Moderation of upcoming elections

dav3 · 07-11-2018 12:37am #1

I think we all noticed the disproportionate amount of posts supporting a certain candidate in the recent Irish presidential election. Most notably on After Hours.

As can be seen on the exit poll carried out by RTE/Red C, the number of people who voted for the candidate Peter Casey differs greatly from the support he received on certain threads within After hours.

https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/2018/10/296718-rte-exit-poll-oct-2018-final-report.pdf

There is not a single demographic that voted for that candidate and it certainly cannot be explained away as a strange anomaly. You are being targeted, you are being targeted by users outside of Ireland. You will continue to be targeted if you do not take action against them.
I'm sure certain media outlets that have run stories on this phenomena, or even the main political parties themselves would be happy to share information with you if you require help dealing with this issue.
Using data from the likes of twitter, facebook or even the journal's comment section to justify certain positions is unwise. Like polls on boards.ie, they can all be easily manipulated. They don't stack up against actual election results, opinion polls and exit polls.

The people that run this website know exactly what their demographic is. As you can see from the data provided in the exit poll, your demographic completely disengaged from the debate in huge numbers. I'm sure this is a concern not only to the people who take running this website seriously, but also the people who pay to keep this website running.

We all hope that such a catastrophic failure by the moderation team in After Hours will not be repeated and any help they require to deal with the current situation will be provided to them.

I would like to know what measures have been put in place to prevent such an event from occurring again during an upcoming election?

I think you are well aware of what will happen if your main demographic is driven from the site. I suggest you seek help from other websites that have successfully dealt with this issue before it is too late.

Calhoun · 07-11-2018 4:14am

Wait so all the people in the Peter Casey thread are Russian bots? Who are the we you are talking about?

How would you like to censor the people of boards? Do we just ban them all?

dav3 · 07-11-2018 7:48am

I'm not au fait with the feedback forum. Is the poster above part of the feedback team or should we just ignore it?

Muscles Schultz · 07-11-2018 8:08am

dav3 wrote: »

I'm not au fait with the feedback forum. Is the poster above part of the feedback team or should we just ignore it?

Who are ‘we’?

listermint · 07-11-2018 8:15am

Moderation has fallen on its arse in after hours. It has been run riot by minority extremists I don't think for any particular reason as in to give balance. but moderators don't even respond to flags. There is people in there telling other posters literally to f off and hounding them out of discussions and nothing is done.

The charter is out the window and there is blatant and obvious trolling going on. As in accounts setup recently who's sole purpose is to push extreme views. They don't even. Participate in other forum discussions. Nothing no to and fro on normal issues.

Something's up. Moderation is a pain in the ass job but either there isn't enough people to do it . Or they over all aren't bothered.

It's not reasonable anymore.

Signore Fancy Pants · 07-11-2018 8:17am

LOL.

Drama Llama

listermint · 07-11-2018 8:18am

Does feedback usually descend into name calling?

Yeah that's a way to address discussion....

Roger Hassenforder · 07-11-2018 8:22am

#notabot

Signore Fancy Pants · 07-11-2018 9:02am

listermint wrote: »

Does feedback usually descend into name calling?

Yeah that's a way to address discussion....

Youre right. My apologies.

07-11-2018 9:07am

The vital data that is missing is the opinion poll conducted after Peter Casey had made his comments. But for some reason we were not provided with that information even though the were two opinion polls carried out in the last week of the 2011 election. It’s also worth noting that the information listed on wiki regarding an opinion poll of this election was given an incorrect date. This made it look like Peter Casey was polling at 2% on the final week of election but it was actually the publication date and not the gathering of information timeline.

#notabot

kneemos · 07-11-2018 9:08am

Who the hell cares who gets the president of Ireland job? Or which centre left party wins a general election for that matter.

The Board demographic probably represented what people were thinking,but weren't willing to vote for that eegit.

sydthebeat · 07-11-2018 9:08am

This is hilarious levels of conspiracy theory.

I think occams razor should apply here

Calhoun · 07-11-2018 9:33am

dav3 wrote: »

I'm not au fait with the feedback forum. Is the poster above part of the feedback team or should we just ignore it?

It's feedback you don't think that you can give feedback unchallenged did you ? As if your the sole arbiter of judgement.

