How Bad is the Troll Infestation on DU?

A new generation of trolls have infested this place. They come in waves, but this one seems especially repulsive and heavy. I would many, many link to examples, but that would be calling out.

To the new DUers who are here to support progressive ideals and Democratic candidates and representative, I welcome you.

To the rash of trolls who have recently joined, you are a pathetic bunch if you have nothing better to do than try to disrupt a discussion forum. You will eventually get banned.

I am disgusted by how many right-wing talking points I see here. Defenders and apologists for conservative ideologies and policies should go. In case you wandered here by accident, thinking you may be welcomed with you right-wing shit, here are the rules:


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How bad do you think the infestation is?

Hic!
:silly:

The leftwing trolls are every bit as bad as the rightwing trolls these days, maybe worse.

but, I tend to be more tolerable of left-wing trolls. There are some who troll in the sense of dissenting to disrupt. Others are genuinely passionate about certain issues. Granted, it is hard to tell the difference.

I have zero tolerance for RW talking points here. I think as soon as a poster starts spewing repuke talking points, they should be banned.

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but, hey, they get paid well.

at a higher rate than actual trollish presence. IOW, I'd say the troll population is about what it's always been...

Of course, we'll probably labeled trolls for saying so.

I really feel like I have seen more the past few weeks, and many slipping through. I wanted to get a sense of what others thought.

more polarized and sort of nastier than I remember them being in the past.

but it remains pretty constant.

will miss her. She was a good DUer. I wonder what happened?

But they are known for harassing DU's admins incessantly when they want somebody here banned. The website in question likes to give stupid nicknames to those they target. Hers was "NAZIchick".

And aside from the external pressure, no doubt the cheerleaders here probably dogpiled her as well. I'd bet some tragic criminals and mind geeks were involved. Or maybe I got that mixed up somehow?

And the DU gods deemed her not suitable. (as is their right)

I applaud her for sticking to her ideals.

8 years she was here.

We've lost a bunch of long time DUers over the last year.

:cry:

She and those long time DUers were progressives, and it's despicable that progressives are being driven out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=140429 ...?

She wasn't on my 'list' ... but I can't say I'm too surprised. There's a limit to how much one can dissent here ... and in what ways.

I have seen that poster only a few times and couldn't tell you anything about her, good or bad.

But this says it all. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5464598#5466340

There's a limit to how much one can dissent here

Appears that way. And when even the damn admins get sick of all of the anti-Obama stuff around here, you know that change is a comin'.

that one was on and off and on and off my list.

I think the mods here do a very good job. Too many people seem to assume that everyone who disagrees with them is a troll. Personally I am very happy with the job Obama is doing, but I understand that there are some people who are not happy about the Wall Street bailouts, or want to withdraw more quickly from Iraq, etc., but that does not make these people trolls.

Wow. That's honestly amazing.

Once you take that step, like so many seem to have, they're suddenly everywhere. ;)

The Gungeon seems to be getting a shitload these days...easily identifiable by jaggoffs who seem to be more keen on NRA statistics as well as how versed on the latest issue of Guns and Ammo they are to refute any discussionn.

We do get some assclowns who keep pushing us to "counter protest" the tea baggers lately as well. "Counter protest"??? That would be like admitting that there was an actual issue to counter protest.

There's a really nice coffee shop across the street. I figured I could just sit there and laugh at them while sipping on a latte.

Hardly a counterprotest, though.

That's idiot watching. Entertaining.

;-)

Being that there is no handbook or anything.

And without chimpy to keep us focused, we devolve back to issues, which frankly we do not all agree on.

Or so it seems to me.

:shrug:

Others seem to be nothing but RW talking points being disseminated constantly masked by seemingly progressive views on other issues.

I just don't see why they would want to waste their time doing it. I sure as hell am not interested in hanging around a bunch of ideas that repulse me.

They get by with it because some of these forums are echo chambers, driving away any dissenting opinions.

"I am disgusted by how many right-wing talking points I see here."

