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The Yang Gang and Its Bots

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Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#81

Post by EGreg »

proximitysauce wrote: post #67
godelski wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting comment from multiple directions. 1) because I could see someone calling __this__ comment a bot comment, but you're much more active here and so it seems like you aren't. 2) Because if you are real, it really shows the idea (I suggested this in another comment too) that Yang Gangers come off as bots. (I also found the statement about Yang accounts being linked to MAGA accounts as evidence as fu…

There's nothing bot like about this person's post. It's actually kind of a nice tale of civic re-engagement. It does make me more interested in hearing what Yang has to say because it seems honest and like a statement from someone who hasn't been doing political activism for years.

This looks like a green handle bot supporting another bot. You may find my statement pretty silly today but in about 5 years we will be in the uncanny valley.

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#82

Post by EGreg »

crgt wrote: post #76
ilaksh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF makes you think I'm a bot? Because I took the time to write a full paragraph and tried to promote the presidential campaign I have invested my time and money into?

Rick Deckard feels your pain. Kinda makes you wonder about the usefulness of the Turing Test too, if humans can’t pass it anymore..

What if, like the Kobayashi Maru, the bots eventually pass the Turing Test by simply dumbing down human discourse? It seems that on Twitter that is already taking place.

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#83

Post by MuffinFlavored »

save_ferris wrote: post #4

It’s terrifying how cheap and easy it is to masquerade as hundreds of thousands to millions of people on social media using automation, and how little social media companies are doing to stop it. Regardless of the numbers, the stress it’s placing on discourse is devastating, and there seem to be few serious, market-driven solutions to this problem. The growth-at-all-costs mentality has put companies like Twitter in a…

is it? don’t all twitter accounts require phone number validation? can’t twitter set a limit to 5-10 accounts per phone number? isn’t there all kind of rate limiting + captchas to creating/liking tweets?

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#84

Post by MuffinFlavored »

ilaksh wrote: post #52
aazaa wrote: post #11

The fact that Yang's campaign is struggling should throw cold water on the notion that this kind of thing poisons the political process. It remains to be proven whether an armada of Twitter bots can change anyone's mind about a candidate. In the absence of evidence, the claim should be rejected and we should look for simpler explanations for political ills. The more likely explanation, and the one loathed by those wh…

$16.5 million raised last quarter and steadily rising polls. Dave Chappelle is doing a fundraising show at/near Iowa State in a few days. Oprah's "spiritual advisor" is helping Yang campaign. Still going strong after numerous candidates including senators have had to quit. "Struggling" is not accurate.

why isn’t he doing well in the polls then?

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#86

Post by RyJones »

godelski wrote: post #40

This is an interesting post if you also follow the subreddit for Yang[0]. There are a lot of people there that created Twitter accounts just to follow Yang and participate in those polls about who is more popular. So when the author mentions the creation of new accounts when Yang started, it actually doesn't surprise me. The campaign is very technocentric after all. Also, these people (a lot of them "true believers"…

I had no position on Yang.

After a couple very negative experiences with the Yang Gang, where anything less than instant adulation must mean you're anti-Yang, I'm anti-Yang.

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#87

Post by ztratar »

RyJones wrote: post #86
godelski wrote: post #40

This is an interesting post if you also follow the subreddit for Yang[0]. There are a lot of people there that created Twitter accounts just to follow Yang and participate in those polls about who is more popular. So when the author mentions the creation of new accounts when Yang started, it actually doesn't surprise me. The campaign is very technocentric after all. Also, these people (a lot of them "true believers"…

I had no position on Yang. After a couple very negative experiences with the Yang Gang, where anything less than instant adulation must mean you're anti-Yang, I'm anti-Yang.

Sorry you had a couple bad experiences with folks. I'm biased, but I think Yang's message is more positive than others.

Hopefully over time he can earn back your trust.

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#88

Post by trhway »

comnetxr wrote: post #15

Someone should make a Twitter-like that verifies posters at various levels based on humanness/geographic locale and other characteristics. Then posters could limit conversations to those with >90% human score (with score going up when twitter has more certainty that you are a human) located in the US (for US political conversations), etc. I'd certainly pay a few bucks to be verified and contribute much more often to…

that would destroy the main principle of the Web2.x - "on Internet, nobody knows you're a human"

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#89

Post by nikkwong »

godelski wrote: post #59
charlesju wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious why you think it's weird for a group of people to believe passionately about a candidate?

I like Yang, but I've never been one that idolizes another person. I would 100% vote for Yang above another candidate (I'm actually even surprised HN, which is pretty pro UBI, isn't Yang Gang), but I've never been passionate about another person. I don't understand people that will move to another state to campaign for a candidate. I've never been part of that kind of movement before, and in it I don't understand it.…

I have always found this type of behavior perplexing as well. I had a Kickstarter campaign a few years ago and one of my backers latched onto me like glue, he was repping and praising my product like it was god's gift to man, incessantly for weeks on end. It was flattering but also a bit confusing. I scrolled through his FB wall the other day and see that over the years he's done this pretty much over everything that's gained some traction in the media.

He became a "bitcoin zealot" when that was popular, he became a AI fearmongerer, now he's a Trumpian provocateur. There is no cohesion between any of these identities other than the fact that they are reflections of what's popular at any one point. To me it's facade he's constantly draping over himself but to him that is identity.

I think humans are evolutionarily tribal and naturally some members are going to be more dogmatic than others. Myself not exhibiting that behavior, it's somewhat odd to observe from the outside.

Re: The Yang Gang and Its Bots

#90

Post by joejerryronnie »

RyJones wrote: post #86
godelski wrote: post #40

This is an interesting post if you also follow the subreddit for Yang[0]. There are a lot of people there that created Twitter accounts just to follow Yang and participate in those polls about who is more popular. So when the author mentions the creation of new accounts when Yang started, it actually doesn't surprise me. The campaign is very technocentric after all. Also, these people (a lot of them "true believers"…

I had no position on Yang. After a couple very negative experiences with the Yang Gang, where anything less than instant adulation must mean you're anti-Yang, I'm anti-Yang.

Funny, I had the same experience with Bernie.
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