I've been seeing lots of low post counts with really questionable post content

[titaniumsalute]

I want new people to join DU and always try to be open to new posters. But when you see a low poster count with really short snippets of content it makes you wonder. I've seen like two or three in the past 10 minutes where a low post count member was kind of being argumentative and debbie downers.

Sometimes I want to blatantly call people out...but other times I'm sure they are legit. How do you handle this?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. If you really think they're trolls, then alert on their posts.

You can be sure that MIRT is watching them too.

[ColemanMaskell]

7. MIRT is ... what?

Didn't find MIRT in DU glossary
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x190#k

Searching elsewhere I found:
Multidimensional Item Response Theory
Mobile Infrared Transmitter
Multidisciplinary International Research Training

So -- What is MIRT (in the context you meant)?

[titaniumsalute]

12. Monkeys In Real Trouble?

Mothers Interrupting Red Troubadours
Matt Inserted Rectal Thermometer

[CaliforniaPeggy]

20. MIRT=Malicious Intruder Removal Team

It's a group of volunteer DUers who watch the new posters with post counts below 100 to make sure they aren't trolls. They serve a 3 month term. I've been on MIRT a few times and it's very interesting!

Being on MIRT gives you a close-up view of what sort of activities go on here on DU. If we didn't have this group, DU would be over-run with spammers and ugly people all the time.

EarlG puts up an announcement when the term is nearly over for new volunteers. Try it sometime! It's very educational.

[PatSeg]

46. What a great name!

I would have never figured that out from the acronym MIRT though.

I had not idea that there was such a team. Good to know.

[Fla Dem]

23. Malicious Intruders Removal Team

If you are concerned about a post you can always alert. Let the jury decide.

[virgogal]

29. That is real "cloak and dagger" stuff.

[titaniumsalute]

10. Well OK

Like I said I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I will start doing that

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. Leave them alone.

No need to engage with someone who may be playing a loser's game.

I, personally, just don't have time for it.

[lapfog_1]

3. I typically ignore them

especially when the post borders on the absurd and seems to try to drive us to some sort of extreme position.

I don't bother to alert, I don't reply... I just move on.

If they are a legit liberal, then I can respond to a later posting... and if not, eventually they get tired and go away.

[ColemanMaskell]

4. Well, if you think they're bogus,

post a reply saying "Are you for real? Is this a bogus robo-post or are you just grammatically challenged?"

If they don't reply to that, they're probably a robot. uh, or grammatically challenged, in which case I'd be so embarrassed ... but if they don't reply in that case then they probably won't post again either, so it still works.

[Lil Missy]

5. I think there is a rule against referring to new, or "low post" members as trolls.

Someone might alert YOU for this rude OP

[demmiblue]

13. Someone might alert on YOU for personally attacking the OP and interfering with forum moderation.

[Lil Missy]

14. That is not a personal attack. Go ahead and alert it.

[demmiblue]

15. Good lawd, I am not going to alert on you.

Just pointing out the fact that strict adherence to "the rules" would have had your post hidden. Mine as well!

[In_The_Wind]

16. Someone did.

[demmiblue]

17. As an SOP violation?

I can see that.

There seems to be a lot of meta threads lately.

[In_The_Wind]

18. It was ... No divisive group attacks

Meta is up to a jury as host no longer lock meta OPs.

[demmiblue]

21. I did not know that.

I always thought meta posts violated the SoP. I don't know why it would be different now.

Hunh... I wonder if they are slowly aiming to get rid of the hosting system?

[In_The_Wind]

22. We are on the endangered list.

and I for one will really get bored

[demmiblue]

25. LOL!

Cat: DU SoP violation

Dog: In_The_Wind (when the hosting system becomes extinct)

[In_The_Wind]

41. I'll go batshitcrazy with nothing to do.

[virgogal]

28. Reminds me of kindergarten---"I'm tellin' the teacher ".

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. He is not calling out any individual new member. Big difference. . . . . . nt

[titaniumsalute]

32. Really?? I never said the word troll...YOU did

And how the fuck was I rude? I asked a simple question.

