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On Tuesday, The Guardian posted an article about the US military pouring millions into researching how to become a Twitter-user-influencing, propaganda-spewing machine.
The program in question is known as Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC).
SMISC, which was announced in 2011, has been regarded as the means by which the US military can both detect and conduct propaganda campaigns via social media.
While DARPA's social media experiments well might have avoided breaking any law by using only publicly available data, some of its studies are sure to make people uncomfortable.
For example, some of the SMISC research has focused on the Occupy Wall Street protests and those in the Middle East, while other projects have analysed online memes and tweets from celebrities including Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga (described as "the most popular elite user on Twitter", according to The Guardian.
The manager of SMISC, Dr. Rand Waltzman, said in a post that understanding social media is just part of DARPA's "mission of preventing strategic surprise."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @01:52PM
Your argument's weak. You reveal you're no better than slashdot with it. Go on. Sock puppet downmod me as you know you're going to. Thank you for being transparently obvious.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Friday July 11 2014, @01:57PM
Er, try this link: http://soylentnews.org/authors.pl [soylentnews.org]. Have a good one!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:01PM
Try this link instead (since you defend sockpuppetry in your earlier reply) http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&threshold=0&commentsort=0&mode=improvedthreaded&pid=67570#67576 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LaminatorX on Friday July 11 2014, @02:20PM
/. doesn't need to sock, their admins have unlimited mod points. That has been undone here at SN, Staff participates in the moderation system same as anybody else. I suppose there could be socks here, but with the more generous mod-point allotment and more flexible post & mod rules, there wouldn't be much reason to do so.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:36PM
So why not allow being able to id up modders and down modders then? What are the mods here so afraid of then by allowing it? Ask yourself that. There are socks here. The mods do it themselves is the answer, it is so obvious. If it weren't, then, why fight it?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LaminatorX on Friday July 11 2014, @03:02PM
Letting users see who down-modded them would only lead to ugly vendettas and flamewars. I've looked over the moderation on your posts from yesterday. While several of them were from the same user, I don't think any of them were inappropriate. You were being rambling and antagonistic, much like now.
If moderation abuse were to become a problem, meta-moderation could be turned on. In this case though, I'd say the system worked just fine.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @03:14PM
"When the DOWNMOD truncheon is used in lieu of conversation" it allows "little tin god" dictators like yourself to hide the fact you use sockpuppets, that you can't really control from others as well, so you can DICTATE what fits your personal agenda, not really "freedom of speech" which disappears when the downmod truncheon is allowed at all. You are SO resistive of allowing us as users to spot patterns of sock puppet abuse it literally SCREAMS you do it yourself. You are fooling nobody, but yourself. Period.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @08:05PM
Of conversation in another downmod? Keep proving his point. No wonder you don't allow others to see who issues downmods (or upmods too).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @03:19PM
How do YOU propose to stop sockpuppets (you can't) that you obviously use, yourself? http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67595 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @03:40PM
For revealing yourself and single handedly driving off everyone here little tin god dictator that you are that's been exposed in sock puppetry using his truncheon the minus moderation http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67615 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @07:10PM
"I've looked over the moderation on your posts from yesterday. While several of them were from the same user, I don't think any of them were inappropriate" - by LaminatorX (14) on Friday July 11, @11:02AM (#67609)
Answer the question. Look who you are replying to: Anonymous Coward. WTF do you mean there, Laminator X? Cat got your tongue here too now?? Parent post is by an ac. Do you mean APK (whom you have allowed bad moderation to here as he was complaining about and I looked it over, he is on topic here and yet modded off topic http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2813&cid=66810 [soylentnews.org] and he says he complained to your staff here of it and yet nothing ws done: Explain that. I can. You are full of shit!)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:39PM
LaminatorX to the rescue when janrinok fails to answer a simple question here http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67576 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by LaminatorX on Friday July 11 2014, @03:07PM
If someone is going to make unfounded accusations and harass my Editors, you're damn right I'll step in. If you have anything else to say about this, feel free to email editors@soylentnews.org or hop on IRC. Kindly stop dragging down the signal to noise ratio of the discussion thread.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @03:10PM
Is that the best you've got? Weak. "When the DOWNMOD truncheon is used in lieu of conversation", allowing downmods at all is the truncheon, and sockpuppets you can't control allows you to do "Freedom of Speech" alright. The freedom for you to hide what doesn't fit YOUR personal agenda is more like it. Who are you trying to fool here? Us? You're only fooling yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:05PM
Harassment? More like you avoiding the truth and trying to fool others when all you are fooling is yourself (inclusive of your sock puppet janrinok) http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67613 [soylentnews.org] and avoiding telling us exactly how you would control sock puppets, which you can't, nor would you want to since you project you use them yourself. Flamewars? You should be glad to get even those after this exposure of your own low modus operandi pal. At least they would give you views. You've ruined that for yourself resisting the only thing that reveals patterns of sock puppet self upmod abuse, and downmod abuse (the truncheon YOU OBVIOUSLY USE in lieu of conversation that you cannot logically defeat, seeing as you are reduced to illogical off topic ad hominem attacks here now, tipping your hand and showing us your tell on that note also here http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67656 [soylentnews.org] it is unbelievable how unintelligent and transparent YOU are, little tin god dictator)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday July 11 2014, @05:45PM
There is still something odd about the mod system though.
