British army is creating a 1,500-strong force of Facebook warriors, [shills ]

Ah, thank you!

Apparently I'm a "shill" for genuinely supporting Russia

Ah well, I have been called worse!

originally posted by: lost in space
I doubt very seriously if anyone on this forum could change my mind about anything by arguing with me or showing out rudely. ...... Also if someone extremely argumentative is posting, ignore them. I can tell you from past experience that will run anyone off a story line.

They are not trying to change your mind, they are trying to influence the 3rd person reader of the forum, or at least hope to. That is my hunch on the shill games.

Also a tactic that is often used is disruption, when someone may actually be on to something the thread then will become 'hijacked' by extremely argumentative postings and the substance is lost, readers are discouraged and essentially run off.

Dishonesty is dishonest. If they are willing to hide who they are online, do you think they have any problem lying to you anywhere else?

Faithful in little faithful in much. Unfaithful in little unfaithful in much. It's the principle.

originally posted by: JBurns
Ah, thank you!

Apparently I'm a "shill" for genuinely supporting Russia

Ah well, I have been called worse!

You will notice that on the thread where you were called a shill there was no action taken. Perhaps it depends on your stance...meaning that there is an agenda here on ATS. It might be something worth keeping in mind.

They honestly don't need shills here between the almost extreme patriotic users posting pro government material and the mods who will delete comments countering the lies,there is no use for paying people when their media have already brain washed them to believe the opposite of what is realy going on globally

Twitter is a false rumour service

As for this site,I'm starting to think it's going the same way after comments made by one of the owners saying they get emails from citizens in foreign countries trying to buy new technology ect ect

I'm pretty sure the intel service know this and with the sudden spike in anti Russian posts smearing them non stop and the complete lack of ethics from mods and owners to deal with the blatent propaganda

Been here on another account for a long long time normaly checking out the ancient history or alien sections and it seems more like a white supremacy site than a conspiracy site it used to be :-/

If it wasn't the best site for this type of information on the net I would be long gone as I never hang out with racists online or offline

Btw Jburns I find it highly amusing that being pro truth on Ukraine means you are pro Russian when you or I counter the usual Russia has invaded Ukraine

If and when the day comes that Russia does invade Ukraine and kills civilians I will condemn them as I'm pro truth not pro Russian,untill that day I will condemn the Ukraine government for killing civilians and turning a blind eye to the Fatherland party who have members in the government and cabinet who supplied a weapon for the sniper to kill so many innocent for their political agenda

A very interesting article, thanks OP.

Although the article cites Facebook and mentions Twitter, I have no doubt whatsoever that they will target sites such as ATS and similar; and specifically ATS itself. After all it is the Web's "Largest and most popular website for Cover-Up and Conspiricy Theories".

The article says it is to "meet the challenges of modern conflict and warfare", i.e. web-based personal opinion and "It can also be seen as a response to events of the last year that include Russia’s actions in Ukraine, in particular Crimea, and Islamic State’s (Isis) takeover of large swaths of Syria and Iraq." Whist true that such groups like ISIS do use social media to spread their hate and attempt to sway readers to collusion and, as such, need to be counter-acted, I agree with the overall sentiment of the posters here that it can also/ may also be used on enquiring, free-thinking minds to push any agenda/ view of any given political or social policy and also corrupt any views to the contrary.
Also, as others have pointed out re: the identifing of home-based (UK) political "dissidents" or activists who will not conform to a viewpoint that every fibre of their decent, educated being says is wrong or dangerous: being UK based, they can concentrate on UK members and work on identifying them in real life- ala info (rough location, age, sex, remarks about if they have children and how many, brothers and/or sisters, their locations- gleened from posts- comments, photos etc. For example, how many 36 yr old females live in Redditch, (gleened from a remark/ posted photo), say have four kids AND a brother in Kurdistan? Narrows it down, does it not?

In regards to spotting them from their probable avatars, page 1 of the thread, (I've had fun with this one), I seriously doubt they will be so blatant or stupid???? as to use the obvious:

For me, a stupid/ ineffective shill would be one who: consistantly takes the same approach toward a certain topic, even when what they are posting is blatently misinfo, rewritten history/ facts/ out-of-context quoates, yet interwoven with some truths. Combining this with a certain idiotic username, e.g. "iamashillpaidbygovernment"/ "soliderofthe77th Brigade"/ "007jamesbondwannabe". An avatar thus: a picture of a Bond/ the 007 Logo/ one of the Ms/ Qs etc. or the iconic "gun barrel scene/ one of the more famous Bond gadgets/ his family Coat-of-Arms and/or motto or indeed a photo of G.C.H.Q.. Add to this Registered: (very soon after the story being referenced in this thread), Location: MI6/ SIS/ G.C.H.Q./ Universal Exports/ Vauxhall Cross &/or 85 Albert Embankment (MI6's address)/ Pett Bottom, Kent (where JB grew up) etc. Mood: Spying/ Shilling/ Derailing/ Setting my own agenda/ Vesper Martini/ Vodka Martini, shaken not stirred etc.

