personas. At any rate, Muriel used to check that shit by red tagging. Now she doesn’t & gives us like 2 f&fs a day.

Who owns Mediopolis these days?

Bump

Here are the traffic metrics. Can we theorize that rampant trolls are driving users away? If so, getting trolls off the site will grow revenue and help our community.

Also, why is 16% of site traffic from India? Are these users trolls?

Dear God, those are some very scary metrics. Back to basics, people!

What about trolls Trump posts that automatically get multiple WWs in minutes? Troll brigade? Bots?

They are just bored, lonely, fat, poor people, posting from troll farms

The "Nervous Republicans" and "Susan Sarandon" threads have several posters that Ignore-dar reveal to be working overtime to spread dissent, fear, worry and fatalism.

I hysterical that they are so concerned about Susan Sarandon!

A lot of the Russian Troll operations are actually based out of India, Iran, Ukraine and Malaysia.

I don’t think this site is quite as easy to set up bot brigades on as places like Twitter and Reddit, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Buy Online Drugs posts were bot tests.

I think the Troll operations have probably driven more people away from sites like and including this one than they’ve converted with propaganda. However, part of the point is to sabotage communities and ruin any chance of productive conversation or a sense of unity amongst people, so they’re still successful, even as people flee.

There’s another forum I used to frequent where the “owner”/moderator, who was old, sick and tired of keeping up with the board, got completely conned by one of these Russian keyboard mercenaries using a fake identity and made him the official mod. And now the place, which subject focus-wise had absolutely nothing to do with current events, politics, or really even anything from the last 50 years, is now entirely Russian propaganda and, with the exception of maybe 3 posts a week from newcomers looking to discuss the subject the site still advertises itself as being about, all the posts are by this Russian goon mod and largely consist of laughably stupid youtube conspiracy videos.

There are a LOT of threads encouraging people to go to the beaches, bars, restaurants.

People talking in very descriptive terms about how they want to go to a bar and how it would feel, trying to ignite those feelings in others.

From the "Californians storm the beaches" thread:

[quote]Why on earth would "Russian trolls" try to convince Americans to hit the beach on a little gay gossip website?

[quote]Take your anti-paranoia medication.

[quote]There are a LOT of threads encouraging people to go to the beaches, bars, restaurants.People talking in very descriptive terms about how they want to go to a bar and how it would feel, trying to ignite those feelings in others.

Are you paranoid in other facets of your life as well?

Conversely, I remember the days that followed MeToo and the flood of female testimonies on this site. It just was something that couldn't be stopped. Sometimes the trolls can't win.

[quote]They are just bored, lonely, fat, poor people, posting from troll farms

R147 you just insulted the majority of DLers.

Crazy

Yeah, what is the 2015 troll bumper trying to accomplish?

[quote] Yeah, what is the 2015 troll bumper trying to accomplish?

Have you read the thread at all? It's been explained numerous times.

Bumping threads from 2015 is truly a subversive act.

It's right out of the Russian playbook.

These trolls lack charisma, wit and intelligence. The few times they try to post in the vein of DL bitchery, it sounds stilted and forced. TRYHARDS.

VPNs make traffic data meaningless. It stands to reason that the Russian trolls and bots would try to make themselves appear to originate in the U.S.

So, if 16% of DL's traffic originates in India, it's not hard to imagine that even more trolls would appear to be coming from the U.S.

[quote]These trolls lack charisma, wit and intelligence.

I agree. It's not like the old days.

I know how it would feel to head out to a beach, it would feel great! But I'm not going to expose myself to this virus and risk becoming seriously ill. This is not just the flu, many have died from this virus in pain and alone. The beach will be there when quarantine is lifted.

There are some trolls who have an obvious axe to grind with women, and I don't mean that in a gay man-vs-frau way (which is a longstanding tradition here), but a pent-up/sexual repression way. I've had to unfollow a few otherwise enjoyable threads which devolved into a sort of straight man-vs-woman war. Weird.

[quote]R149 It’s hysterical that they are so concerned about Susan Sarandon!

Love her or leave her, Sarandon has been a superb actress since the beginning. She’s always been one of America’s best.

