全 70 件のコメント

[–]GregariousWolf 22 ポイント23 ポイント  (20子コメント)

I'm glad you're willing to talk about this kind of thing actually happening. I'm speaking generally, not just about MAT or reddit. There really are shady "internet marketing" companies where you can purchase twitter followers, facebook followers, facebook likes, instagram likes, and reddit upvotes too. Dummy facebook profiles are made to stalk and harass, raids are organized in IRC or discord. Online social media has more fakery going on than people might think.

I replied to your post in the announcement thread about hazardnipt / deletedfor / barawo33 having a ton of alts. I said it was an understatement and that he had dozens of sockpuppets. I didn't go into detail, though. It wasn't the right place, you know, to beat that drum about how bad MAT was the day you were awarded custody of it. But FYI here is a picture of some of them:

http://i.imgur.com/0TOSYWI.png

The arrows (which are a little hard to see I admit) represent a comment by one account on a submission by another. There are two rings here, the inner ring all had submissions gilded. After all these baby accounts were suspended, the whole thing started up again with fresh baby accounts. It was tracking these guys down that got me started down this path.

I even wrote a tool to scrape reddit to track thread scores over time. You might find this interesting, since you were examining traffic stats for your sub. Here is a week in the life of MAT:

http://i.imgur.com/FL170gk.png

The above graphic is a plot of thread scores over time. Time is the X-axis and thread score is the Y-axis in log scale. By using the evilbuildings method, they were able to reach the front page multiple times per day.

They were far from the only guilty subreddit. I would bet money in Vegas that MAT wasn't the only subreddit to receive a warning from the admins about "position manipulation".

[–]Chrisisawesome 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (19子コメント)

If you don't mind going into it, what other subs do you suspect are abusing the method? Besides evilbuildings of course.

[–]GregariousWolf 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (18子コメント)

Hi, no I don't mind. I find the issue interesting and I enjoy programming. I only have data on a limited number of subreddits, and I took down my reddit scraper a few weeks ago so nothing is current. I also want to qualify my post by saying I do not believe any of this is really "proof". Like undelete and longtail, my graphs do not show why a thread was banned. Many of the big subs have a spam problem, and banning highly-upvoted threads occur regularly.

For reference, here is EvilBuildings:

http://i.imgur.com/Jd5NZI6.png


One good example of the method in action is from a sub called OurPresident. It's a kind of strange one-man show. He features twitter links and news articles about Bernie Sanders. All the top posts in the sub all belong to the sub owner.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OurPresident/top/?sort=top&t=all

http://i.imgur.com/1JCfKpP.png


Another sub that I suspect employ the method on occasion is NatureIsFuckingLit. It isn't a political subreddit, it is general-interest more like EvilBuildings. Here's the graph:

http://i.imgur.com/mZ23PbS.png

I made this next one playing around with the 3d plot functions in python. (Still talking about NatureIsFuckingLit) One of the features of the 2d line plot is that it doesn't "raise the pen" when there is a gap in the data. This means you get a flat spot on the graph when a thread is banned and later unbanned. The 3d dot plot shows the gaps better. On this (admittedly somewhat wonky looking) image, you can see threads disappear and re-appear after a new thread (the dark blue one in the front) gets upvoted:

http://i.imgur.com/qnRZRCZ.png


Another subreddit I suspect to have employed the method from time to time is r-esist. I don't think they were quite as blatant about it as MarchAgainstTrump, but many of the same signs are there. MAT and esis threw each other shade in forum, but IMO their data sets resemble each other a lot:

http://i.imgur.com/4URId8w.png


And I think I should give a counter-example or two, in case people are wondering what a non-method sub looks like.

KotakuInAction:

http://i.imgur.com/e2PjQO0.png

SamuraiJack (starting the hour before the series finale aired):

http://i.imgur.com/dTw5gph.png

[–]Chrisisawesome 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Very interesting! I wonder if you'll be able to see a noticeable change over the next week or two since the admins cracked down on MAT already.

[–]JoeSmoii 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Just interested, as a the_donald user, who obviously doesn't want to March Against Trump but respects your right to do so, do you think we use bots? Even though we cant make r/all anymore.

[–]GregariousWolf 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Good morning Joe,

The short answer is I do believe there was some gaming of reddit going on by the_donald during the election season. The_Donald is the reason stickies were changed.

