I have recently (past few days) been much more active on CC than I have been for a while. (Work has tapered off, been bored, haha!) I have noticed a sudden abundance of inflammatory posts on many different forums. Often these posts bring up race in some way, or allude to politics, or seem to be negative about a particular college, with the poster not giving any real support for the point of view.
But what is making me turn “conspiracy theorist” is that when I notice these posters’ backgrounds, they seem to have all joined CC pretty recently. In particular, there are 3 new posters who all joined on either April 5 or 6, and who seem pretty well-versed on college stuff. They have all joined in, or initiated conversations that seemed designed to elicit negative reactions. In some cases, all of their posts then seem to disappear. Really seriously dumb question here, or a dumb serious question, but has CC been invaded by T roll$ or bots? Has anyone else noticed any posters who might fit this pattern? Have any mods noticed an increase in these types of posts by brand new members, or an increase in reports of “bad behavior”?
@3scoutsmom , I have been flagging them. And because it just seemed odd that there were a number of them, all from people who had joined in the last few days, I thought I would see if anyone else noticed anything unusual.
There are such posters every year. And yes there have been a few recently. I don’t know whether it’s a snow day somewhere or people with a political agenda. I did notice more posts along the lines of ‘racial grievances’. I even wondered if the thread “are Hispanics no longer URM” which is about admission hooks wasn’t at attempt at fishing preaching the false to gather useful information for another purpose. But I try to stay away from these threads so I’m not sure whether it’s concerted.
I’ve certainly noticed a boost in “grievance politics” posts about why students didn’t get into top colleges this year. Definitely focused on URM acceptances (I notice they aren’t complaining about legacies or athletes). I just figured it was a sign of the times. But you could be right.
Yeah I agree with you @Lindagaf there have been many new accounts with controversial posts and threads lately. I’ve been flagging as many as I can but there are too many to flag…
Agree, you may have something. I try (not always successfully) to pass on commenting on inflammatory posts by first time posters – I feel like they may just be venting or baiting people to comment.
Forgot to tag a lot of people, hope you don’t feel left out. Also want to ask @CCadmin_Sorin if he thinks there is any reason to believe that, indeed, there could be something to my “conspiracy theory.”
Have we noticed? Yes. Is it an increase over recent months? Yes. Is it an increase from this period of time last year? I don’t have data, but I will say no. I have noticed a historical spike around admissions time.
As others have said, we often catch them on our own, but none of the moderators are here 24/7. So, as the say, if you see something, say something. Every post has a flag button. If you have a sense as to who the prior incarnation of the user may be, include that. From a moderator perspective, sometimes a serial spammer is easy to spot; other times it takes some detective work. @Lindagaf
I definitely notice more this year. I always pay a lot of attention at this time of year. My opinion is that it is worse than it’s ever been. Yes, there are some senior posters who seem to be more vocal about it, but it seems that it’s these new posters that are deliberately trying to provoke.
@skieurope , I pmed you with a list of suspicious users. I don’t want to smear anyone on the open forum, just in case they are legit.
All of whom are on are radar, some due to reports from eagle-eyed users, some we caught ourselves. All but one has already been 86’d, and the last we’re still looking at.
Some of those recent threads actually look like content farm articles on social media. That reminds me the fake news on FB a couple years ago. They have well engineered title to attract you to read it.