Just comes across like the usual attempt to shutdown conversation. Your comments on the thread in question pretty much back this up.

Wanderer78 · 07-11-2018 9:40am

Unfortunately, it looks like Ireland has caught the new wave of populism buzz, the build up to the ge should be interesting, hopefully it doesn't disrupt too much, but I suspect casey will be the least of our worries by then. There's a lot of disaffected people here to, global democracy has a few serious issues to attend to.

Hurrache · 07-11-2018 9:52am

While I do believe people are using After Hours to spam with political views that would be easily torn apart in the actual Politics forums, I don't believe to the extent in the OP, I think that's a stretch.

I'm not one for censorship, I've no problem when people use facts, but that never happens because rarely do some posters have them.

I never thought having the Politics Café was a good idea, but I've now come around to the idea that anything political should be moved there.

Only yesterday evening I was wishing there was a way to remove anything from After Hours appearing on the front page, it's depressing what some people see as discourse.

tabby aspreme · 07-11-2018 9:53am

I'm amazed at the look of disappointment that remains on the faces of people who thought Peter Casey would get just 2% , not 23%, of the vote, three weeks after the election.

As regards support for Peter Casey on AH, I think it has increased with people who were disgusted with the recent hatchet job by Tubridy and other media who are trying to shut down any discussion, and most of these posters, post on many forums across Board's.

My Russian neighbour's did vote for PC , they grew up with communism, it was anyone but MDH

kneemos · 07-11-2018 10:07am

Hurrache wrote: »

While I do believe people are using After Hours to spam with political views that would be easily torn apart in the actual Politics forums, I don't believe to the extent in the OP, I think that's a stretch.

I'm not one for censorship, I've no problem when people use facts, but that never happens because rarely do some posters have them.

I never thought having the Politics Café was a good idea, but I've now come around to the idea that anything political should be moved there.

Only yesterday evening I was wishing there was a way to remove anything from After Hours appearing on the front page, it's depressing what some people see as discourse.

Nothing should be moved to the Politics Cafe, it deserted.

Hurrache · 07-11-2018 10:18am

kneemos wrote: »

Nothing should be moved to the Politics Cafe, it deserted.

Because people are expected to back up the points and arguments they make. Pretty hard to do when you can't or are just bull****ting.

MrMusician18 · 07-11-2018 10:33am

listermint wrote: »

Moderation has fallen on its arse in after hours. It has been run riot by minority extremists I don't think for any particular reason as in to give balance. but moderators don't even respond to flags. There is people in there telling other posters literally to f off and hounding them out of discussions and nothing is done.

The charter is out the window and there is blatant and obvious trolling going on. As in accounts setup recently who's sole purpose is to push extreme views. They don't even. Participate in other forum discussions. Nothing no to and fro on normal issues.

Something's up. Moderation is a pain in the ass job but either there isn't enough people to do it . Or they over all aren't bothered.

It's not reasonable anymore.

I couldn't disagree more. Moderation of AH has improved immeasurable since a few moderators moved on (these moderators had more of an interest in curating than moderating) and have been replaced with a more relaxed crew. To be honest, the moderation of AH from 2012 up until relatively recently did a huge amount of damage to the site, and it's no surprise that the site had seen a slide in traffic during that period.

There has always been strong anti-traveller sentiment in AH, it's just that threads on travellers would traditionally have been suppressed. It's hard to think that two or three years years ago that the debate regarding travellers and Casey would have been able to happen on AH. It wouldn't have.

As for the difference in the pro Casey posting on AH vs opinion polling: the demographic that uses this site did not turn out in ways like it did for repeal or marriage equality. It requires significantly less effort to vote online and as it is meaningless it can also be mindless. I for example may come across as a Casey supporter here, but I didn't give him a preference as I thought he would make a poor president.

While I'm sure our corner of the internet has seen foreign meddling, that now normally takes the form of forming divisions rather than pushing the right. If you look at the Casey threads, it's just a small number of surprisingly dedicated posters taking up the battle against him. Hmm.

Fann Linn · 07-11-2018 10:39am

Roger Hassenforder wrote: »

#notabot

#metoo

Calhoun · 07-11-2018 10:39am

Also let's not forget there are a small bunch of dedicated posters supporting him.