When I get mod notifications I'll often see sequences like
A user has modded your xyz post +1 - it is now 2.
A user has modded your xyz post +1 - it is now 3.
A user has modded your xyz post +1 - it is now 3.
?what happened to the intervening down mod notification?
Occasionally you will see a post go from +3 to troll 0, with no notifications at all.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @05:49PM
From the article submitter here whom they downmodded here, and won't allow him to post anymore, and wont undo a rotten downmod for him here either http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67676 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by LaminatorX on Friday July 11 2014, @05:58PM
I would not be surprised at all for there to be glitches in the notifications, slash is a twitchy beast. Please submit a bug report next time you encounter such behavior. The dev team takes such things seriously.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @10:26PM
You are full of crap. We all know it. Why do you bother try to cover up your bullshit for?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @10:28PM
This proves it even more http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67768 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @08:14PM
> When I get mod notifications I'll often see sequences like...
Does anyone get individual mod notices? I've only ever got them batched up in a single once-daily message. Sometimes they are out of order, but all of the notifications in that single message always total up correctly. I just assumed that they are stored in one of perl's associative arrays and the code that generates the daily message doesn't bother to sort them.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Friday July 11 2014, @09:41PM
It goes both ways for me but that was true on /. as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @01:59PM
How do you propose to stop sockpuppets then? You don't. You're defending their use by not allowing us to see who issues downmods of opponents and upmods their true accounts as the sockpuppet master. No, you're full of bull buddy.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:18PM
janrinok doesn't want the ability to spot a down modder or an up modder (good idea too). It'd give away his game he uses himself by revealing patterns of abuse by sockpuppeteers. Apk alluded to it in his post (moderators are the biggest abusers of it or forums owners too) http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67545 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:47PM
The TRUNCHEON BEING USED IN LIEU OF CONVERSATION (which mod or sockpuppet issued it to hide it? Oh, that's right - we can't see that, they won't allow it, since they abuse it themselves).
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday July 11 2014, @02:21PM
1. I don't support sockpuppets.
2. We have a staff who can, if necessary, control them.
3. Our policy is not to censor, but to allow all the freedom of speech that everyone expects.
Enjoy your time on the site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:44PM
No, no - HOW do you propose to actually CONTROL sockpuppets? Good luck with that (minus patterns of upmod/downmod recognition by allowing others to see such patterns by allowing us to see who issues them). I can make sock puppets galore too, using different emails and isp accounts (or those that allow ip addy changes or quick lease/release cycles) - so again, how are YOU going to control that? You CAN'T. So don't b.s. us here and defend sock puppets giving away that you use them yourself obviously since you resist allowing others to see who up modded themselves (the patterns would show here and force sock puppeteers to maintain many sock puppets putting pressure and work on them to do so), or down mod their opponents with (again a pattern would reveal itself). You are so easy to see through by resisting adding that easy to do feature, it is not funny, sock puppeteer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:20PM
They can't, you know it, I know it (everyone does): It's exposed Laminator X and his sock puppet janrinok, so badly, Laminator X is reduced to illogical ad hominem attacks off topic here http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67656 [soylentnews.org] and he resists answering HOW he could control sock puppets too, because it is his "little tin god sockpuppet dictator 'support network' illusion his sock puppets provide him" so he can continue up modding himself and his alterego sock puppets as well as downmod his opponents he cannot logically defeat validly (see link above, says it all, and shows how much of a "projectionist" your host little TIN GOD here, really is, revealing himself as online sock puppet using trash, by resisting the 1 thing that exposes sock puppetry in patterns of abuse anyone would notice).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @02:56PM
"When the DOWNMOD truncheon is used in lieu of conversation..." Alan Moore & V as APK stated. Allowing minus modding alone is that truncheon. Don't even try to snow us man. That's elementary in and of itself. Your weak "arguments" are academic against it. You are defending what you use yourself: Sock Puppets.