Paid Internet Shill's confession - found on ATS

[miqeel]

I came accross this post on ATS - i know that this forum is sometimes presenting questionable information, but I think that it is relevant to PA members.

Here is short summary: a guy gives his confession admitting to working as a paid internet shill in the past. His main objectives were to defend pro-Israeli point of view on Godlike Productions, Lunatic outpost and some MS media, spread disinfo, derail threads from their original train of thought and so on. He gives quite a few details of his day-to day work.

here is the link:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread826545/pg1

m

[Selene]

Wow. My thanks also to whomever had the guts to post this on ATS.

What’s really fascinating is reading the comment trail on the ATS thread – and watching all the ashills (did I just say that? Neat typo…) come out to defend themselves, mock the OP, toss doubt into it…. All the usual tactics. And they think we don’t notice, and they think they’re so invisible here, too.

[BlueGem]

Wow indeed Selene!

I feel sorry for this guy, I know what it's like when times get hard. I once nearly ended up writing articles for a plastic surgery company that targeted the elderly (or the 'grey market', as they called it)... but this is something else.

It does make sense though, especially when you read comments on Youtube or Yahoo etc. So many trolls...

[pilotsimone]

And they think we don’t notice, and they think they’re so invisible here, too.

If more people start pointing out these obvious posts here on PA, their ability to affect anything is greatly reduced.

[Prodigal Son]

Stuff like this must really piss off all the idiots doing it for free!

[13th Warrior]

Stuff like this must really piss off all the idiots doing it for free!

Did he say how much he was making?

...i wonder if i'm being underpaid...:rolleyes:

[etm567]

Did he say how much he was making?

...i wonder if i'm being underpaid...:rolleyes:Ha ha ha. :)

I can't help but wonder if there aren't more than a few who are seriously underpaid.:no:

[Ineffable Hitchhiker]

Thank you for that, miqeel.
Not having been on many forums, I was quite naive about shills.
Having been here for a year now, and after reading that, I am now able to see the subtle infiltrating and disruption of threads. aka "I don´t like sandwiches!" in a thread about sandwiches. :) (Although, often times, one does have to discern whether it is a genuine argument or an argument just for argument sake.)
Now, whether that post from the other site is genuine or not, fact remains that there are shills and one needs to be ever vigilant.


ps. LOL 5 members and 32 guests!!! :behindsofa:
:becky:

[Wub]

Note: its headed under short stories - fiction. A good read all the same!

[noprophet]

I see the short stories heading, maybe you could point me to where it says fiction?

[Wub]

Short stories are narrative, fictionalised accounts that belong to what is commonly known as the 'short story', genre. There are many collections of short stories to be found on Amazon and there appears to be a creative writing thread (under the short story heading), on ats.

[Humble Janitor]

I came accross this post on ATS - i know that this forum is sometimes presenting questionable information, but I think that it is relevant to PA members.

Here is short summary: a guy gives his confession admitting to working as a paid internet shill in the past. His main objectives were to defend pro-Israeli point of view on Godlike Productions, Lunatic outpost and some MS media, spread disinfo, derail threads from their original train of thought and so on. He gives quite a few details of his day-to day work.

here is the link:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread826545/pg1

m

I read the same thread earlier.

It wasn't long before people showed up to try and debunk it. Apparently, it's a repeat of similar threads in the past.

[Maia Gabrial]

So, someone who has strong opinions is regarded a shill.....? IMO if you have an opinion, you have the right to state it, others have a right to agree or disagree; but they don't have a right to steam roll you or the right to change your mind. All they have is the right to state their own opinions and then shut up....
IMO if you believe in what you say, then no amount of name calling or reasoning by a shill should make you back down. This reminds me of a high pressure salesman, and who hasn't dealt with one of those at least once in their life....? When you've finally had enough of his pushiness, you can either tell him politely "no thank you" and walk away. Or you tell him HELL NO AND GET THE F- AWAY FROM ME! Both ways work....

[Debra]

There are some fine lines here, often I have made a snap judgement on a poster, thinking that´s a shill, hands down. But, will think to myself, the mods are looking at this too. Are they? Or rather, how do they deal with this?

I would say, how they affect us can vary.

Maia Gabrial says:
IMO if you believe in what you say, then no amount of name calling or reasoning by a shill should make you back down. I would agree, but that is just me. How do others take in comments, how does it affect our thinking?

I am more concerned that shill intervention presents a major distraction, to be honest. I think often, how many times, I have become embroiled in a thread that I have wondered afterwards, what value was that? Was that time spent well? Now, that is my responsibility too but see how subtle, a shill like diversion can suck you in sometimes, especially if you are in a reactive/reactor state of mind.

I am also conscious of the fact that there is a fair amount of drivel that ends up being conversation on this forum - and that is harsh judgement - but I am also conscious that is also accessible by the general public - even more worrying, is that conversations are grabbed by search engines as well.

Is that a good look for the profile and credibility of the Avalon forum when a member of the public arrives to view a conversation?

For this reason, shill power is real because it can damage the public´s confidence in us as a reliable knowledge base for change - which is what I would hope that we are all endeavouring to achieve on here.

Thanks for reading :)
Zebra

[jackovesk]

IMHO, I think we've had 1 or 2 here, especially on the 'Ron Paul' & 'Obama' threads...:yes4:

[Seikou-Kishi]

This is actually well known. Israel's almost admitted that a large part of it's war machine is conducted on the internet.

