I didn't get here until 2005, but I can't remember a time with so many trolls

[panader0]

So many pizzas are delivered every day. Is this an intentional assault on DU? I see posters who have been DUers for 15 minutes with 20 posts and then a pizza. So many..... Thanks to alerters and mods for weeding out the scum.

[arcane1]

1. Slow week on the AOL message boards, perhaps

Did our Free friends ever get their hamster wheel up and running, despite not making their $90k fund drive?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Given the AOL mesasge boards have been gone for three years

yup, you could say slow year.

[arcane1]

9. Dammit, I'm so far behind on obsolete technology

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Well they were usenet like

I still use AOL for my email... kind of convenient.



But I used to wade in that water... before finding DU.

[cbayer]

2. I don't think there are any more than there were previously.

But the new system means that you see them more because their posts aren't removed.

Mods routinely removed all posts by newbie trolls.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. During the last few years of DU2, as a mod I can tell you there were as many trolls then as now.

It tends to be big event-driven (elections, debates, the Fast and Furious thing, etc) for the real influx, but the spammers have always been a pretty steady background activity.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. pizza?

[Staph]

8. In the olden days of DU2,

when a disrupting poster was banned, the following appeared in the alerted post:





Tie this to the frozen dinner:






Et voila!

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. lol. thanks.

[pinboy3niner]

5. And those who point fingers at trolls...

...fall under suspicion. Hmmm...



(Actually, we recently saw a troll (soon PPR'd) accuse a very high-post DUer of being a troll. )

[SoutherDem]

7. I know what a troll is but I do at time have problems recognizing them.

At times I will think someone is a troll and they will have over 10,000 posts.
Maybe one persons conscious objector is another persons troll.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. I think I must be getting paranoid

I've noticed several posters with over 1,000 posts who seem to have a more subtle conservative take on things lately. If I were organizing an infiltration of progressive sites I'd do it in small subtle increments where it's barely recognizable. It would be smarter than doing it overtly by spouting Fox New talking points. What makes me feel this way is particularly connected with the way they debate. They back down too easily and live to fight another day, trying not to attract too much attention to themselves instead of acting like old time DUers who can be confrontational to their last breath when they feel they're right.

But maybe I'm just getting old and too suspicious of everything.

[Nye Bevan]

13. Yes. The "deep cover" trolls have been instructed to make 10,000 posts or so,

over a period of several years, before starting to propagate RW talking points.

[SoutherDem]

15. I guess I am too

and I get tamped down when I question them. I am usually told I am not a real progressive.

Oh wait, I got it;
Republican: President Obama hasn't done all he said he would do. (this is a troll)
Democrat: President Obama hasn't done all he said he would do. (this is a conscious objector)

See the difference, it is as clear as day.

[Dokkie]

10. I think someone is

disappointed everyone is not falling in line with the fast and furious thing and is hoping mods can help streamline the forum. You rarely see this volume of activity here on DU. We have fast and furious, the 68 yr Bus lady, Travon Martin, war on women, Drone wars etc etc all at once and I doubt its the troll but just a very active news cycle

[spanone]

14. election year....the opposition is in high gear

[Odin2005]

16. Holder-Gate is bringing in the RW trolls, methinks.

[Posteritatis]

18. It's a year divisible by 2; of course the place is nuts. (nt)