However, I've come to learn that "bots" or brigades are not the whole story. The score of a thread is not just the number of votes. The time at which the vote is cast factors into the equation, such that the most valuable votes occur when a thread is young. So, creating a thread, stickying it, and then dog piling it is how they sent threads to the front page. If you do have an additional source of votes (such as from a "reddit marketer" i.e. bots or an off-side brigade from IRC or discord) that is the time to use them.

Stickies got nerfed. Since announcements no longer go to all/rising category, people figured out a new way to launch young threads. That's the EvilBuildings method talked about a lot in this sub.

Now, all of this is not to say there are no genuine Republicans on reddit. There are. There are lots. T_D is a very large, very active board. And I think at times the sheer size of the_donald stressed reddit's servers.

I'm a subscriber to the idea that "both sides do it" and by "it" I mean manage their online social media presences. We've all heard of the Democratic PAC Correct the Record, but there's nothing to suggest Future45 or some other Republican-aligned PAC isn't up to the same thing. In fact, I think it defies logic to suggest otherwise.

Oh, and lots of threads from The_Donald make it into the top 100 r-all. I see them all the time. Sometimes one in the top 100 and another in the top 200-300.

[–]JoeSmoii 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks for taking the time to reply

I cannot speak to us using bots, I certainly hadn't heard anything like that. We had- and have- -huge- numbers, so it's quite possible we simply could counteract CTR (Which i'm pretty sure has been confirmed to have astroturfed t_d at this point). I mean, if you look at the t_d posts that still had thousands or even in the 5 digits of upvotes, it was often a 54% rating.

And yes, we used the stickies to get stuff to r/all, but we sorta used that as a community to decide what information or shitpost we wanted r/all to see. Don't really see anything too untoward about that.

Gotta admit on the day the votes were being tallied in the electoral college, filling r/all with portraits of Trump was kinda shitty. I took part but I can imagine I really wouldn't appreciate Hillary's face plastered over r/all if she'd won.

[–]PolarpopsK -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (13子コメント)

Hey it's Barawo. I'm still winning. <3

[–]awkwardtheturtleMore cancerous than cigarettes.[S] 10 ポイント11 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Hey it's me turtle, I still mod your subreddit lmao

thanks for that again, I like it when you set them up so nicely for me.

<3

[–]morerokk 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Last time I checked, you got your shit kicked to the curb.

Let me tell you, I loved you grovel at the admins' feet in modmail. I think seeing you suffer single-handedly cured my depression.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a life to get back to. I won't bother you with the details, having a life is probably a foreign concept to you.

[–]GregariousWolf 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Hey man, what's up?

[–]PolarpopsK -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Just playing golf, shilling etc. Same old stuff.

[–]GregariousWolf 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Good times, good times. The A/C is out in my apartment, and I'm sure David Brock is behind it.

[–]PolarpopsK -2 ポイント-1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Lol! That actually made me laugh

[–]Seventytvvo 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Dude... I just want to know WHY you're doing this? Don't you have a family to take care of? Don't you have a job?

You must be making money off this somehow. Maybe free shit on discord?

[–]robaco 42 ポイント43 ポイント  (18子コメント)

Good post. Its worth mentioning that admins did nothing about r/evilbuildings guy and he continues to do that these days

[–]awkwardtheturtleMore cancerous than cigarettes.[S] 16 ポイント17 ポイント  (13子コメント)

Thanks! It looks like the admins have taken action against this guy at least. The /u/barawo33 account has been suspended! For real this time, check his account. Poof.

It's a small victory considering how many alts the guy has, but a victory nonetheless.

[–]BurgerLaowai 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (1子コメント)

It's a small victory considering how many alts the guy has, but a victory nonetheless.

Hopefully they have a way to ban the IPs he's used for all his alts.

[–]timothy1982 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Pretty sure he uses tor or vpn

[–]4DUCK2TAPE0 8 ポイント9 ポイント  (9子コメント)

He's got another user account that he's using to get around the suspension, /u/B0XER_. They've got two new subreddits: /r/PoliticalTweets and /r/intolerantleft. Another alt may be /u/SwampMan_. In fact, I suspect the overlap of mods on both /r/PoliticalTweets and /r/intolerantleft are all the same person's alts. Some of those accounts still have mod powers on MAT, so I hope they watch out for that.

[–]Seventytvvo 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

U/B0XER_ was added as mod on r/fuckthealtright. I sent messages to their mod team warning them, but they haven't taken action.

[–]B0XER_ 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (6子コメント)

I AM NOT BARROW. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I AM A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON. IF YOU COME TO THE DISCORD YOU CAN ACTUALLY SPEAK TO TWO DIFFERENT FUCKING PEOPLE. OH MY FUCKING GOD.