I guess broad brushing is your job?

I see right-wing talking points, and they shouldn't be here.

Quite a few this go around ...

Is THAT a 'broad brush' statement too ? ...

Methinks thou doth protest too much ....

In the past, DU seemed to have less news sourced to places like the Washington Times. It may be ridiculous to attribute trolling to those who would post OP's based on RW sources, but that sort of posting does diminish DU's quality as a news source.

The other sort of OP that bothers me is the one that has absolutely no reference links. Those are a complete waste of time and to me are equivalent to (if not worse than) trolling behavior.

Otherwise, sites like DU, The Daily Howler, SmirkingChimp, BartCop, NYTimes, Salon, etc. are great places to gather information about current events.

Start by asking people "Who is the pitcher for the New York Dodgers?", that's always a good way to flush out infiltrators and malcontents.

"What is Bo's favourite chew toy?" And, come to think of it, I'd better go find out.

with several new DUers defending the right wing. Straight up arguing for the right. They don't need flushing, they just don't need to be here.

n/t

That's a serious sign that we got some people here that shouldn't be. :scared:

DU is no different then any other board in that respect. I find it an interesting thing that happens, people joining discussion forums for the sole purpose of trying to disrupt it. Makes no sense to me.

So far I don't like all of the blind loyalty I see.

I lurked here but did not join back in 2004, spending more of my time at the Howard Dean and later the John Kerry forums. Then I went into a political hibernation until the recent election. The Howard Dean forum was pretty laid back as far as moderation would go and every so often, a true believer would go on a troll hunt, listing all those he or she thought were Kerry trolls, Nader trolls, Edwards trolls, Bush trolls and so on. I got listed one time as Kerry troll but I posted a correction to that by saying I was an Edwards supporter (I enjoyed the give and take of the Dean forum compared to the Edwards forum) and even pasted a copy of my very first post there where I said I was supportive of Edwards.

Produce the body.

I don't consider myself to be reactionary, but just today I saw someone argue that Obama used those racist against whites to get elected.

There are *some* RW talking points here. Not many. Almost all of them are shot down instantaneously.

Maybe there just nuked and gone before I see them. I read less during primetime hours (today being a strang exception)

I don't think it's that big of a problem. Considering the size of DU, it's nothing really.

I've lived through 04, 06 and 08 and they were all bad...

All those who do not bow down and goose-step to the party line. Zieg fuckin' heil.

Apparently.

I am talking about Right Wing trolls that I see here regularly.

and causing the mask to slip for many others.

I can't believe some of the imagery that has been posted here.

fuckin minds.:nuke:

We have Resident Trolls here. We have those who act like Trolls to shout others down.

IMHO what has happened lately is a lot of trolls have arrived to drive a wedge b/w DUers where potential meeting of minds would have been possible. Including regarding that fine and completely reasonable liine of supporting this president and honoring our duty as citizens of a participatory democracy which we are trying to save, to constructively comment on administration policies.

The worst part is how obvious they are and how people fall for it and feed their flames and other agenda and how we don't have a way to warn people not to respond to the VAMPIRE threads. The worst part is how OBVIOUS they are with their damn habits of naming and other clues that could/should be RED FLAGS.



I don't know about what happened with LeftChick but if I had to suss it out now, it looks like that fine line might be ""Watch where you point your finger."

I've certainly learned that lesson by posting an OP line or post that IF IT DOESN'T APPLY TO YOU DON'T GET DEFENSIVE/OFFENSIVE ABOUT IT or used descriptive style and language including a COLOR that rings a bell for a whole avalanche of mindless, hostile, well organized and perpetuated bullshit to follow. From "smart" people. :wow: From people I've never met on DU before :evilfrown:

So yeah, ya gotta be careful cause there are all types, including trolls and resident trolls who will try to make something out of nothing and cause problems for ALL DUers and AdMod, who "degrade the level of discussion for everyone" and some of them -- for some reason -- are condoned.