(no need to reply and dilute topic - we all know it’s true!)

Just a reminder, the trolls are trying to bury the thread about Adam Schiff highlighting Russia's efforts to influence upcoming U.S. elections. Please put it in your threadwatcher and keep it active to annoy them (and to counter their campaign of disinformation).

Bumping this thread irritates them as well.

If you disagree with R166 it is "a campaign of disinformation".

this IS an anonymous board R150, you can say the name of the board

Welcome to the Trump era r160

R165 is trying to normalize Sarandon's views.

R167 is one of the main ones in the Schiff thread trying to defend Trump.

r161, except it’s been researched, investigated and proven that the GAO has set up physical troll farms in those countries.

[quote]is one of the main ones in the Schiff thread trying to defend Trump.

Only to your feeble mind.

Schiff is not above criticizing.

Anybody defending Trump over any politician is looking to distract!

Dissent Troll at R173.

Low IQ idiot at R175

No doll, I’m not r175, but anyone who defends a republican in this day and age is automatically intellectually impaired.

On the Coronavirus Freakout threads, the Corona Poll Troll slipped up and used three different account to post his cutting & pasting of stats. So, he's using different accounts to bash Biden, praise Trump, mock flattening the curve and all sorts of dissent.

But the people on that thread are brainless and defend him.

R178. Well done.

Keep outing this trash.

R178 This is what happens when trolls are paid minimum wage! You can’t outsource intellect, people! God knows Trump has tried!

R173 was already on Ignore, as far as I'm concerned.

Bump, just because.

Morning bump

free thought link bump. make up your own minds.

Interesting article, R184

I'm sure you'll be attacked for posting it, although it is relevant to this discussion.

???????????

I didn't watch the concert, so I wouldn't know. What's cool about lockdown is that everyone is free to go their merry own way down any rabbit hole they please.

R146, there's a bug that allows someone to like their post more than once, apparently. I haven't figured out how to do that but I've seen multiple people mention it. Also, they just use sockpuppets on other browsers and go like their own post.

It's probably been five or six years since widely-loathed former regular Pollyanna Prisspot, School Marm showed off by gaming the WW system and putting random replies in the WW sidebar. That started a trend and now every troll has multiple browsers and logins so they can WW themselves.

Actually, it's a stealth pro-Trump article and a China basher. It's the SAME tactics pointed out in the OP. And R185 is an agent of chaos here.

Trump hates the WHO - it's a pro-Trump article.

Posting it here means R184 and R185 are trying to influence gay voters to vote for Trump.

Simple as that, as it shows in the OP.

Oh relax, r189. Trump doesn’t like the WHO. That doesn’t mean that you have to love the WHO. They have been creepy about China. To admit that has nothing to do with Trump. Get over your singular focus on him. He is not going to be president by January anyway, so the sooner you move on from your obsession the better.

Quite right R189. My first instinct is always to check the source, and well... "vigilant citizen" speaks for itself.

R190 is playing from the manual too. Sort of "nothing to see here".

R141: Brock and Media Matters are not "far-left", in any way. That blurb alone show you to be linking to right wing site. Who the fuck is Sara Carter, anyway? Boy, talk about trolling, this is another tactic. Posting links to far right hate sites, pretending they are news operations. Cut the crap.

Vigilant Citizen is a Russian Propaganda outfit that mostly concerns itself with deranged fluff about celebrity 'illuminati', Q Anon pedo fixations, and anti-vax tripe. It's basically Alex Jones for idiots who don't have the attention span for world news and schizophrenics who see coded messages in lazy art design.

He's probably one of the "there are no trolls on Datalounge" guys, R192. I see he also started a racebait thread about Cabrini Green and other Chicago projects.

R190 jumped in immediately, didn't he???

"Oh relax!" is used here so often on DL. It's always used to try to squelch someone being exposed.

R190 has seven posts in this thread trying to deflect and divert and squelch.

Opposing opinions are dangerous and should be squelched.

Another tactic ^^

Do not disagree with me.

The booklet is appreciated, OP. Perhaps we should also start an additional thread for ways to spot DL trolls. Some of the tricks are specific to this board.