[–]4DUCK2TAPE0 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Okay, so who's this one: NahoQueenOfDrama? An 11 hours old account, one post, and already a moderator of both of your most recent cancerous subreddits filled with alts? Totally not fishy...

[–]B0XER_ 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

GO TO THE DISCORD AND YOU CAN TALK TO SOMEONE NAMED NAHO. GOOD LORD.

[–]preying__mantis 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

https://discord.gg/qGxkzHF

here's a permanent link to the discord. you are welcome to come and see that you're wrong, but i have a feeling you'll stay out and stick to your narrative.

[–]Seventytvvo 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Why won't you discuss anything on Reddit? You always ask people to go to discord.

Trying to figure out their discord names or what?

[–]SwampMan_ 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Nope, I'm not an alt. What makes you think that?

[–]ReBurnInatorSancho Panza 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

If you're gonna go out you might as well do it in a blaze of shitposting glory.

[–]ivanoski-007 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Because that was gallowboob and admins and mods love to suck his dick for some reason.

[–]hypnozooid 14 ポイント15 ポイント  (0子コメント)

https://i.imgur.com/Ulq8zit.png

wow, it doesn't really get much more blatant than that

[–]antiwarus 14 ポイント15 ポイント  (6子コメント)

Barawo33 has created anbother acount here - https://www.reddit.com/user/goldenshowers420

Pretty easy to tell its him due to him spamming "goldenshowers 4 everyone" & the blatant botting on a 20 day account

[–]4DUCK2TAPE0 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (5子コメント)

/u/PolarpopsK is admitting they are barawo in this very post. They also have several other alt accounts that have commented here.

[–]PolarpopsK -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (4子コメント)

What's your point? You are allowed to have alts.

[–]miterpowersaw 9 ポイント10 ポイント  (2子コメント)

You aren't allowed to ban evade.

https://www.reddit.com/help/contentpolicy#section_prohibited_behavior

In addition to not submitting unwelcome content, the following behaviors are prohibited on Reddit

  • Asking for votes or engaging in vote manipulation

  • Breaking Reddit or doing anything that interferes with normal use of Reddit

  • Creating multiple accounts to evade punishment or avoid restrictions

[–]PolarpopsK -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (1子コメント)

FYI.

I'm still not banned.

[–]miterpowersaw 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yes I realize. The admins are shit. At least we can both agree on that :*)

[–]Comrade_Belinski 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

not when you ban evade :P moron. It's like one of the biggest rules. You've broke a lot. Vote manipulation, Now ban evasion, asking for votes, and god knows what else.

[–]GregariousWolf 11 ポイント12 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Also, since this weekend there seem to be fewer high-upvoted threads from political subreddits showing up in undelete and longtail.

EvilBuildings is still at it, though.

https://www.reddit.com/r/longtail/comments/6jlx1k/265150161246_welcome_to_the_pearly_white_gates_of/

[–]RJ_Ramrod 11 ポイント12 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I know full well and even openly admit that I'm an asshole but don't fucking criticize me for it, it's enough that I just said it, so please just shut the fuck up and let me return to my blatant shilling without having to listen to you fucking people judging me, TIA

[–]SnapshillBot 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Snapshots:

  1. This Post - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  2. the sticky post yesterday - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  3. /r/MarchAgainstTrump - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  4. I've been tracking - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  5. /u/hazardnipt - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  6. /r/MarchAgainstTrump/comments/6jfdn... - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  7. /u/Sp00ked0ut - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  8. /r/MarchAgainstTrump/comments/6acf4... - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  9. /r/EvilBuildings - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  10. /r/all - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  11. http://i.imgur.com/ikj2Yom.png - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is

  12. http://i.imgur.com/w58eq0a.png - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is

  13. Evilbuildings Method - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  14. http://i.imgur.com/JTvi5M5.png - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is

  15. http://i.imgur.com/xIv1v0B.png - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is

  16. /r/drama - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  17. https://www.reddit.com/r/Drama/comm... - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  18. https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditc... - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  19. /r/Political_Tweets - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  20. /r/IntolerantLeft - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is*

  21. https://www.reddit.com/r/Political_... - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, snew.github.io, archive.is

  22. http://i.imgur.com/Ulq8zit.png - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is

  23. http://i.imgur.com/qu3ypYc.png - archive.org, megalodon.jp*, archive.is

I am a bot. (Info / Contact)

[–][削除されました]  (1子コメント)

[deleted]

    [–]no1dead 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Lol are you blind look at the post

    [–]pigsfly1830 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (1子コメント)

    This guy has been tried multiple times in /r/karmacourt. Sadly, the Honorable Judge /u/forgotaltpw did not see fit to dole out the death penalty

    [–]forgotaltpw 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Thread that went to trial and Verdict. Other thread (posted second and thus consolidated with first case) here. In the event sentencing is not followed shocked horror, additional action may be taken. Defendant has 3 days (from time of sentencing) to comply. Otherwise, file another suit.

