this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
109 points (89.8% liked)

News

23354 readers
3701 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The news mod team has asked to no longer be a part of the project until we have a composite tool that polls multiple sources for a more balanced view.

It will take a few hours, but FOR NOW there won't be a bot giving reviews of the source.

The goal was simple: make it easier to show biased sources. This was to give you and the mods a better view of what we were looking at.

The mod team is in agreement: one source of truth isn't enough. We are working on a tool to give a composite score, from multiple sources, all open source.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] qevlarr 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sockpuppetting? You have any indication of that?

[–] Blackbeard 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Props to the LW admin who uncovered and banned the vote manipulation ring. Its existence is troubling.

I did a vote audit of the Soliciting Feedback from the Mods thread, and none of the sock accounts that were banned three days ago voted on the post or the most highly upvoted or downvoted comments. If you don't believe me, I suggest asking an admin you trust to repeat the audit.

The outrage about the bot seems extremely organic, and any sockpuppetting going on is small compared to the overwhelming number of legitimate accounts casting votes that are apparent from the logs. The uniformity of the consensus does not appear to be artificial at all.

[–] qevlarr 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

These people were specifically trying to get the bot removed? Must have hit quite a nerve. I know it was biased in favor of Israel, but it must have been even worse. That bot sucks so bad people make mass sockpuppet accounts just to tell you they want it gone

[–] Blackbeard -3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] qevlarr 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I was joking. Just like you can't be seriously claiming there is no consensus that the bot sucks and that all the net downvotes for that bot are due to a small minority of sockpuppeteers?

[–] Blackbeard -3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So based on your other comment, the "evidence" you're referring to here is merely that vote manipulation had occurred in some other community?

[–] Blackbeard -1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ok, but you did claim that you had evidence that some of the downvotes were sockpuppets, contrary to the analysis discussed in this comment.

[–] Blackbeard 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, the point I've been trying to make is that on balance, mods have been reluctant to engage with negative feedback, and I think this is a salient example.

I think you can imagine how, from the perspective of a community member, it would feel like you've started with the belief that the bot is good, and sought feedback in that context.

The erroneous assumption you've made regarding vote manipulation is a pretty clear example of that.

This is what I mean by users feeling as though their opinions have been dismissed.

[–] Blackbeard 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Ok mate. I appreciate you taking the time.

I get that everyone on the mod team seems well intentioned, and trying to navigate this situation as best they can as volunteers, with limited resources and limited control.