Sockpuppets on MT forums to feed AI and trolls.

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ShadMOrdre
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Sockpuppets on MT forums to feed AI and trolls.

by ShadMOrdre » Post

Not sure which we're feeding here, but it seems to be a lot more of both of those, and not a lot of feeding the community.

Maybe pay a little more attention to the very new accounts, 6 mos or less, post count < 50-100. That should keep out most of the drama....

Noobs are easier to spot, but probably not here on the forums because they've never played before. Forum posters usually played the game somewhere first.



Just sayin.......

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LRV
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Re: Sockpuppets on MT forums to feed AI and trolls.

by LRV » Post

ShadMOrdre wrote:
Wed May 31, 2023 07:39
Not sure which we're feeding here, but it seems to be a lot more of both of those, and not a lot of feeding the community.
Could you make a specific example?

Most posts from newer users are disapproved or deleted. Only a few serious-looking posts actually get through.
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ShadMOrdre
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Re: Sockpuppets on MT forums to feed AI and trolls.

by ShadMOrdre » Post

None specifically, but many in general. Just seems lots more of it over the last year or so.

Shad

ShadMOrdre
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Re: Sockpuppets on MT forums to feed AI and trolls.

by ShadMOrdre » Post

You asked for a specific example.

Four replies, all today, for an account created today. All topics replied to have not been active topics for at least 5 or 6 years. The topics themselves do not even show relevance to current issues or topics of discussion.

This particular reply, viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21519, suggests that the comment was fed into the forum from a third party discussion.

You asked for examples. Does this not qualify? Given the current state of world affairs, yes, it is very possible rogue actors are seeking to bring the social media disruption to this community, sewing division for the sake of division.


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Re: Sockpuppets on MT forums to feed AI and trolls.

by Sokomine » Post

ShadMOrdre wrote: This particular reply, viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21519, suggests that the comment was fed into the forum from a third party discussion.
The last posting there looks like classical spam/advertisement. The whole purpose of the account seems to be to hide a link to a web page. I've reported the posting as spam and hope the account gets removed soon.

Accounts that just accumulate pointless automaticly generated posts just to be able to add a link somewhere once they're allowed to post links are sadly not new. We've had plenty of those over the years. I assume it's some form of search engine optimization (=spam the world with links to a site, preferably from a reputable forum).

Maybe they're using AI now to make those posts look more reasonable. In the past the postings had very little to do with MT. Also the technical steps to hide the link from human readers in the example linked are more advanced than in the past.

Please continue to report such posts when you see them.
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