Can MN confirm there is no flooding of alleged Reform bots?

[DangerQuakeRhinoSnake]

I find it hard to believe bots would post on this site anyway. Sigh. But the repeated accusations from what I assume are extreme left wing posters of so called "Reform bots" to anyone who might offer a counter opinion, is both wearying and juvenile (imo).

(Notable that this same accusation is rarely - if ever - found to be made in the opposite direction).

Please can MN confirm to all that "Reform bots" are not flooding the site?

These guidelines seem to change with the wind.

Sites like Reddit is plagued with bots, so why not Mumsnet?

Thanks @BeckyAMumsnet

Then you report the posts and the moderators can look into the posting history and length of time the poster has been on the site.

What you don’t do is rock up on every thread where individuals are talking about something that doesn’t adhere to your ideology and accuse the poster(s) of being a bot.

😆sorry, what do you mean?
You want no one on MN to support reform or tonny robinson

There’s plenty of posters who still back Labour. It seems everyone else gets accused of being a bot by those posters.

There are three possibilities:

• Some posts are from bots - there are bots on any popular internet forum, whatever tech support says

• Some posters are using AI to help fashion their responses, which can appear bot-like.

• There are also foolish people and some of them post on the internet

I wish people who supported Reform,Restore, TR and his ilk on MN were bots. Unfortunately there seems to be real people who fall for the shite they spout.

I'd be shocked if there were no bots here.
They are missing a huge captive audience if "people" have not tried to influence things here.
It's natural to assume bots have a different persuasion to you, but it's possible both (far) left and right are present.

Probably not a lot of Lib Dem bots around, perhaps a gap in the market?

I feel sad when I see extreme posts and I kind of hope they are bots and not the views of genuine users.

Of course the forth possibility is that there are people that exist in the world who have different opinions than yourself 🤷‍♀️
I know it’s hard to listen and the lack of critical thinking that exists nowadays feeds into the want to shut people down rather than debate with them, but sometimes you have to pull your big girl pants up and read stuff that offends your sensibilities.

You misunderstood point 3 there.

Sometimes a poster appears to be bot-like because their position is peculiar, illogical, maybe naive - perhaps it is impossible to see how they could possibly have reached the conclusion that they have. But they are real people posting in good faith.

I haven’t a clue whether I would agree with your posts or not btw, so don’t take it personally.

Well, the answer to that would be whether or not some political parties are more likely to use bots surely?

I see a lot of bot activity but I don't think I've seen any political bot activity recently. Possibly one. Or maybe that was just a super insensitive person, I don't know.

Labour voters are more likely to accuse people of being bots?

I havent misunderstood it at all.

Sometimes a poster appears to be bot-like because their position is peculiar, illogical, maybe naive - perhaps it is impossible to see how they could possibly have reached the conclusion that they have. But they are real people posting in good faith.

That’s the same broad brushstroke of a comment that people make when they are inferring all right-leaning people are Nazis and racists. Just because someone has a different opinion it doesn’t mean they are peculiar, naive or illogical.

How on earth would you know? I don’t think I’ve read one post on here where I’ve thought, that’s a bot. I’ve definitely thought that’s a bloke, or that’s an idiot, but not a bot.

There are loads of bots on Mumsnet. I particularly notice Reform, benefit bashing and pro-Israeli bots but no doubt there are plenty of others. Also inconsequential threads started and responded to by AI , goodness knows why, maybe for learning purposes.

If there are bots, would mumsnet even try to stop them? They drive engagement.

They aren’t necessarily bots because they disagree with what was once the majority’s opinion.
People had a huge shock when Brexit was voted in. Many would still vote for it again because for many it means nothing more than standing in a different airport queue.
People are tired of emigration and current events have reinforced their beliefs that life would be better without it. People are tired of Europe.
I don’t believe polls are accurate.but I wouldn’t be in the least surprised if Reform figures continue to rise.
I actually believe even Trump would get in again. Politics are in a complete spin.

There are definitely bots on social media - advertising and phishing bots but also posting fairly basic incendiary comments on news articles (often the same comment multiple times). I don't know whether there are more right wing bots than left wing - as they're just bits of code there are more supporting whatever groups or individuals pay for them to be trained and run.

Of course but that’s more about your position and not being able to take another view point.

I can't know 100% but I can make a good guess

Lots of posters on here have identified them

Is it possible that some of the people you're thinking of as idiots are actually bots?

If Trump gets in again it'll be unconstitutional, given that the US does have a written constitution and it explicitly states that presidents may never be elected more than twice.

The style they are written in is the clue, not the message.

The Green Party probably can't afford bots.

Reform however- the political party whose donations have dwarfed those of all other parties in recent years-....🤔

It isn't anything to do with my position, it's the style, especially the ones starting with faux-naive questions.
AI driven threads are identifiable by getting responses very quickly all making the same points in an emotionless style with the same Americanisms thrown in.