"Change Agents"

PAULWATSON

In my opinion this site is coming down with what is known in the business as "change agents".

These people are employed to raise issues and topics and guide discussion on certain things. They also shut down all debate on issues which the agenda does not want brought to light.

Any time I look in after hours, there are at least three major threads that have this propaganda written all over them.

Any thoughts?

Kepti

What threads/posters?

Who employs them?

Where does one apply for a forum posting job?

namloc1980

Unless you can show us evidence of this then you're talking nonsense.

espinolman

PAULWATSON wrote: »

These people are employed to raise issues and topics and guide discussion on certain things. They also shut down all debate on issues which the agenda does not want brought to light.

It was all planned before the internet started .
People who read the internet think they know something .

Monty Burnz

espinolman wrote: »

It was all planned before the internet started .
People who read the internet think they know something .

Do you read the internet?

iPlop

Usernames or it didn't happen.

Hookah

Are we allowed to name other posters who we suspect are 'Change Agents', and then ask them to provide proof and clear, verifiable evidence that they are not, in fact, 'Change Agents'?

iPlop

Hookah wrote: »

Are we allowed to name other posters who we suspect are 'Change Agents', and then ask them to provide proof and clear, verifiable evidence that they are not, in fact, 'Change Agents'?

Theres one or two that spring to mind but I'll not publicly name them:D

namloc1980

Hookah wrote: »

Are we allowed to name other posters who we suspect are 'Change Agents', and then ask them to provide proof and clear, verifiable evidence that they are not, in fact, 'Change Agents'?

What kind of nonsense is this?

Monty Burnz

If we can't name the suspects, can we at least identify the agendas that they are pushing?

Hookah

namloc1980 wrote: »

What kind of nonsense is this?

It's a mixture of satire and parody.

nyarlothothep

Dude AH is a bastion of right wing populist tripe and macho internet warrior hooting and chest beating. I wouldn't even waste my time reading most of the threads there, they're retarded (eg "Should I smear the walls with pooh?", or threads with a question but no answer for the title like "Do you ever...?" followed by something completely asinine like "miss the lollipop lady from that ad in 1987") So based on that kind of stuff any thread which veers into anything "highfalutin" is going to attract substandard responses. Is it due to change agents? I don't know but I'd more likely ascribe it to indoctrinated soap boxers.

Jeboa Safari

nyarlothothep wrote: »

Dude AH is a bastion of right wing populist tripe and macho internet warrior hooting and chest beating. I wouldn't even waste my time reading most of the threads there, they're retarded (eg "Should I smear the walls with pooh?", or threads with a question but no answer for the title like "Do you ever...?" followed by something completely asinine like "miss the lollipop lady from that ad in 1987") So based on that kind of stuff any thread which veers into anything "highfalutin" is going to attract substandard responses. Is it due to change agents? I don't know but I'd more likely ascribe it to indoctrinated soap boxers.

AH is cringworthy in the extreme, but I wouldn't call it a bastion of right wing populism, theres at least as much lefty loons over there. And most threads are based around girls or people posting the same tired jokes/memes for thanks anyway.

Oracle

Well not sure about this site, but I would agree, this forum has some very unusual threads and posting styles, for example:

1) "Tit-for-tat" arguing that effectively shuts down many threads because no one else will contribute, if they do they're ignored.
2) Many other threads are dominated by a handful of contributors.
3) Extraordinarily long posts by these same people, sometimes with excessive quoting and copy and paste.
4) Compete lack of moderation of these highly disruptive and unfair practices.
5) Heavy handed over-moderation of other threads where legitimate discussion is taking place.

This has been going on for years on this forum. I think it encourages many people to simply switch off the topic, the thread and the forum. I suspect thats the whole idea.

Guy:Incognito

Ah the old "this is the truth but we cant show you any evidence just believe us" trick? Well I suppose there is form for this kind of thing, the church has been stringing that out for over 2000 years.

GarlicBread

PAULWATSON wrote: »

Any thoughts?

Since the land of TV + radio + papers is taking a back seat to the internet, the days of selective programming are almost over. New schemes need to be rolled out in order to maintain control.

If too many people begin to think critically, the world might actually start to evolve into a better place, god forbid!

clever_name

espinolman wrote: »

It was all planned before the internet started .
.