R74, I am a moderate Democrat who can't stand Meghan Markle. I also read that thread on LSA... You do not have to be right wing Republican to see her for what she is. I enjoy the shit show.

"Oh, relax!" is always used before applying the vaseline. We should know.

"I'm a far left democrat, and I hate the pedo Clintons, environmental law, women, gays, atheists, etc. I'm pro-gun rights and anti-choice and everyone knows the economy is more important than healthcare or peoples' lives. The KKK is just a social club; so what? Bernie shoulda been the winner."

I see you.

R189 no, your analysis is wrong, but I’d like to praise your critical thinking! That’s always good.

Please read some other articles on that website. It is not pro-Trump. The topics go way beyond Trump and the articles are much older than his presidency.

It would be better to look beyond black and white patterns.

Do you really think Trump is the enemy of the globalist mega corporations?

Trump is a useful fool. The perfect President for corrupt government influencers from all sides.

And I am gay as hell.

No way there are 3x more Indians than Canadians on this board...unless the majority are trolls/bots

And lastly, you are a much more destructive force than r185.

Let people read everything. Let people make up their own mind.

You are defending censorship of opinions.

No one's opinions are being censored so back off with that trollish claim.

Could it be from search results, R208? Honest question, I haven't done SEO or worked on a website in a couple of years. When I did, we'd get a lot of hits from what seemed like random countries until we dug down and saw it was from Google or Bing searches.

R210 in any case.. trolling is a professional activity.. who and why is almost impossible to know. This is like a crazy complex twisted computer game.

Why not, r208? Compared to India, the population of Canada is tiny.

From the manual: resource burn. To be used with the more intelligent groups (like us, DL!)

[quote]Do you really think Trump is the enemy of the globalist mega corporations?

[quote]Trump is a useful fool. The perfect President for corrupt government influencers from all sides.

R206, every single word in that link on R184 is QAnon MAGA propaganda, and you know it.

TRUMP is their savior, the one draining the swamp, jailing the Deep State, fighting the Chinese and the WHO. It's a pro-Trump "article" and a pro-Trump site.

Defending it means you are a Trumper and most likely not gay or American.

WHATABOUTism should be listed as well. The trolls use this tactic here all of the time.

For example: Trump is bad but WHATABOUT WHO? Whatabout China?

Yes the Republicans have their faults but Whatabout the corrupt DNC? Whatabout this? Whatabout that?

I see the trolls are trying to distract from the original topic and winning! Stop feeding them! They are fat!

I think those India stats are wrong. This site seems more reasonable.

Russia is not even on the list, so they likely filter traffic through other countries.

That traffic chart is alarming. It shows that too much propaganda is driving users away.

Whattaboutism is a regular tactic, and is used in an attempt to justify and normalise criminal, antidemocractic, or antisocial behaviour: "but others are doing it too! Everybody does that around here!"

The ultimate goal of any mafia is that criminal behaviour becomes the norm. Decency is erased and hope is wiped out. That is the ultimate goal. To go back to a primitive state of "jungle" where the most powerful will inevitably wipe out anybody else, or enslave them.

"Sure, I killed my wife, but everybody does that around here!"

You get the idea.

"What about our neighbour??" Always very vehement. Deflecting immediately. Speaking to emotions rather than rationale. It's a basic tactic, it's also very evident.

On the treason thread:

[quote]You can say the exact same thing about Kavanaugh. She only came forward with her allegations when he was nominated for the Supreme Court. She didn't say anything when he was "only" a judge, but changed her mind after he was nominated for the SC.

WHATABOUTISM!!!

Bump

Great thread

Why, thank you R222

"they" want citizens to be defeated and stay home and not vote. It is easier for the russianpublican party to cheat and install their candidates into office when we do not vote.

Bump

They keep changing the conversation to attacks on Biden.

Flooding in progress

This board is so slow after you block all the trolls from the Markle threads.

.........

What happening to Putin's proposed intranet that was intended to cut Russia off from the global internet? Why is that so slow to get going? I think the rest of us would all welcome their silence.

. . . .

Bumpity-bump

Which reminds me, loved this article.

