In all the time that I have been here at Voat I have seen three trends of this preaching to the choir shilling:
- User promotes a narrative of white supremacy, ethno state, race war, denunciation and persecution of the (((jews in the letter))) to appeal for a more aggressive approach and most likely to break the laws. This basically to exacerbate the emotions of rage, hate and fear to a point of armed conflict.
- User promotes a more articulate rhetoric that is used to appeal other users and to show himself as “one of us” in order to then put himself/herself in a position of authority. If the user is questioned or called out he may either turn aggressive in his replies or he in a more calm way can threaten other users of doxing for example.
- User posts simple statements but that are appealing to the Voat user base to recurrently, using often flattery to farm his/her way to a position where he/she can start posting misinformation or troll posts that will help discredit the legitimacy of our positions and views.
Take for example /u/NiggerVirus. He is an alt of /u/TheAmerican, /u/GhostSkin and /u/99887766 (among others he has).
Though I know he will use this to improve his tactics it is important for those of you that haven’t notice his modus operandi to pay more attention to it:
- Usually his names use two words.
- First letter of each Word is capital.
- The names may appeal to a certain aspect of the community: NiggerVirus already implies a dislike for niggers, well received among Voat’s community. TheAmerican already implies a support for nationalist views, support for Donald Trump, etc.
- Other times he uses random patterns but following an order GhostSkin or 99887766.
- His posts are initial preaching to the choir type with simple statements accompanied of flattery to Voat’s community.
- The frequency of the posts he does is quite strong. Meaning he only focus on achieving this first stage of farming to then troll Voat and hence hurt our credibility because he allowed this troll to succeed.
- He farms his way to a position where he can later troll Voat constantly on v/all
Another example of this nonsense is that he made a post with TheAmerican alt with stating that he wasn’t GhostSkin but then on a comment on a different post (or the same I can’t remember) he confirmed he was. Plus he had already confirmed that to me on a different post as well.
If you remember TheAmerican was one that started posting about muscles and such and just now NiggerVirus started to post the same: https://voat.co/v/pics/3132326
It depends on you whether you keep allowing these shills to attack our credibility or not.
view the rest of the comments →
WORF_MOTORBOATS_TROI ago
Hahaha how the fuck does ghostskin's shit posting make him a shill and an attack on our credibility?
sguevar ago
You will need to go back to his initial posts and see how he changed the trend.
Basically by logic is this: You believe whatever you want to believe as convenient it might be to your view independently of the source that posted it. If the source that posted what you believed on is not trusted then how can you even believe in your own beliefs? Or how can others believe you at all as your source is compromised.
WORF_MOTORBOATS_TROI ago
I don't understand what this post is trying to say.
Wait, are you saying that you're opposed to people stating things that they may not entirely believe and you blame shitposters for this?
sguevar ago
No, what I am saying is that users with alts use preaching to the choir type of postings to farm their way to a comfortable place and then start following their own agenda. Some try to ignite the more extreme users of Voat to help the rhetoric the say that they fight against. Some will try to use that position to spread misinformation and gain some type of authority on the community and others will just troll continuously so new users get discourage to join Voat in a whole because of the fact that if we allow this dumb ass to post in the first place with the restriction we have on upvotes and ccp to be able to post then probably is not a good idea to join.
These type of posters delegitimize further our ability to red pill more and more and hence it is an attack to our credibility.
EDIT: they also engage on vote manipulation.
WORF_MOTORBOATS_TROI ago
Shitposting, trolling, and shilling are all a natural part of an anonymous message board. It bothers people who don't know how to deal with or react to these behaviors because it looks different than their social interactions with real people in their daily lives. Normies are easily triggered dumbasses, that is why youtube banned anonymous accounts and why facebook and twitter have kikes regulating speech on their sites.
Having to deal with shill, shitposting, and trolling gives regular users of anonymous the skill to detect bullshit better than the average normie. Getting made a fool of on an anonymous internet forum is like getting a vaccine for bullshit. People who can not tolerate these behaviors need to lurk more. The idea that voat has a collective identity or shared culture is something that you have created in your own mind. Shilling, shitposting, and trolling are not a threat to "voat's culture" they are a natural part of the anonymous internet forum and are as part of voat as humidity is part of a swamp. It isn't a threat to what we hqve here, it is one of the environmental conditions that has
To say "oh you noobs should keep an eye out for trolls shitposts and shills" is obviously something I agree with. It often goes without saying in places like this. What I don't agree with is that you seem to feel like shitposting and particularly ghostskin is an actual threat to voat. That's like thinking the guy who goofs around at the gym by running backwards on the treadmill is the same kind of person who will burn the place to the ground. It doesn't make sense, and it seems like you're just being over dramatic to get people to side against someone who annoys you. Shills and censoring powermods will always be the greatest threat to voat because they want to destroy the free speech foundation of the site, not capitalize it for their entertainment like trolls and shitposters do.
sguevar ago
I agree with most of what you say here.
And as stated to another user. I am not in the interest brigading the user. However it is important to notice, even if for you it goes without saying, that the trend is appearing more and more frequently.
/u/GhostSkin started the same way that /u/TheAmerican and then his other alters. It started with preaching to the choir type of posts and then started posting troll post over and over again. The frequency with he does it to try to flood v/all even if you and I will ignore or downvote and move on, can be used as a way for new users to be discouraged to join Voat.
I know you may (or not) agree with me that to some extent they serve of a filter for those who are weak minded and those that have a tough mind. But in the end we need to see that whether we believe it or not, these type of users that resort in a bunch of alts and, in some scenarios, engage in vote manipulation can bring our credibility down at least a little.
Even if you or I, who are established users don't perceive it in our first glance, the effect still exists.
WORF_MOTORBOATS_TROI ago
It only floods onto all/new. Shit posting discussion posts are no threat to voat, and are less damaging to all/new than the shill bots who flood it with slanted msm propaganda, but who we continue to tolerate because thi is a free speech website.
You should also consider that he might actually believe what he says and also enjoys shitposting.it's fun to shitpost sometimes. Do you think everyone always posts under the same username all the tims? Having multiple usernames is only against the rules when they're used to brigade. For all you know a user who you like and respect under one username may be the same person who is behind a username that is an obnoxious shitposter that you can't stand.
sguevar ago
I don't do it but I do not hold everyone to my standard. Even if I am against with having alts.
That could be true but I stand on my words still. I disapprove of multiple accounts. That is a choice for the individual.
WORF_MOTORBOATS_TROI ago
Multiple accounts don't bother me, but more importantly there is no way to stop it without infringing on privacy or free speech of users