    [–]MC_Kloppedie 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    That's some nice work. Excellent post also.

    I hate the evilbuildings method. I remember the founder's post on the sub and I couldn't believe that people condone this type of shit. I understand it from people who only visit that specific sub, but if you enjoy the whole of reddit, the big, medium and small subs, you should speak out against it. I did and I got downvoted. It's cancer, it prevents other people getting natural upvotes with their OC and it's unfair to other medium subs that could get to r/all based on real merit, which could improve their membership based on natural growth.

    [–]morerokk 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Cool write-up. This is very great stuff!

    barawo33 is a piece of shit.

    [–]GregariousWolf 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (2子コメント)

    [–]awkwardtheturtleMore cancerous than cigarettes.[S] 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (1子コメント)

    We haven't. Cojoco's bots are often buggy. Look here:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/underpopular/comments/6jlclm/11422910_two_days_after_being_removed_barawo33s/

    If we're doing it then the SRC mods are doing it too lol. I assure you, we wouldn't.

    [–]GregariousWolf 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Alright, thanks for the response.

    [–]GregariousWolf 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (3子コメント)

    [–]awkwardtheturtleMore cancerous than cigarettes.[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (2子コメント)

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Political_Tweets/comments/6k3mxe/number_of_people_that_think_donald_trump_has_no/djjfgsa/

    This could not be written to sound more similar to the way D4 writes.

    Lol

    I've reported it to the admins. The vote manipulation here is palpable.

    [–]GregariousWolf 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

    http://i.imgur.com/xBugsor.png

    On edit, I was kind of expecting something like this, tbh.

    [–]4DUCK2TAPE0 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    As of this moment they have nearly 25k votes (and rising) on that 64% upvoted post, and still fewer than 5k subscribers. They aren't even trying to hide the vote manipulation.

    [–]Seventytvvo 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    I am so tired of this guy. I'm really glad I'm not the only one who has spent some significant time looking into this.

    [–]BrolestBrolin 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    But Le Drumpf is evil! Anything that hurts him is good. It's also very important that people see you criticize Trump, or it doesn't improve your social standing with liberal fucks. r/SignalYourVirtue

    [–]GregariousWolf 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    HE WHO CONTROLS THE PANTS CONTROLS THE GALAXY!

    [–]leStarryNights 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    Why are people upvoting this scumbag? Look at the subs he moderates. All regulars in this sub. This guy is such a sleazebag, he should be a politician.

    [–]messipro -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (2子コメント)

    I'm sorry, but seriously? Reddit moderation is an addiction, and stuff like this isn't healthy. Are you getting paid to generate these reports? What is your endgame? I can assure you spez and the admins are laughing their way to the bank while you moderators offer free labor in order to "feel powerful".

    [–]awkwardtheturtleMore cancerous than cigarettes.[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

    Ok barawo

    [–]messipro -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (0子コメント)

    No, I knew barawo33 closely and he's just as bad. I would tend to agree with you that his behavior was not mature but don't think you're doing any great service to the people of reddit either. For the admins, we moderators are nothing more than pawns for ad revenue, and barawo33 is an example of what happens when you don't slave away in the proper fashion.

    Of course, the truly pathetic thing is that he turned around and created a new subreddit. That to me was a warning sign that this whole thing is an obscene, time-wasting addiction that preys on the insecure. Save yourself, awkwardtheturtle. I know I did a few weeks ago when I deleted my (main) account. Nowadays I just casually browse like every user should.

    [–]TheRealDL -5 ポイント-4 ポイント  (2子コメント)

    Botting is a problem throughout reddit, regardless of your particular windmill, Don.

    [–][削除されました]  (1子コメント)

    [deleted]

      [–]no1dead 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

      I AM A REAL PERSON DONT THINK I AM FAKE LIKE A STUPID ROBOT I HAVE HUMAN PARTS LIKE A BATTERY HEART.