The internet, but not as we know it: life online in China, Cuba, India and Russia

More than half of the world's population is now online, but that does not mean we all see the same thing. From being filtered by the government to being delivered by post, the internet can vary enormously depending on where you live. Here are four illustrated examples. China, Cuba, India and Russia

the most widely used search engine in the us is offering filtered results regarding the dump admin's delayed response to the pandemic. If you use a secondary search engine you will see more results.

r235, which do you use?

Which browser do you recommend?

What does browser choice have to do with anything? lol. Chrome is a data-mining operation, so don't use that, as a matter of course. Mozilla destroyed everything that was good about Firefox. Safari can't be customized worth a shit. And everything else is half-baked. May as well use Tor.

^ super helpful 🙄

r239 the advise is "use Tor", nitwit.

Riiiiiight r240. Like I said, super helpful.

so informative

Fuck off back to FrauSleuths, Sylvia.

Ooooooo, look! R243 is using 3 of these techniques at the same time. Bonus points for misogyny!

Bump in the night

The guide for finding trolls - not how to become one. We can assume trolls use all browsers and devices.

try different search engines for controversial topics and you will see certain results suppressed (moved down) and other results ( rightwing propaganda) moved up.

This thread deserves to be at the top

They're back

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There you go

I know I'm being very paranoid, but this reply in the AMC thread seems like encouraging complacency, defeatism.

[quote]I'm fine with cinemas disappearing and everything going straight to streaming. It were everything ends up anyway.

"Stay home, don't vote."

r253, uh...maybe? But we've had tons of people saying for years (and, admittedly, they may have been trolls) that they hate going to the theatre to see films for 900 different reasons. I think, even without CV19, given the rise of affordable huge screen tvs and home theatre sound systems and even semi-affordable hot shot quality projectors, the increasing availability of so much media that had previously only been accessible on 35mm, etc. that the move to, at least, 50/50 VOD/theatrical release was inevitable.

If that chick's name in a movie is "Patti Simcox" @R251, then I'll be a monkey's uncle because that's the name I said aloud as soon as I saw the pic - is that from "Grease?"

ahem

[quote] try different search engines for controversial topics and you will see certain results suppressed (moved down) and other results ( rightwing propaganda) moved up.

What are some examples of rightwing propaganda that Google moves up?

I looked up CDC defunding/news. Try this using different search engines.

Seems like a fuckload of work just to convince a few hundred mostly older gay men who are die-hard Democrats and liberals.

Maybe you stumbled onto the wrong forum?

[quote] I looked up CDC defunding/news. Try this using different search engines.

I looked up CDC + defund + Trump and the hits are to The Hill, Vox, Politifact, MSNBC, Guardian and the CDC itself. No "rightwing" sources are getting precedence.

Google algorithms absolutely do elevate certain sources and downgrade others. There's just no evidence of your claim.

h,mmmmm

Flooding in progress

OTOH, this is catnip to DLs many conspiracy theorists

They Know Things You Don't®

^ that's right!

[quote]I know I'm being very paranoid, but this reply in the AMC thread seems like encouraging complacency, defeatism: "I'm fine with cinemas disappearing and everything going straight to streaming. It were everything ends up anyway."

OMG R253, you're not being paranoid at all! That's some scary shit!

This thread is fantastic! First posts are required reading

And just to add to my comment at R265, it's also because they've actually experienced things many times that most others have not

Trolls

Bump

They’re at it again with turbo jets

BUMP

And continue....

I did see a bunch of threads from 2015 and 2016 bumped up. The topics are of interest to me but it is so strange to see the threads pulled all the way back up.

At least they're trolling to our interests, that's only decent of them.

Bump.

Trolls

Markle Trolls

Markle Trolls, relentless

This is a good place to park this vid - Yeah, I know - Pat Robertson, but the guest - William (Bill) Binney, former NSA, is the important person, what he has to say. Of course, this was five years ago, but it will always be applicable. Listen to this man

Graveyard shift is on!

They’re back on the misogynist rhetoric talking points, for some reason.

BUMP

R215 no.. there is not a single article about Trump on that website. It is not an American-centred site. The author is I think Danish. It's rather a "christian"-based site.