[Shrike47]

6. MIRT works hard but some trolls get on, at least for awhile.

Alert if you believe rules are being broken.

[Demonaut]

8. low...I'm low but been here forever

[anneboleyn]

63. I don't think they mean posters like us w/long histories and posts in the thousands

I think they mean the new people who show up during the most heated part of election time (like in the last two months and not during the primaries) and have less than 1,000 posts. There have been a bunch of these lately (some will only have two dozen posts for example), and it is noticeable how they post "bad news for Hillary"-type posts w/out posting anything positive or really contributing to discussions. At least that is what I am guessing the OP means.

It has happened every election since I joined DU circa 2004. I think 2008 was the worst for low-count "concern trolls" and straight-up interference from the Freepers.

[Yonnie3]

11. Instead of calling them out ...

nicely tell them how their posts come across - too short - too whatever - try to engage them

or

scroll right past their posts.

I've read DU for a long time and been posting a short time. My observation is that there are argumentative and negative people with a high post count here too.

If they are trolls, opposition agents or enough of a bad person, MIRT seems to be effective.

Just my two cents.

[Orrex]

19. People with 51,741 posts are the shadiest of all.

Watch out!

[womanofthehills]

27. Actually, some are

there are some with high posts who never ever comment politically on anything - but jump into action when someone puts down a corporation.

[SwankyXomb]

30. "Five Figure F***heads", I like to call them

Quantity does not always equal quality.

[MicaelS]

50. Then there are some who never

Post anything but links and an excerpt. No commentary at all.

[anneboleyn]

64. I learned the high post count issue after tangling with one who has since left DU

He/she had a few very intense obsessions. If one of those obsessions was mentioned, this poster would attack all posters disagreeing with his/her decidedly non-progressive point of view. I had to resort to ignore, which I use rarely, but the poster left after starting so many fights that nobody was charitable and stopped responding to the threads that OP would start (which would often feature clickbait, melodramatic titles)

[titaniumsalute]

33. Nice...LOL

[awoke_in_2003]

58. Regular bastards

and Methodists

[mulsh]

24. I have a low post count and I've been here pretty much daily since 2001. There are more trolls

these days than I've ever seen but low or high post counts are a side issue. You can usually tell the trolls by the content of their posts. Eventually something give them away.

Old timers will remember some of the shocking revelations of trolls, especially after presidential elections. For instance shortly after the 2004 election a number of high post early members revealed themselves to be trolls in dramatic farewell posts. I'm sure of the some old timers will remember that.

[titaniumsalute]

35. Yeah I've been around since about 2002

My current profile shows 2008 because I had some weird situation with passwords and old email addresses that the mods wouldn't reset. So I had to cancel and come back with a fresh account. I'm on here everyday. I read LBN and General everyday. But I don't post much.

[Marr]

26. Eh, I think the vast majority of people are savvy enough to see that for what it is.

People are amazingly perceptive about these things. They often even recognize other posters using sockpuppets, which is orders of magnitude more difficult to spot.

[John1956PA]

34. For years, the M.O. you describe has been used by MIs who enter DU on presidential election years.

I recall engaging one of them four years ago. The MI had a particular mission which I will not mention here because I do not want to see this thread become hijacked with a debate on that subject. Anyway, I notified an administrator a few times. I also exchanged personal messages with a fellow DUer who had been debating with thew MI as I was. The fellow DUer advised me not to fret because sooner or later the MI would slip up and get PPRed. Sure enough, that is what happened. Regardless, I understand your sense of disgust in watching the malicious infiltration cycle repeat.

[cwydro]

36. I've never understood post count prejudice.

We all started with one post.

Oh yes, there are trolls. But MIRT rarely (if ever) misses one.

