# Fox News employed shills to rant in blog comments **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 22, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909 "2013-10-22T05:06:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/61 "2013-10-29T01:26:44Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > \ And you are a gutless turd. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/62 "2013-10-29T02:00:59Z")
But…but…if you removed the excrement from me, HOW CAN I BE A TURD? It’s like me removing the drunken self-pity from you and still calling you Stink Fish Pot. IT MAKES NO SENSE! I’m so confused. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/63 "2013-10-29T05:23:33Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > I can read. But I may have an interpretation problem. > > If he was honestly asking if there were shills on this board, I didn’t get that from his OP. I thought he was joking, because I honestly can’t believe anyone out here is a shill for anything other than themselves. > > If he is seriously asking that, then I did miss the point, and I can admit that. And I can also apologize. > > I never thought anyone would actually believe something so off the wall, but ok. Maybe **M4M** does. > > But if that’s truly his question, then what is the pitting for? He isn’t pitting imaginary shills, is he? > > That’s where my confusion comes into play. I thought he was making a pit thread about the supposed fox shills, and then tongue in cheek asking about people on this board. > > This doesn’t belong in the Pit if that’s the case. Maybe MPSIMS, but not the pit. > > I’ll bow out now. Regardless of the real intent of the OP, M4M repeated what you said in his last post. I’ll have to believe it, even if it makes no sense to me as a Pitting. Setting Fox News aside for the moment… I originally posted this thread in About This Message Board. It was moved to the pit due to my poor wording. I would have preferred to have this thread live elsewhere. To answer your earlier question directly, if reports surfaced of socks at both CNN and Wikipedia within the same day (as occurred with Fox News and Wikipedia), yeah I would direct such a question to the mods. Of course if such a story comes up _again_, I’ll probably demur as it would be a repeat of this thread. Read posts number 4 and number 6 for examples of shills. They exist. This board also attracts tons of spammers, which are swatted with great speed by the mods. Post 6. Here’s some more detail. Several years ago a one post wonder would post a question in GQ about L ucid D reaming every few months. It drove Manhattan nuts. The beauty of it was the organization that I suspected was pushing this was top ranked in google, so an older poster could unknowingly provide a sort of endorsement. After a while I started to post boilerplate saying that while LD existed it wasn’t a big deal and there was no need to sign up with an organization or take a seminar. I don’t know whether that put an end to their efforts but at least I amused myself. I doubt whether I can dig up the Chinese apologist, except to say that IIRC his IP resolved to Texas of all places. The tricky thing with some shills is that they have 2 audiences and actually engaging with the membership here can make them nervous. Sorry for the vagueness. I’m working from dim memories of inconsequential events occurring years ago. No need for apologies btw. I consider the Fox News bit to be a hijack, one that I participated in. If I was to write the OP over again, I would have included more disclaimers. * * * Question for the mods: you would think the spammers would learn by now that they don’t have much success on this board. Q: Do a lot of them resolve to the same IP? What’s the country breakdown (roughly)? Or do they use Tor? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/64 "2013-10-29T05:30:21Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > * * * > > Question for the mods: you would think the spammers would learn by now that they don’t have much success on this board. Q: Do a lot of them resolve to the same IP? What’s the country breakdown (roughly)? Or do they use Tor? I think the vast majority are working for SEO firms. Their whole day is hitting forums, blogs and comment sections. I seriously doubt any ever come back. Or care. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/65 "2013-10-29T05:52:05Z")
SEO? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/66 "2013-10-29T06:04:54Z")
[Search Engine Optimization.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization) > [@](#): > > Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909/67 "2013-11-02T00:30:52Z")
Last month, Creative Loafing Atlanta ([which no longer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Loafing) has any affiliation with this board) published, “[Confessions of a campaign sock puppet](http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2013/10/10/confessions-of-a-campaign-sock-puppet)”. It details the exploits of a campaign worker for a local election. Such workers have scope for all sorts of nonsense as local campaigns have erratic media coverage. The socks liked to target thinly moderated sites, in other words 99% of the internet. From the article: Sock puppetry is basically heckling behind a keyboard. You could call it “cyber-bullying” depending on how malicious your intent was. But there’s two things about sock puppetry that make it effective. 1) Comment sections on websites are generally horrible, especially if not moderated. So there’s a lot you can get away with because no one expects you to have any common sense. Look at comments on YouTube or The Huffington Post. Those people are bonkers. 2) People have _very_ short attention spans in this modern news cycle. So you can keep spinning a web of lies in comment sections across several sites and no one will really remember you. It’s a grand ebb and flow. Sock puppet activities include leaving comments on blogs and websites, on Facebook pages, and maybe even on YouTube (if they have video). For larger campaigns, that means you have to amp up your visibility, so you may call into a radio show or writer a letter to the editor. You’d be surprised how many journalists play along with the sock puppetry (_cough_AJC_cough_) because it means more pageviews. Reporters will even tip off campaign staffs 24-48 hours before they post something so they can be ready at their keyboards with a response. I’d say about 99 percent of what we knew to comment on came from a lead from a media source. So there’s a symbiotic relationship between reporters and the campaign trolls. I’ll opine that the strategy for this message board would probably be a little different. It can be gamed, but a little more effort is required. Sock blogspot blogs might be one model. * * * I searched the site a little for references to Llluucd Drmmming. I couldn’t find material to support my impressions, and Manhattan seemed more pissed at people putting IMHO stuff in GQ than anything else. But I didn’t search too hard. I’m just re-emphasizing my uncertainty. * * * “The board is not intended to furnish you with a forum for promoting your personal agenda.” Setting aside spammers, those with an agenda have been mostly bonkers IME. Have there been any cases of suspected for-paid agenda promoting, other than the Chinese guy I referred to upthread? I’m thinking of the personalities who post essays detailing their obsessions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fox-news-employed-shills-to-rant-in-blog-comments/671909.md?page=3)