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bot or not?
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 7:01 pm
by Stephanie
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/scie ... azemi.html
An interesting article about whether bots are influencing discussions on covid. One guy they interview is pretty sceptical:
He also found that humans were often mistaken for bots. Consider the “grandpa effect,” as he called it: people who were mistaken for bots because they used social media in “uncool or gauche” ways, he said. Users fond of hitting the share button on news articles also resulted in false positives. This led Mr. Kazemi to wonder whether Botometer should be renamed “Normiemeter.” He tweeted: “Can you imagine the headlines? ‘50% of accounts tweeting about Covid are normies.’”
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:15 pm
by JQH
If being uncool gets you categorised as a bot then I'm f.cked.
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:08 pm
by Bird on a Fire
I know that there are bots online. But I also see a lot of cases where people dismiss others instantly as bots, or Russians, or paid shills of some sort, when in all probability most of them are just people with different opinions.
OTOH opinions these days are formed to a great extent, and it's easy to see how black-box proprietary algorithms are perfect for exploitation in this way.
So I suspect that things like follower numbers, likes and retweets are all rampantly manipulated, but actual commenters will tend to be real people.
I'm a robot, though.
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:09 pm
by Bird on a Fire
JQH wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:15 pm
If being uncool gets you categorised as a bot then I'm f.cked.
I think all the posters whose names are just a bunch of letters are probably bots. Especially jdc.
You seem pretty cool, though, JQH. At least for a droid.
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:43 pm
by bjn
Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:09 pm
JQH wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:15 pm
If being uncool gets you categorised as a bot then I'm f.cked.
I think all the posters whose names are just a bunch of letters are probably bots. Especially jdc.
You seem pretty cool, though, JQH. At least for a droid.
Rumbled.
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:37 am
by bolo
Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:09 pm
I think all the posters whose names are just a bunch of letters are probably bots.
How many is a bunch?
Oh wait we did that one.
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 12:27 pm
by JQH
Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:09 pm
JQH wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:15 pm
If being uncool gets you categorised as a bot then I'm f.cked.
I think all the posters whose names are just a bunch of letters are probably bots. Especially jdc.
You seem pretty cool, though, JQH. At least for a droid.
I am not the droid you are looking for.
Re: bot or not?
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 11:33 am
by Stephanie
Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 10:08 pm
I know that there are bots online. But I also see a lot of cases where people dismiss others instantly as bots, or Russians, or paid shills of some sort, when in all probability most of them are just people with different opinions.
OTOH opinions these days are formed to a great extent, and it's easy to see how black-box proprietary algorithms are perfect for exploitation in this way.
So I suspect that things like follower numbers, likes and retweets are all rampantly manipulated, but actual commenters will tend to be real people.
I'm a robot, though.
a lot of people are quick to think someone disagreeing with them is a bot. It's the new trolling innit.