Monday, October 20, 2014
5:09 AM - A: guys
5:09 AM - A: KiA brigading
5:09 AM - A: anyone following it?
5:12 AM - C: what is brigading?
5:13 AM - A: great question
5:13 AM - A: brigading is the reddit term for when a group of people from one subreddit collectively decide to go fuck with comments/threads in another subreddit
5:13 AM - A: it's one of the few things that's against site-wide rules
5:13 AM - C: ah, so its a raid
5:13 AM - A: yes.
5:14 AM - A: specifically brigading is mass upvoting/downvoting though
5:14 AM - A: raids generally come with that, but not always
5:14 AM - C: fair enough, cant say im surprised, theyve fucked with pretty much everything else
5:14 AM - A: when the quinnspiracy started, a bunch of redditors got banned for the suspicion of coming from 4chan to do this
5:14 AM - A: with no evidence
5:15 AM - A: that was in that thread in /r/gaming that got like 30,000 deleted comments
5:15 AM - A: IIRC
5:15 AM - A: well, right now
5:15 AM - C: she was also talking with one of the mods too from screenshots i saw on 4 chan back when it wasnt a hole
5:15 AM - A: yeah
5:16 AM - A: https://archive.today/4Ednx
5:16 AM - A: ^ that thread (only showing the relevant comment chain)
5:17 AM - A: a boston globe reporter shows up in a post that is nearly a full month old with a small amount of votes either way on it, and within hours 5 other subreddits link to it
5:17 AM - A: as well as some people linking on twitter
5:17 AM - A: and look at that insane amount of upvotes
5:17 AM - A: and the reddit gold
5:18 AM - A: (gift given by other users, generally in appreciation of the post)
5:18 AM - A: and look at the downvotes of some of the pro-gg responses
5:18 AM - A: it's all gotten more exaggerated since then, btw; that archive link is an hour or two old
5:19 AM - A: admins were notified, of course
5:19 AM - A: and one responded
5:19 AM - A: http://i.imgur.com/8f2zcQd.png
5:20 AM - A: however that admin, ocrasorm, might have a bit of an SJW bent. I'm not sure exactly, he's referenced in relation to banning a subreddit that some random SRS (ShitRedditSays-- the SJW hub for reddit) woman found offensive or some shit
5:21 AM - A: or maybe it was banning a person, I don't know
5:22 AM - A: (SRS is interesting, as an aside, 'cause it's a place that kind of actively encourages brigading-- each thread that is made links to a post that offends them and lists the current up/downvote numbers at the time of posting so they can all fuck with the numbers and marvel at their ability to collectively click on shit)
5:22 AM - A: (and it's for some reason not banned)
5:22 AM - H: https://8chan.co/v/src/1413796471585.webm
5:23 AM - C: cause then youd be oppresing them obvs
5:23 AM - E: Who here a Goody Goodie?
5:23 AM - A: now, like I said
5:24 AM - A: bans are given for this sort of shit
5:24 AM - A: normally
5:24 AM - A: shadowbans in particular
5:24 AM - A: which are a type of ban where to the user, everything looks normal
5:24 AM - A: but no other users on the site can see their posts and their votes affect nothing
5:25 AM - A: it was started to combat spammers; if the spammers have no idea they've been banned, they keep spamming on that account instaed of creating a new one
5:25 AM - A: it seems to work pretty well for that, 'cause I've never actually seen spam on a reddit thread
5:25 AM - A: but it's occasionally used for non-spam reasons
5:26 AM - A: now, there was a screenshot of the original admin response
5:26 AM - A: there was another admin response which I haven't seen a screenshot or other actual proof of yet
5:26 AM - A: but the same guy who capped the first one said this:
5:26 AM - A: Edit Admin response.
Yeah I have dealt with the vote brigading. We can not ban people, who are not subscribed to a subreddit, for commenting. The mods can ban them if they feel they are trolling/breaking rules. If they then evade subreddit bans we can take action.
5:27 AM - A: vote brigading = shadowban, but just commenting = no ban
5:27 AM - A: that's fair
5:27 AM - A: but what about this guy
5:27 AM - A: http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2h36ue/another_poorlyresearched_hitpiece_from_the_boston/cle9pqb
5:27 AM - A: longbowrocks 10 points 6 hours ago
Sorry I can only upvote once. ;_;
5:28 AM - A: http://www.reddit.com/user/longbowrocks
5:28 AM - A: I guess he didn't actually participate in the brigading by voting?