Also r284.. if you side with China just to spite Trump, then you are dumber than Trump.

^shit, I meant to quote r215, not my own post

Troll if you must, but at least stick to the bloody point.

[quote]R285 if you side with China just to spite Trump, then you are dumber than Trump.

We don’t have to side with China... but it’s foolish to alienate them when they’ll probably be the ones manufacture covid meds (and setting the price) when the time comes.

They could sell them at cost, of for $1,000 a dose.

^^ oh my. I put a lot of typos in there : (

More Bill Binney being interviewed over at RT

I’m starting to think the anti-Markle Trolls are actually a bot farm and that the Buy Prescription Drug posts restart its sequence.

One main poster here is starting lots of threads linking to right-wing sites about right-wing conspiracy theories.

Don't know and don't care who Bill Binney is. RT is a Russian outlet.

Muriel just red-tagged one of the prolific trolls in here, the one defending the conspiracy theory videos!

Do Ignore-dar and you'll see that he is very Right-Wing, very Conservative and religious.

He's also JanBot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R185 is one of the posts by the now RED-TAGGED TROLL!!!!!

Thanks, Muriel!!!!!!!

It’s one of the Digital Blackface Trolls.

At some point, these troll farms are going to drive all actual human beings off the internet and forums will just consist of trolls propagandizing each other.

That's their intention, R296.

Yes, that R185 post was so scandalous, R294.

Thank goodness you reported that troll to the admin!

Fuck off, Svetlana. Janbot got himself red-tagged all on his own.

Or is that you, with your multiple browsers anyway?

[quote] Do Ignore-dar and you'll see that he is very Right-Wing, very Conservative and religious.

Thanks R294, now everyone can see that troll's postings.

But isn't that what trolls want - attention?

The POINT is to show how, YES, there are trolls all over the place. And, YES, that R185 post was done for trolling reasons.

No, they don't just want attention. They want to sway opinion.

This troll has already switched to other browsers on the Madonna threads trying to deflect that he was RED-TAGGED.

I agree with you, but at the same time banning someone and then saying "Look what he wrote" defeats the purpose, no?

He was banned for that post on CBS news.

He clearly wanted to start trouble, but now a post that would have been ignored now has over 100 views.

No, trolls need to be exposed and all the light shown on them. All of their tactics need to be exposed, and this troll has a lot of ways he uses to sow dissent.

Exposing them shows, "See?! We were right about that fucker!" when others try to defend them.

Yes, I know they are most likely sock puppets or from the same factory, but they all need to be exposed.

The BRF trolls will be hitting this place hard today.

Thanks to Ignore-dar, Janbot has been revealed to post about:

Pro-Xtian, anti-gay threads, he even starts them.

Anti-Biden threads.

Pro-Trump AND Anti-Trump posts, revealing him to be a dissent troll.

Pushing conspiracy theories that revolve around "The Deep State," with Hillary and her cabal of child-molesting cannibals.

Lots and lots of hate for white gay men.

I'm so glad Muriel red-tagged him, despite his many browsers.

r305, he's a Digital Blackface Troll, not a gay man, a Moscow keyboard mercenary

They're back....

Trollin' trollin' trollin'

GapPlayList troll is screaming about trolls all over this thread, but he has his own dark secrets.

The sock puppets that comment in his own threads are easy to spot. Then if you trolldar his sock puppet accounts you'll see some of most disgusting anti-Biden threads and posts on this site.

Funny how those that shout the loudest often have the most to hide.

That is a lie. No sock puppets here ever. No alternate browsers, nothing.

Which "sock puppet accounts"? Proof, liar?

......................

Bump

Exactly R297. So that the original users of the forum stop using it and communicating with each other, sharing valuable information.

SOOOOOOOOO

why is the Gentlecunt's Guide so full of English errors, as if the writer doesn't know common language forms?

