Coordinated posts intended to mould opinions and silence debate

[LordshipPain]

I have been thinking about using an AI to cross-reference comments; between public commenting platforms along with the news of the day, for past events (that needed to be "dealt with" for narrative management), future events which need to be "shaped" or "nudged" to move the public in a particular direction (narrative control) and what it is that forms the "community". I think it is happening on a large number of comment forums.

I can already see a pattern with a number of single-issue commenters (that have the nerve to accuse others of being "obsessed" or of being a member of certain political parties) that make feeble attempts to comment on other subjects but really have only one obsession. They are obvious. But I also want to see the patterns of enforcers and Igor / Renfield types.

Edited June 28 by LordshipPain
Missing comma.

[Spartacus]

Interesting experiment 

Look forward to the results 

[KalamityKel]

Have you been able to clearly define your categories? 

[LordshipPain]

On 28/06/2025 at 12:02, KalamityKel said:

Have you been able to clearly define your categories? 

I have been thinking about it and what I have loosely come up with so far are sites and types.

Sites

Here, Comment is Free, the Independent, the BBC (difficult as their comments section is only ever on trivia), The Telegraph (less so but increasing), The times (rapidly increasing), New Statesman, Spectator (much less so but some increase) even the Daily Mail and UnHerd (perhaps even union platforms, agit-prop and "progressive" platforms, XR, "middle-East", Just Stop Oil, Reddit, Bluesky, Truth Social etc.) I am sure the AI will find more to cross-reference.

Types

Astro-turfers, single-issue obsessives (frequently overlap with Astro-turfers), floral enforcers, ideologues, political staff, hypocrites, luxury belief pushers, Igors and Renfields.

The vast majority are; normal local residents a bit frustrated with something; those looking for a tradesman; or just the friendly saying hello and looking for a bit of community.

Edited June 30 by LordshipPain
Proof reading.

[LordshipPain]

I have been doing a lot of posts and liking a lot - to see if we are rate limited. It appears we are to some extent, with "likes". How do people manage to get into the mid 20,000's of posts on here? That is some commitment.

Edited June 28 by LordshipPain

[Sephiroth]

What does “rate limited” mean? 

[Spartacus]

2 hours ago, LordshipPain said:

 How do people manage to get into the mid 20,000's of posts on here? That is some commitment.

In the beginning, when the earth was still flooded, Noah started posting about cycling on tne EDF 😅

[Moovart]

16 minutes ago, Spartacus said:

In the beginning, when the earth was still flooded, Noah started posting about cycling on tne EDF 😅

Those bloomin' Arks are a menace!

[Sue]

6 hours ago, LordshipPain said:

I have been doing a lot of posts and liking a lot - to see if we are rate limited. It appears we are to some extent, with "likes". How do people manage to get into the mid 20,000's of posts on here? That is some commitment.

By being on the forum for nearly twenty years?

[LordshipPain]

On 28/06/2025 at 16:29, Sephiroth said:

What does “rate limited” mean? 

The number of posts or reactions you are allowed to make is not "free"; your speech is limited here.

[Sephiroth]

I would be extremely surprised if that was true - what are you basing it on?

That being said, even if it was true I would genuinely be interested to know what the numbers were (10 posts a day? 5 reactions?) - and then I would go "ok that's the forum limit" - I probably wouldn't cry about speech not being free, or my speech being limited

 

 

[Sue]

6 hours ago, LordshipPain said:

The number of posts or reactions you are allowed to make is not "free"; your speech is limited here.

Where have you got that from?

[LordshipPain]

AI Agents. I have been getting into the weeds of them. Turns out they can be VERY good at finding out about posters and their patterns. This should be fun.

[Sephiroth]

I’m beginning to think YOU are an AI agent at this point 

would be less troubling than you actually believing all this stuff 

[Sue]

On 30/06/2025 at 14:00, Sue said:

Where have you got that from?

Weirdly (well, weird as it happened very shortly after I had posted that) I got a notice the other day (the first time in the near enough twenty years since I joined the forum) telling me I had reached my limit of "reactions". I posted a screenshot on here.

However I did not actually seem be prevented  from  making any more!

 

On 10/07/2025 at 20:27, LordshipPain said:

AI Agents. I have been getting into the weeds of them. Turns out they can be VERY good at finding out about posters and their patterns. This should be fun.

What is your purpose in doing that?

This is a useful, long running and well loved (by me, anyway) local forum.

It provides information on matters of local interest, an opportunity to easily sell or give away  unwanted things and buy or be given things you want, information on upcoming local events and interest groups.

It is also a well moderated place to discuss both local and wider issues. And it is used by a variety of different kinds of people, as would be expected - we all have different personalities, experiences and opinions, and that's part of what makes the forum such a great local asset.

Since rescuing the forum when the previous admin left - it could have disappeared altogether - Joe has put and continues to put an enormous amount of work into setting it up on a different platform (?) , maintaining it, and keeping it a safe and pleasant place for everyone using it.

I'm sure you and others will correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels to me that dissecting "posters and their patterns" in the way you describe - presumably then to post the results on here?  - is just going to sow seeds of discord which could stop some people posting altogether and generally change the whole nature of the forum.

I think that would be very sad, and I hope that that isn't your intention?

It could also be quite harmful for the more vulnerable people who post on here.

Are you going to include your own posts in this? You have joined the forum relatively recently, and seem to be self-described as a "Pain".

Edited July 12 by Sue