Just as RP was preparing to wash a load of socks from the premier shortwave pirate radio website (and darn a few that need mending) we bumbled upon a recent news report about the U.S. military using sockpuppets to influence opinion in social media."Its something we have talked about here and on other sites since 2006....the deliberate manipulation of opinion on fansite by use of sockpuppets."
--Some guy on some other website we don't care about.
Finally, something constructive for pirate radio's own Darth Sidious to do besides talking to his own laundry on the Fabulous Rabbit Nutwack. Emporer Palpatine was famed for diplomacy in regional political affairs and should do well as a consultant for the military in the subtle art of creating multiple virtual personalities to create the illusion of consensus... as long as each sockpuppet can get by with a vocabulary that consists mostly of the terms "nasty", "attack", "ruining" and variations on the theme of primate descriptors ("slack-jawed, lip-drooling, knuckle-dragging").
RP is, of course, available to consult in matters of paranoia.
Coming soon: RP's vary pwn article on sockpuppets infesting piratical malfeasance. Names shall be named. Teeth shall be gnashed. Fortunately for rabbits, they grow back.
Sockpuppets everywhere! Feeling manipulated? It's because you are being manipulated. Just say no, because the more you "NO!"...
For an entertaining peek under the laundry into the world of dirty socks, read about the saga of SlimVirgin on Wikipedia, battles with the Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, and related wiki articles on naked short selling. While there are many perspectives on the saga, none is more entertaining than the Encyclopedia Dramatica article, which also cites some useful external sources. (Caution: thick skin and a healthy sense of humor required to grok the ironic use of racism and antisemitism on ED. But if you've gotten this far reading Tales of Radio Paranoia, we're assuming you're as thick-skulled as we are.)
And, to be fair (What? Fairness? In my blah-blah-blah?), here's SlimVirgin's own perspective and rebuttal to some of the accusations.
As this site aptly put it: "Wikipedia is an on-line community that is a curious cross between a conventional encyclopedia, USENET, and a fantasy role-playing game."
And what does this have to do with pirate radio? Soon, childrens, soon.
"Ut oh. It looks like we're gonna need some new sockpuppets, Captain Sockpuppet!"
ReplyDeleteIt would be instructive to take a look at profiles, and who posts loggings of what stations. A good handful hardly ever post any loggings of stations that aren't the work of one character alone; but their list of those loggings is long. Makes it rather obvious, once you look.
Without the sockpuppetry, they fall to the number three position for most active pirate website, right behind Djboutit's fabulous site.
ReplyDelete@Anon: Moar liek Major Sockpuppet, amirite?
ReplyDelete@Anon: Who'd a thunk anything might ever redeem Djboutit, hmm?
Note to self: Hubris... bad thing. Tattoo it inside eyelids.