Oh. Wheels within wheels.

r314, Well, first of all, judging by the internet, most Americans are not fluent in English. Secondly, there are languages other than Russian and English. Thirdly, several former pro-trolls have come out with information about their experiences working for troll farms. Fourthly, by the sound of this specific document, I would have to guess that the person who wrote it was involved, perhaps, as a provocateur for the FBI, likely in exchange for immunity or dropped charges; lots of amoral, quasi-legal deals like this are struck with South Americans in nations undergoing relentless, tumult incited by fascist regimes like the US.

It's been a long time

I pay day laborers to shit in my mouth

Trolls

BUMP

It's a beautiful day outside, I'm going out for a stroll. Happy trolling, everyone!

The "Datalounge has become a right-wing website" OP has been outed as a contrary divisive troll.

Hi 👋

Another tactic: nothing matters, have a laugh, can't you take a joke? Haha while we rob you blind and take your democracy as well.

Actually this one might be in the guide.

While I have agreed with almost everything in this thread to do with the bots and trolls trying to influence us here, yesterday I discovered something.

I was going through my ignored list and the OP of this thread was on there. He has several other threads he starts, and he voices contrary opinions on them. Pro-Trump, Anti-Trump, all over the board on Coronavirus, etc.

I think the OP put this troll here to gauge which topics to then start other threads about in order to sow dissension here at the DL.

I don't care how the OP will try to make fun of me. This thread is a polling just as described in the manual.

R325 You might not be wrong there. I still found the manual to be useful, even outside the DL and even in considering situations one might have encountered way way back, and that were straight from the manual. True, this thread can be used to poll information but then we don't have to volunteer the information.

r325, that's not true at all. I have never thought, typed or spoken a pro-Trump sentiment in my life. You're either a liar and disruptor or have incredibly poor reading comprehension, possibly both. And you're more than welcome to fuck right off.

Just FYI, check out this post from 4chan about trolling: they're looking for smaller sites so their comments get more attention and not lost like in larger sites.

Remember this when someone says DL isn't big enough for someone to troll.

Good find, r328. What's in it for them? Are they being paid by Putin?

This is the GOP's strategy, trying to create a smoke screen to distract from real concerns people have. Trump's bad polling is making them desperate.

This one is taken straight from the Bolsonaro playbook. The last Brazil election was based around hatred for gay people.

Bolsonaro is straight up bat shit crazy scary. Talking about shooting up political opponents during the presidential campaign. I'm not even kidding, look it up. The guy's not even hiding, he just goes on about erasing opponents out in the open.

*suppressing

....

I think one of our worst trolls has been furloughed or possibly died from CV19.

Thought some of you would find this interesting: a troll farm employee has revealed what it's like to troll Twitter. It's in Spanish so you might need Google Translate. Some highlights:

Each employee controlled about 30 accounts, and the whistleblower had 3000 to 4000 accounts under their control. All had to be individualized to some degree to avoid detection.

They use data scientists to come up with a plan to influence discussions per their client's wishes (he didn't name any clients for legal reasons). The troll accounts created were a mix of automated RTs and tweets plus real interactions to avoid detection.

There were two types of trolls, the alpha which gains followers through followbacks then uses their influence to spread messages, and the beta, who are the ones who harass other users and celebrities, hoping to silence them. He said the betas are very effective.

Also, it was easy to fool journalists because they were always looking for something to write about, and troll accounts could give them a topic or an angle to write about a specific topic.

When the paid trolls were done with the client's job, they would start tweeting about other topics which would move their troll tweets down the timeline, thus covering their tracks.

The are working overtime on DL to bump mundane and pointless threads.

Also, just like they did during me too, they are ‘flooding’ again with duplicate and triplicate threads of the same topic.

For example, 3,456 threads about Kevin Spacey.

1,115 threads about Rose McGowen.

The guy who has been bumping old threads has been doing it for years, he's very obviously up to something. But I also can't imagine someone has been paying him for years. I suspect he's one of the self-appointed trolls who thinks he's helping his side by trolling on here.

r338, don't be so sure. These are government and private interest (see: Martine Rothblatt) funded operations.

The loons!

Is the 2015 bumping troll a Russian?

I doubt it. I don't think we have Russian trolls anymore, I doubt Russia is spending money on troll farms nowadays, they got what they wanted in 2016. It seems like most troll farms reported on lately are in Ghana, Nigeria, Philippines, and Turkey (those are allegedly run by Erdogan, no surprise there).