Thats like saying you were born in a house you built yourself.

espinolman wrote: »

People who read the internet think they know something .

Yes and so do people who read books, people who watch TV, people who read newspapers and even people who talk to mad tommy down the pub.

Yitzhak Rabin

Here's an interesting post another user posted in another forum:

Today I started a new job as a software test engineer. It's not fun; I'm in a den full of smelly guys doing the same test over and over again until something breaks. I'm loving it. I haven't felt this good, this clean about work in years. Though I have an unending Non Disclosure Agreement with my last company, the focus of this post, I want to do this to help... I don't know, assuage my guilt (?) at what I've done for a paycheck for the past [X] years. This is my story; I hope I can get it all out during my 45 minute lunch break.
I was hired by a commercial marketing company about [X] years ago. At first I was started off simply polling the internet for opinions, getting the general feel of the public and using that to make suggestions on how the clients could change their marketing to get a better acceptance rate. Slowly, almost unnoticeably (though, maybe I had my own blinders on), our direction started changing. When I was hired, there were [a dozen or two] other guys like me doing "market research." We expanded as the company took on more clients, and the bigger we got, the more our directives changed. Eventually we stopped polling for opinions almost entirely and, instead, we were instructed to directly manipulate public opinion via posting as users on forums and community boards. We were supposed to be the catalysts to set off sparks of support (or outrage) for (or against) some person or product. Chances are you've read my posts before without knowing it; Digg and, eventually, Reddit were good places for "general" work, though most of our time was spent on forums with more specific topics.
I've worked for more than a few well-known clients, and worked to change opinions on people, companies, and products that frequently (though not always) went against my personal convictions. We worked for politicians, video game publishers, media companies, phone companies, food companies, a shoe company... everyone you can imagine, really.
On a typical job, the client would get six to twelve "researchers" and we would actually start by doing real polling to find a basis. What do people already think? What emotional platforms can we exploit? Each of us has a reservoir of hundreds of accounts on dozens of forums and community boards. (In some cases we paid the website owners to create "old" accounts for us, complete with backdated registration date, increased post count, and whatever community points/ranks they used, if any.) This way we could frequently work on a particular community without it seeming like one person (or group of people) was always being the vanguard for things. Even though each of us had multiple accounts on a particular forum, we seldom work alone, as spotting similar writing styles between different accounts proved to be detrimental early on. We also added a repertoire of hundreds of paid, private proxies around the world. (We didn't give internet detectives enough credit, and we were called out a couple of times.) Most of the time we have a group of guys go on a forum and publicly discuss the product, talking it up and hyping it, but with a real "grassroots" genuine feel to it. At least, that's the goal. Other times we would purposely start disagreements between us, with one side meant to lose in such a pathetic way that readers would be shamed to be on "that side" of the argument. We started using this more and more as time went on, as we saw better results from it. People liked feeling that both sides of an issue had been weighed and a clear winner had been determined... even when it was all a staged show. The point is that we were supposed to start a movement and then walk away, letting the natural momentum carry it into a useful marketing tool.
We were not the only group doing this. On two occasions we were told to work with another marketing company to really drive up support for [a US political candidate] and against [his opponent]. This instance really got to me, though, as I was a supporter of and voted for [his opponent]. I think that was the turning point that really made me realize I wasn't okay doing that anymore. Still, that was some time ago, and it wasn't until just recently that I found a neutral pretense to leave while I went and found another job.
And that's where I am now. I'm making 30% less than I used to, it's contract work, and by all external appearances, it's a much worse job. Maybe it'll sink in later, but I tell you guys, I feel great about it. Even just writing this has made me feel a lot better. (The power of confession, eh?) Who knows; maybe this is the last Reddit account I'll ever need. Oh, what a nice thought that is!
*edit*
I've redacted a couple details and put generic terms between [ and ] brackets. While there are enough people that do this that I don't think it's likely that I'll be caught, I know that some of my old colleagues are likely to stumble upon this at work (and if they have any decency they'll keep it to themselves!) and I don't want to wind up in court over this public confession.

The more detailed post is here

Jesus Wept

Again, I would like to state that I am available and willing to do this work and feel I would be very good at it, pm me, discretion assured.