5:28 AM - A: he's not banned 'cause you can see his profile
5:28 AM - A: if he was banned you'd get a "user does not exist" message
5:28 AM - A: there are others
5:28 AM - A: you can check everyone who commented with anti-gg stuff in that thread
5:29 AM - A: if you have the time, you will probably see that the majority of them have never posted in KotakuInAction before
5:29 AM - A: and you may see activity in some of the anti-gg subreddits
5:29 AM - A: like GamerGhazi
5:29 AM - A: AgainstGamerGate
5:30 AM - A: BestOfOutrageCulture
5:30 AM - C: yea it doesnt look like he has voted on anything else in KiA
5:30 AM - A: and apparently SubredditDrama
5:30 AM - A: or anythig with "SRS" in the title
5:30 AM - A: there's a whole network
5:31 AM - A: if I remember right they call themselves the femspiracy or some shit
5:31 AM - A: now
5:31 AM - A: a recap
5:31 AM - A: brigading happens
5:32 AM - A: more proof btw
5:32 AM - A: this posted by a mod and then censored for some reason
5:32 AM - A: http://i.imgur.com/uIrED3M.png
5:32 AM - A: and the dude who posted the highly upvoted comment linked to the thread on his twitter
5:32 AM - A: https://archive.today/8CNcQ
5:33 AM - A: it was also apparently linked on NeoGAF
5:33 AM - A: https://archive.today/POKfA
5:33 AM - C: this is the upside of reddit over anon imageboards
5:33 AM - A: yeah
5:33 AM - C: you can figure out whos fucking with you a lot easier
5:33 AM - A: although 8chan allows for some tracking of this shit
5:33 AM - A: 4chan probably did too
5:33 AM - A: but I never really visited
5:33 AM - A: anyway, brigading happens
5:34 AM - A: much proof
5:34 AM - A: admins say "we took care of it"
5:34 AM - A: brigaders remain unbanned
5:35 AM - A: meanwhile, pro-GG redditors get banned back in the early days of the movement for suspicion of the same thing
5:35 AM - A: https://imgur.com/a/f4WDf
5:35 AM - P entered chat.
5:35 AM - A: and oh fucking look, the admin that banned the pro-GG peeps was the very same who is looking into this vote brigading now
5:35 AM - A: http://i.imgur.com/dFIoxaZ.png
5:35 AM - A: Ocrasorm
5:36 AM - A: detailed story of that whole event here: http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2gekjz/comprehensive_overview_of_gamergate_censorship_on/
5:36 AM - A: can't vouch for it 'cause I haven't read it but it's probably a good summary
5:36 AM - A: ..which I guess is me vouching for it? anyway
5:37 AM - C: yea, welcome to how the world apparently is, SJW admins everywhere
5:37 AM - A: another fun connection, the dude who made the highly upvoted post? Jesse Singal
5:38 AM - A: the author of the article the original thread was about
5:38 AM - A: a Boston Globe writer
5:38 AM - A: https://archive.today/Sxcip#selection-641.3-641.15
5:38 AM - L: I just don't know anymore
5:38 AM - L: What's going on?
5:38 AM - H is now playing Team Fortress 2. Click here to join.
5:38 AM - A: I'll put all this into a pastebin or some shit in a second
5:38 AM - L: Thanks
5:38 AM - L: easier than reading 100 steam chat messages
5:39 AM - A: yeah
5:39 AM - A: now
5:39 AM - L: “Depression Quest,” a well-regarded indie title
5:39 AM - L: WELL
5:39 AM - L: REGARDED
5:39 AM - L: WELL REGARDED
5:39 AM - A: I know. But you've missed out on the truly interesting stuff if you haven't been reading until now
5:39 AM - A: today is monday
5:39 AM - L: I haven't
5:40 AM - L: I've been productive!
5:40 AM - P: they don't say who it's well regarded by :p
5:40 AM - L: Heh
5:40 AM - A: the other day a LW or 2 promised a big 'black eye' for gamergate today
5:40 AM - A: people speculated a few things
5:40 AM - L: heh
5:40 AM - L: I managed to get my currently-nonfunctional moderator app to load in google hangouts
5:40 AM - P: like the eye of black cthulu?
5:40 AM - A: you jest
5:41 AM - A: but
5:41 AM - L: Unassailably moderated debate soon, fellow gamergates
5:41 AM - A: there's a part of me that wonders if we aren't getting fucked over on reddit
5:41 AM - A: they could use this brigading situation as a reason to outright ban kotakuinaction
5:42 AM - P: we're getting fucked over everywhere
5:42 AM - A: leaving no pro-gamergate subs and like 6 anti ones
5:42 AM - E: What the fuck, is this guy real? He literally describes the Anti-GG side, but means us instead http://puu.sh/cjgum/d3615f9b20.png
5:42 AM - A: that would be a big 'black eye', no?
5:42 AM - A: KiA is one of the two big places to share info
5:43 AM - A: and the only one that isn't associated with a deeply tainted image for the average person
5:43 AM - A: reddit is awesome, everyone talks about reddit and knowingly shares shit from it
5:43 AM - A: the chans though, the imageboards, those are shady evil places where vans explode
5:44 AM - A: I don't want to be alarmist
5:44 AM - A: and this part is just speculation
5:44 AM - A: but there's definitely some shit happening; what the outcome will be, I don't know.