I'd bet Trump's administration hires troll farms, though.

r341, yes.

And r342 = Oleg, live and in the flesh. Show us some leg.

Boris is none too pleased about their tMRA campaign being exposed.

kick

Slap

Noogie

We are in the midst of another state sponsored troll attack. Stay alert. Don't engage. Block.

Wise words, R348.

[quote]We are in the midst of another state sponsored troll attack. Stay alert. Don't engage. Block.

Time for a BUMP

This seems like good place to remind people that Russian trolls do target sites like DL.

And this one too...

bump in the night

A Forum Slider/Topic Diluter is currently posting scads of witless frau clickbait such as "Gabby Allen in Thong for a Day by the Sea with Friends in Ibiza" and "Bella Hadid Wore an Extreme Crop Top With Low-Rise Pants."

There's been quite a lot of topic dilution lately, as well as divisive trolling.

That's the IMGtrend troll, R354, and I don't know what his game is. He could just be trying to get hits for his sketchy website, but it's sketchy in a way I don't trust.

It's clearly written by someone who isn't very good at English, and their Twitter was just formed in January 2020 and has only 8 followers.

R356, yeah, that website is super-sketch. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the properties of TheSoul Publishing, that Russian outfit with ties to [italic]The Epoch Times[/italic] and AI/bot accounts on social media.

R342, you said run from, but not who they are run by. I would imagine the US and the UK as the countries that would engage in those strategies the most. China and other non-Western, non-white countries/cultures are catching up very fast and the 'Anglos' are feeling under threat.

The Gay and Love guy speaks broken English, and the stories he posts read like bedtime stories. I feel like he's trying to harvest IP addresses or something. For the record, I think The Russian Trolls myth is one of the stupidest phenomena in American political history.

Know how pathetic that is, y'all.

Some of these tactics have been used here on DL lately by a certain celeb's pr to get threads shut down.

This needs to be bumped often.

I wonder what's up on the DL when I've noticed that a few people (anonymous posters all of them) knew where I was posting from. I had not said a word. It has happened quite a few times. So there is no real data protection? There are far too many weird things on Datalounge.

Bump

Bump

bump

Bump

Bumperoonie!

Ahem

Why won't Muriel just IP ban them?

Bumpitskaya

Be alert. Think critically.

R372, true

All I know is that on this website depending on the location of my IP address I get treated very differently. I travel a lot and since COVID happened I am holed up in a specific country. I have noticed that the answers to my posts turn nastier dependent on where I am — it's like a milder for of doxing where you suspect some posters have access to this kind of information while you don't. Very strange

ed.

r374, that's interesting. From which general areas do you get nastier responses? Is there possibly just a time of day correlation?

There's one guy posting a lot the last few days.

He posts "Liberal" things but every now and then he sneaks in a "concern" over Biden's age and mental capacity.

He has also started threads about wishing he weren't gay and wants to marry a woman.

His newest thread is calling Bill Barr a "good guy."

I can't believe the people here who don't think there are trolls here who purposefully post things to seem gay and Liberal, but then eventually show their real agenda.

It is an illusion to think a board like this one that attracts so many eyeballs could be free of surveillance. My guess is that 'certain people' (official bodies, corporations, etc...) come here to gauge the temperature of hot topics, to do covert qualitative studies, to plant ideas; it must be a valuable data mine of ginormous proportions. And since nowadays data means money, who knows how much Mediapolis is getting for it and who they are selling it to.

[quote]It is an illusion to think a board like this one that attracts so many eyeballs could be free of surveillance. My guess is that 'certain people' (official bodies, corporations, etc...) come here to gauge the temperature of hot topics, to do covert qualitative studies, to plant ideas; it must be a valuable data mine of ginormous proportions. And since nowadays data means money, who knows how much Mediapolis is getting for it and who they are selling it to.

R377 You may find the below article interesting.

R378.

R379, R378 — troll alert

I had you on ignore because the crazy coming from your posts was off the charts. But apparently, you have multiple accounts. Seriously, seek help

And here you go — on ignore again.