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?

Exactly.

It's fairly common for anyone who regularly posts in defence of Israel to be accused of being either a bot or a person paid by Israel, but that will be a false accusation in most cases as is evident from the style of posting (nothing bot- like about it).

It's just because some people can't accept others having a different opinion to themselves and the bubble they must live in to think anyone who disagrees with their position must not be a genuine person.

Mn just confirmed you’re wrong on this.

Could you post a link to that please?

@andnowwhatdowedoyou’re on the same thread as the post

I can't see it, I don't seem to have been tagged. ETA Sorry , you mean the reply to OP. I thought you meant they said I was wrong. Perhaps MN have not noticed the bots but I am pretty sure they are here.

Surely the point is, there would not be "Green bots" and "Reform bots" paid for by Zack P and Nige?

Surely the point is, bad faith actors would post in the style of any extreme or contentious opinion to drive dissent and damage cohesion? They wouldn't be allied to either view, they just want to disrupt.

Yes I know. It was hypothetical to reinforce my opinion.

I was going to post something very similar, but you said it better than I could. This is about leftie echo chambers, not Reform ‘bots’. And I say that as a former Labour activist.

Anything’s possible. They could be extra terrestrial for all I know. I just don’t post on a thread, have a difference of opinion with someone and immediately think ….. BOT!!

This isn’t about any particular group or political leaning. Rather, it reflects a broader pattern in how people interpret online communication.

The way some posters express themselves can lead others to question whether they are genuine, even when they are real people sharing sincere views. Often this comes down to communication style.

Posts that lack nuance, rely heavily on repeated slogans, or present claims without evidence or context can come across as “bot-like.”

As a result, those who struggle to express their ideas clearly are more vulnerable to being dismissed or ignored. By contrast, viewpoints that are well articulated, thoughtfully argued, and sound distinctly human in tone are far more likely to invite meaningful engagement, even when they challenge the majority opinion.

In practice, this often means that people with stronger communication skills are more likely to have their ideas taken seriously than those who express themselves less clearly.

That imbalance isn’t new and it shapes who gets heard and who is overlooked.

But neither do I. Why this connection between disagreeing with a view and assuming it comes a bot?

Neither neither do I

I am doing OP the courtesy of thinking she does not do that either.

Yeah MN confirmed with a "trust me bro". They can't even stop the obvious spam posts. Last year they distributed CSAM for hours. Twice. But no bots? Sure...

🇬🇧 not a bot 😄

Other platforms exist then if you don’t trust it.

Thanks Becky I appreciate this (sorry for late response only just got home).

Good to know we can report these for troll hunting!

Just to be 100% clear though, did you mean you've not seen evidence of bots, or that you've not seen evidence of users accusing people of being bots?

Because according to many on here, actual bots are everywhere! It's not my area of expertise so I don't know how you'd confirm it. I suppose there must be ways though.

Again that’s just not true in my experience.

If you start a thread with a political viewpoint that is unpopular you are initially aggressively hounded to try and make you leave the thread. When that doesn’t work the next tactic is to demand data, statistics, hyperlinks and reputable sources. When that doesn’t work they move to reputational damage - allegations of bots, shills and trolls.

If the original poster leaves the thread early doors, normally to never return, then the accusation is they were obviously some sort of plant. If the poster stays on the thread and refuses to be hounded off then the poster is a joke with nothing better to do with their lives and obviously a bigot with entrenched views.

Of course the site is full of bots. I spend a lot of time in some of the more niche sections of the board and the quieter areas are infested. I often come across threads where there is one legitimate OP and 20+ replies of bots talking back between each other. I report them on sight and MNHQ always agree they are bots and delete them.

If you think the more busy areas are immune then you are in for a big surprise. It's just easier to spot in quiet areas as you see so many suspicious posts close together it becomes obvious how samey they are. It's a bit harder to tell when there are just a handful sewn into a large thread.

Can you link me to these threads as I am genuinely not seeing it?

I agree. A lot of carefully worded posts with "talking points" straight from the Musk "bring the UK down in flames" playbook. Though I am not sure if that is how you define a bot, I certainly don't think a lot of OPs (thread starters) are sincere.

However I am willing to believe a lot of the replies supporting the OP are indeed genuine posters. I disagree with them but what distressed me is the feeling that someone/ ones like musk, putin etc are deliberately undermining UK society.

If MN had a way of weeding out these what are effectively promotional posts, it would be good, but I very much doubt that can be done.

if you're going to call others stupid, please at least try to understand what they're talking about first!

Check out the gaming topic and you will find entire threads of deleted posts where I've reported bots who were deleted.

the posts are deleted though from what you’ve said. Can you link to a thread full of bots so I can see the posting style?

Yeah, this. Then lots of genuine posters join in the clamour (I think because they have been wound up by X, facebook etc, others may think because "it's about time someone said what we're all thinking")

Depresses the fuck out of me.

Please elaborate. Which bit of the OP do you think I failed to understand?

She was asking MN to confirm that the large number of posters on MN expressing support for Reform were not bots, because she believes that there are actually many people who genuinely hold these views and it is therefore inappropriate for those who hold different views to simply dismiss them as bots.

I was agreeing with her that the Reform-supporting posts are probably not bots because that there are genuinely lots of people who are stupid and racist enough to hold these far right views. Unfortunately.

So please tell me which bit of the OP's post do you think I failed to understand? I presume that you understand that I can have a different assessment from the OP regarding the rights and wrongs of voting Reform while simultaneously agreeing that their supporters are sadly real people?