Seeker7

a reply to: Seeker7

If i squint my eyes and look from a distance your posts appears to be an instriction manual

This sort of thing has been going on for years under OP Samson and the joint support group it's nothing new. The aim is not to target sites such as this it's mainly used for intelligence gathering. There are genuine people out there who are a genuine threat who go unchecked and this group is most likely being formed to target them.

They don't need a brigade of trained men and women to influence the people when the news and media do a fine job of that anyway.

a reply to: stirling

I'm offended you use the word pommies its derogatory and offensive and i'm definitely not stupid!

a reply to: funkadeliaaaa

Ha ha, yes, nice one Funkadeliaaaa!

Whilst writing, I too also noticed that the perfect?? 77th Brigade shill's avatar is any mix of my observations.

The problem with this "perfection" would be that now, as this story has gone public, Atsters particularly, will be on the look out for these new cyber-soliders. Any of my recommendations would be like a great big sign saying "BEWARE: I will say I'm not a shill 'cause I believe you to be too stupid to see otherwise"- unless- they are attempting reverse psychology!

Regarding this [r.p.]; one must ask, if they genuinely believed the info regarding WMD/ 45 mins deployment in Iraq or that we will swallow whatever guff they put out when the Chilcot Report is finally made public (and whatever explanation re: Tony and his Libyan "favours/ friend(s)")/ **insert any other UK cover-up/ b.s. you wish, here**, then reverse psychology is beyond them and they are indeed stupid enough to join a site like this using a username such as "Iamheretotwistyourviewpointtominenowbehaveandcomply", complete with a shadow figure doing a "shhhh" gesture with " 77th Brig & MI6" as their signiture.

In all seriousness, a properly trained shill will be almost impossible to spot; until at least they have done a-hell-of-alot of damage and/or gleened a-hell-of-alot of info about whichever member has pinged their radar!!!!!!

Seeker7

a reply to: Ezappa

What does pommie mean?.
I have never known.

a reply to: Seeker7

The problem with this "perfection" would be that now, as this story has gone public, Atsters particularly, will be on the look out for these new cyber-soliders. Any of my recommendations would be like a great big sign saying "BEWARE: I will say I'm not a shill 'cause I believe you to be too stupid to see otherwise"- unless- they are attempting reverse psychology! 

Actually shills are continually betting against our intelligence, attention span, memory, resourcefullness motivation and capacity for forming indipendant opinions thoughts judgements views and non mainstream attitudes towards life.

Soooooooooo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [insert your own conclusions about that here]

apparently we have some here already

originally posted by: funkadeliaaaa

Actually shills are continually betting against our intelligence, attention span, memory, resourcefullness motivation and capacity for forming indipendant opinions thoughts judgements views and non mainstream attitudes towards life.

Soooooooooo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [insert your own conclusions about that here]

Works well enough for the American elections.....

a reply to: sg1642

A very interesting article (to me, at least), thanks for posting.

As per the article; this "shill" admitted to being a fraud shill and, as such, had his post moved to the hoax bin. However an interesting read into the mindset and activities of shilling and how it's employed on websites,

One thing that did strike me when reading his "confessional" post:

Had I of seen it originally on ATS, prior to the admission/ moving to hoax, the part when he stated:
"As stated, I was NOT assigned to work ATS (although others in my group were), ...." would of instantly aroused my suspicions:- a repentant shill, making a full confession about his activities, writing in a way that would alert others as to how to recognise shilling- yet he did not provide the usernames of these "others in my group"; which he claimed were working the site- so that the ATS staff could review these accounts, their posts and ips in order to make an assessment of their standing in regards to the website's best interests.

Surely one who is 'fessing up would of done this, especially confessing in such a full and frank way, totally disgusted with themselves in their behaviour, on the bases that:
(Quote from article):
" because I became disgusted with it, and with myself. I realized I couldn’t look myself in the mirror anymore"
and also he realises "Part of being a real man in this world is having real values that you stand up for, no matter what the consequences". Wouldn't it of pricked his conscience into preventing any further damage to people's personal beliefs/opinions occuring?
This fact, (that he did not do so), would of caused me to start to question the validity of the "confession".
Not saying that I would of come to the correct conclusion! Just a personal observation.

Anyway, a good article on the workings of a shill. A frequent visitor to ATS would of learned much of this already from the to/fro in certain threads over time. Good to see it in article form. All the tips and tricks laid out before you, so as what one should look out for.

Seeker7

a reply to: douglas5

A bit late to the party but better late than never

Late to the party or softening up the public for another "coalition of the willing" invasion, I mean "humanitarian" action. Dark days ahead?

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

With the Ukrainians going to unleash also a herd of them

You mean the ""US sanctioned "democratically"" elected Ukraine

a reply to: Seeker7

They are here. Kind of creepy. The government ones I don't mind so much, it is the corporate ones that try to demonize the competition or anything that may threaten their product that really like to use dishonest debate tactics.

Not much different that a car salesmen some of the shills are.

a reply to: MALBOSIA

I'm willing to give up my name D.O.B and S.I.N numbers to publicly verify my identity as an individual voice

You dont find that masochistic in the light of some "too close to the truth" OPs that have been 404d lately?

a reply to: jrod

trying to influence the 3rd person reader of the forum, or at least hope to. That is my hunch on the shill games.

Thats my suspicion as well, that would pay the higher dividend for them