People have gone over the line and been brought up on it by the mods.

MrMusician18 · 07-11-2018 10:46am

Hurrache wrote: »

Because people are expected to back up the points and arguments they make. Pretty hard to do when you can't or are just bull****ting.

No, it's because posters don't want to have to kindly ask permission to post. I won't

I was a regular contributor to the old Cafe, but both it and Politics were being run in a cack handed way, particularly when it came to Irish Water topics.

Hurrache · 07-11-2018 10:51am

Well that's one way of cutting out toxicity, from both sides. Couldn't be bothered requesting access, or having to defend your points, don't bother so.

Calhoun · 07-11-2018 11:06am

That misunderstand the nature of what AH is and why we have conversations there.

You will be picked up on things in AH but your not forced to go get a peer reviewed journal.

listermint · 07-11-2018 11:20am

MrMusician18 wrote: »

No, it's because posters don't want to have to kindly ask permission to post. I won't

I was a regular contributor to the old Cafe, but both it and Politics were being run in a cack handed way, particularly when it came to Irish Water topics.

So your a rereg then....

I mean just looking at your join date..........

listermint · 07-11-2018 11:22am

Calhoun wrote: »

That misunderstand the nature of what AH is and why we have conversations there.

You will be picked up on things in AH but your not forced to go get a peer reviewed journal.

Much of the discussion decends into absolute nonsense, and very quickly.

Whats the point in the charter if its not adhered to

MrMusician18 · 07-11-2018 11:22am

listermint wrote: »

So your a rereg then....

I mean just looking at your join date..........

Yes I am.
Those that close accounts can re reg if they wish, as I have done.

07-11-2018 11:31am

dav3 wrote: »

I think we all noticed the disproportionate amount of posts supporting a certain candidate in the recent Irish presidential election. Most notably on After Hours.

As can be seen on the exit poll carried out by RTE/Red C, the number of people who voted for the candidate Peter Casey differs greatly from the support he received on certain threads within After hours.

https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/2018/10/296718-rte-exit-poll-oct-2018-final-report.pdf

There is not a single demographic that voted for that candidate and it certainly cannot be explained away as a strange anomaly. You are being targeted, you are being targeted by users outside of Ireland. You will continue to be targeted if you do not take action against them.
I'm sure certain media outlets that have run stories on this phenomena, or even the main political parties themselves would be happy to share information with you if you require help dealing with this issue.
Using data from the likes of twitter, facebook or even the journal's comment section to justify certain positions is unwise. Like polls on boards.ie, they can all be easily manipulated. They don't stack up against actual election results, opinion polls and exit polls.

The people that run this website know exactly what their demographic is. As you can see from the data provided in the exit poll, your demographic completely disengaged from the debate in huge numbers. I'm sure this is a concern not only to the people who take running this website seriously, but also the people who pay to keep this website running.

We all hope that such a catastrophic failure by the moderation team in After Hours will not be repeated and any help they require to deal with the current situation will be provided to them.

I would like to know what measures have been put in place to prevent such an event from occurring again during an upcoming election?

I think you are well aware of what will happen if your main demographic is driven from the site. I suggest you seek help from other websites that have successfully dealt with this issue before it is too late.

It's only a catastrophic failure in your mind's eye because the AH poll did not reflect your views. To demonise users for their honest appraisal reeks of sour grapes. This passive aggressive whinging isn't dignified, get over yourself.

sydthebeat · 07-11-2018 11:36am

dav3 wrote: »

.

the only meaningful data to be extrapolated from that table is that 63% of sinn feins own followers didnt vote for their own candidate.... thats very damning.

Calhoun · 07-11-2018 11:43am

listermint wrote: »

Much of the discussion decends into absolute nonsense, and very quickly.

Whats the point in the charter if its not adhered to

Well thats your opinion, for some people the discussion is very much relevant. Some of the conversation is overdone and rehashed but its better its contained in one thread.

listermint · 07-11-2018 12:32pm

Calhoun wrote: »

Well thats your opinion, for some people the discussion is very much relevant. Some of the conversation is overdone and rehashed but its better its contained in one thread.

Id agree if it was discussion and not just a vehicle for attacking individuals.

Charter is meaningless.

Moderation of upcoming elections

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