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ThinkProgress.org is pwning Netscape.com, Digg.com, & Reddit.com »
Posted by: RikkiTikkiTavi 3 years, 1 month agoProfessional political operatives of the Center for American Progress are quietly manipulating your Netscape.com, Digg.com, and Reddit.com user experience. Look here to find out who they are and what political machinery is behind their manipulation of your social computing experience.
Read Full Story at rikki-tikki-tavis-garden.blogspot.com »
Submitted By:
RikkiTikkiTavi
This ID was created to insulate me and my family when I blew the whistle on ThinkProgress.org's spamming activities on Netscape, Digg, and ...
This Story is Archived and Commenting is Closed
Comments: 58
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 10:54 a.m.Nice, everyone who has been said they are being paid. The real culprits are there for the viewing.
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 10:55 a.m.Well I don't know about that ZG but I am cutting and pasting the comments as we write.
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 10:58 a.m.Well you asked how long it would be till they removed this. Just thought before they do I will cut and paste comments into the notepad. I just hate it when we are talking about a topic and they deemed they neeed to remove the posts.
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mrkchgo
Oct. 5, 2006, 11 a.m.Paid or not if they don't say anything interesting, they aren't going anywhere.
Hope you are all equally offended by Bushing paying for positive press inside and outside the United States.
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 11:02 a.m.Yeah well since others do it, ZG. Thought I should do it from now on. Especially the attacks a lot of us have to go through with certain posters.
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 11:11 a.m.Yeah, MP, you maybe correct. But I remember not too long ago. That you were being accused of being paid along with Luv. Seems we really know who the culprits are though, now.
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 11:13 a.m.Still in the pipeline. Kinda makes you wonder why all the colitions forces are in that one area right now. Well no it does not, if you know what I mean.
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MacR
Oct. 5, 2006, 11:14 a.m.You mean that Dean, was able to sign something without spitting all over it? You might want to send that to the lab and have it checked out for germ warfare items.
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stephen-johnson
Oct. 5, 2006, 11:30 a.m.None of the posters that I've looked at (buco, aterkel) have had much success in making the homepage and driving debate.
No harm, no foul?
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stephen-johnson
Oct. 5, 2006, 11:43 a.m.ZeigfeldGirl:
I thought that they're being paid by Thinkprogress, not Netscape:
"However, all four of the users I'm talking about are paid political operatives for the Center for American Progress and staff members of ThinkProgress.org."
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mozzer
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:08 p.m.4 people are paid. The rest are volunteers/followers. This is just a by-product of social networking.
On Digg, there are groups that will vote up all lew rockwell (libertarian), or michelle malkin (conservative) stories.
There is no liberal bias , they are simply much more organized than the conservatives on netscape (or digg for that matter). I can't say they are gaming the system, not all their submissions make the front page, but they are certainly manipulating it to their advantage.
In short, make a list of like-minded people, and let them know when a story has been submitted so they can vote on it.
Disclosure: I consider myself a liberal.
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bonaroo
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:09 p.m.While we are looking under rocks lets check out RikkiTikkiTavi. How credible is this information, and how does he come by it. Hmmmm.......
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stephen-johnson
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:22 p.m.mozzer: "I can't say they are gaming the system, not all their submissions make the front page, but they are certainly manipulating it to their advantage"
I'm not that alarmed that this is happening. I'm sure that the four are being paid to do more than just post on web sites (if they aren't, they're ripping their employer off!), and the Netscape community seems to slant liberally, anyway. Just as long as conservatives aren't muzzled, it's no big deal to me
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Neophile
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:26 p.m.Mozzer is right. Lew Rockwell and Michelle Malkin have both come under fire (unfairly) for "spamming" digg in the past, when in fact they are merely following digg's suggestions to evangelize social news and put buttons on their sites that let people submit their content
I don't see any cause for concern here. Netscape encourages content producers to submit and vote on their own content. That's why they have tools for content producers to put "Submit To Netscape" buttons on their content.
2 of the users he references vote and comment on things that aren't from thinkprogress. The other 2 have only voted for thinkprogress articles but haven't voted on anything in the last 2 weeks or so.
None of these people are being paid by Netscape.
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mozzer
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:30 p.m.Here's the thread on digg, I suspect it's been buried/killed already...
http://digg.com/politics/ThinkProgress_org_is_pwning_Digg_com_Netscape_com_Reddit_com
Rikki seems to have come out of nowhere, registered yesterday on both sites, blog created yesterday as well.
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bonaroo
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:43 p.m.MasketProtester
I'm willing to chip in $1.50 for the work you did on your 911 blog. :-)
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rockman069
Oct. 5, 2006, 12:46 p.m.I also would be interested in how Rikki was privy to exclusinve information. I do agree that there have been certain biases shown, but at the same time I have not seen any "saturation" caused by the mentioned posters.
Please expound... :^)
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Neophile
Oct. 5, 2006, 1:13 p.m.rockman069: rikki collected all of that information from public sources such as ThinkProgress.org's about page, http://thinkprogress.org/about and by observing those for users' behaviour on different sites like Netscape.
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JasonCalacanis
Oct. 5, 2006, 1:29 p.m.The problem is that the ThinkProgress folks are being selfish and covert. I've blogged about it here:
http://www.calacanis.com/2006/10/05/thinkprogress-org-shows-up-at-netscape-and-digg-and-folks-are-n/
Right now they only really vote for and comment on their stories. They only submi stories from their site. This is like coming to a dinner party and only talking about yourself.
We have great folks on Netscape who are involved in ALL SIDES of the discussion--not just stories that link back to their sites.
If you're selfish on a social news site folks will hate you.
If you're covert on a social news site folks will hate you.
I've sent messages to the ThinkProgress folks... they need to start participating in the big picture at Netscape or folks will report them for spamming/gaming the system.
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stephen-johnson
Oct. 5, 2006, 3:27 p.m.diogenes12: " How do you come by the idea that Netscape is "liberally" slanted?"
Because it is. There was a post by one of the anchors several months ago who admitted as much, while decrying the lack of civility in the threads.
There's nothing wrong with this site being left-leaning, BTW, as long as conservatives are allowed to have their say, too. Not like that great liberal bastion of free speech, Columbia University:
http://donoevil.netscape.com/story/2006/10/05/at-columbia-students-attack-minuteman-founder
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tchef
Oct. 5, 2006, 4:17 p.m.You know this is an election year, and we all are trying to do what we can to get people to see things from our point of view. Should we first count how many stories are subbmitted from our side before post to be sure it's fair?
This story is just a link to the posters blog, how is that different? Except that you probably don't get paid to do your blog.
The Republicans paid Rush and Fox news as well as others to push it's agenda on their shows why arn't you whiniing about them?
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