[Skittles]

38. it's not just the low post count

it's the content - most of us joined DU and introduced ourselves or participated in a discussion regarding an issue that led us here - these repuke trolls, they're easy to spot - they're very stupid so they give themselves away while still in the single-digit post count - usually a confrontational question or a I'M VERY CONCERNED post

[cwydro]

39. I agree with you there Skittles.

Sick to death of the concern posts.

Sadly, I've seen more than a few lately from long time posters...I see those posts as very thinly disguised misogyny.

But the others usually are found out sooner or later.

[Skittles]

40. yup

it is distressing to see so much sexism / misogyny on DU

[Orrex]

42. I'm very concerned about your post

And your low post-count.

[Skittles]

56. I WILL KICK CONCERNED ORREX ASS

YES INDEED

[Skittles]

37. oh they crawl out of the woodwork when they are distressed

repuke trolls - I just call them out, let them know they DO NOT FOOL ME

[JustAnotherGen]

43. Bring them up to the MIR Team

Seriously. If it is just a couple of dozen and they have just joined in the past few days - they could be trying to hit the magic number mark that takes it out of peers hands and puts the decision into Admins. Send it up to your peers.

[Shankapotomus]

44. There should be a troll rehabilitation thread

Where if you post in it admitting you're a troll but want to make amends and reform yourself, you get to stay and won't be banned unless you have a relapse.

It might not eliminate all trolls but there has to be a statistical advantage to having such a thread if every now and then a troll reforms because they saw it.

[Yonnie3]

45. When I was a very low count poster I found that ...

Last edited Thu Sep 29, 2016, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

most DUers were welcoming and engaging, but some DUers were rude, dismissive and ascribed ulterior motives to my responses. I kept a list of them, so as to avoid confrontations. I was thinking they were suspicious of my low post count. I just reviewed my list and they are all gone from DU.

[Phentex]

52. It does seem to work out that way...

when I joined I read posts by people who said they could smell a troll the minute it posted a time or two. I wondered how they knew. But over time, you really can spot them. Some manage to hang on for a while but most get the boot at some point.

[titaniumsalute]

53. I actually don't remember if I was treated well or not

I think a few times I got called out but I didn't care. Most of my stuff is pretty overwhelming pro-Dem.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

47. Yesterday, I was called to 2 juries on just flat out racist posts.

They used n*****r and everything. I couldn't believe it.

[MicaelS]

49. Me either.

I alerted on one of them myself. It was pure filth and I said so.

[ProfessorGAC]

54. Eeep!

I get on a lot of juries, but i've never seen one that blatant. 90% of them i actually have to think about to decide whether the rule was clearly broken, borderline broken, or just not quite a violation.

But, i've never had one jury post where the decision was quite that obvious.

Yikes almighty!

[bigwillq]

48. Glad you're not on the welcoming committee

[Maru Kitteh]

60. Ha. Maybe we should have an exit interview committee, too.

[Sunlei]

51. anything with trump in headline should have its own forum. Not a single OP about Congress or Senate

and ways Ds can help those Ds who run for office.

Just the attention Donald loves, even negative attention is a daily win for the republican.

[MFM008]

55. I troll the repukes

BrietBart and others.
Just let it wash over you......

[Jersey Devil]

57. Well, I see dead people with high post counts

[Blue_Tires]

59. Just make a mental note and ignore 'em

They tend to only spring up during certain discussions, and repeat their weak-assed arguments and concern trolling like a broken record...

Don't bother alerting on them -- I've known of some posters with a stockpile of 50+ sockpuppet accounts... One gets banned, he/she moves on to the next.

[canetoad]

61. DU over the years

Has developed its own 'culture'. Newcomers obviously are not conversant with it and may appear awkward or slightly 'off' in the way they post. The blatant one post wonders deserve to be MIRTED straight away. Other than that, my preference is to wait and see a number of posts before forming an opinion.

[Warren DeMontague]

62. do a term on MIRT.

If you don't know what MIRT is, find out, then do a term on it.

It's a great way to help address what is a constant issue.