[Neptun]

I don' buy that part"My task? “To support Israel and counter anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic posters.” Fine with me. I had no opinions one way or another about Israel, and who likes anti-Semites and Nazis? Not me, anyway. But I didn’t know too much about the topic. “That’s OK,” she said. “You’ll pick it up as you go along. For the most part, at first, you will be doing what we call “meme-patrol.” This is pretty easy. Later if you show promise, we’ll train you for more complex arguments, where more in-depth knowledge is necessary.” "

All the shills I have been fighting with are all anti Israel and hate Alex Jones and even call him an Zionist shill.

He is probably still working as a shill and is 95% honest.

Those defending Israel are very few.

I defend Israel because I can see how it fits the NWO agenda to create divide and conquer and there are many lies regarding Israel vs. Palestine.

The others defenders of Israel are most often Israelis and they know it is important to hit back on the many lies. I talk with those and they are not paid shills. Shills are secretive about themselves and don't like to socialize.

Why are the Palestinians making so many lies?
o37GHxeRqGA

[watchZEITGEISTnow]

ATS lost mikesingh, internos and many other *BRILLIANT* people due to their policy of keeping real truth from the public...

Nice CIA run website - pity they can't handle intelligent exposures...

:spy:

[watchZEITGEISTnow]

EMAIL to me from an expert in his field from mid 2009...


"Okay here is the deal.... 911 Mike et al

According to XXXX contact, XXXX...


The NAZI's are the PTB in America but its worse

Prescott Bush, Rockefellers and Standard Oil funded the NAZI into power... this is now history and Eisenhower made sanctions against them

From what XXXX said the Zionists worked WITH Hitler to wipe out the 'regular' Jew's. Hitler was Austrian born of a Jewish mother That is history too

now look at all the Nazi scientists brought to be made American, over 1500 of them. Look at the Antarctic connection to the NAZI, UFO's and Adniral Byrd

Now add the fact that the Pope made a deal of non aggression with Hitler and you can add the Jesuits to the Mix

NASA says they need money so why are they giving 11 million to the Wheeling Jesuit University?
Why is the National Technology Transfer Center, the org responsible for which company gets the technology, headquartered in Wheeling Jesuit University

As for ATS

The U2U's are monitored by robosnoop, the same sensors that sniff out swear words can sniff out anything ATS uses it to lock out certain websites like Amkon...

I have had U2Us vanish, I have seen the high light off mail incoming, and we did a few tests


FYEO

Mark's (Springer) wife is ValHall on ATS She works for Halliburton, in fact is part holder of a patent for them. Back in San Jose 2007 Bay Area UFO conference Mark told us that when he went into ATS as a full business three Jewish businessmen had donated 1 million dollars each to keep ATS running. This was when he offered to host ANOTHER SITE on ATS

On Mikes thread _____ sent me this...


I'm speaking of "Crakeur"...a little Google searching helped confirm some of my suspicions. His name: Stephen Melzer --- The name is Jewish

There ya go"

[Trail]

And they think we don’t notice, and they think they’re so invisible here, too.

If more people start pointing out these obvious posts here on PA, their ability to affect anything is greatly reduced.

You know.. this just gave me light-bulb moment..

I have some experience coding modules/plugins/hacks (custom code) into vbulletin forums wich is the software used here. I know what's possible to do.

Imagine a troll button on every post, same like a thanks button.
Now the community can flag anyone's post as a trolling post.

If the person has >50% troll flags on his posts the system can put an official troll flag on the post and eventually even on the user itself. (<- the numbers have to be experimented with for good results or can be voted upon.)

Now at the user settings panel we can allow each user to choose if they want to display or hide posts that are flagged as either a troll posts or even all posts from a user flagged as a general troll.

The advantage of this is that the mods and admins are relieved from having to make very difficult decisions on often very subtle trolling/derailing and users that don't like this idea can choose not to hide any posts. This idea, when executed right, could give this community the power to re-claim our forum back and make it prosporous.

~Trail.

[Neptun]

Trail,

I'm like a troll magnate, because I seek truth very intensely. If there are trolls on a site, they would be all over me.

I haven't seen trolls on this site yet.

[jackovesk]

post removed by me...

[Neptun]

Why is it that all the shills I have communicated with are anti Israel?

It does not make sense, that the guy says he was a shill pushing pro Israel agenda and quite his job, because he was tired of lying about Israel.

There is something fishy going on in the Israel vs. Palestine conflict:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?42980-A-differen-perspective-on-the-Israel-situation

[ThePythonicCow]

Imagine a troll button on every post, same like a thanks button.
Now the community can flag anyone's post as a trolling post.

If the person has >50% troll flags on his posts the system can put an official troll flag on the post and eventually even on the user itself. (<- the numbers have to be experimented with for good results or can be voted upon.)

Now at the user settings panel we can allow each user to choose if they want to display or hide posts that are flagged as either a troll posts or even all posts from a user flagged as a general troll.

Yes - that can work well. Slashdot (News for Nerds) (http://slashdot.org) uses such a system.

That site is a dedicated programming staff, millions of users per month, and a substantial budget. They have been developing their custom software for about fifteen years now.

Project Avalon gets a few donated hours of Ilie Pandia's programming time each month, has thousands of users per month, and almost no budget. We have been using the widely available vBulletin forum software for the few years of our existence.

[Maia Gabrial]

I haven't seen trolls on this site yet.

We have.... :becky:

[marlowe]

On another forum which I have since left I noticed 3 posters who all regestered within the same 2 month time window back in 2010.....They posted exclusively on 3 topics....they never strayed ......
[1] there is no Planet X/Niburu
[2] The Apollo astronauts went to the moon as NASA said,not in UFOs or other secret craft.& Kubrick did not fake the moon landings.
[3] Earthquakes cannot be enginneered...HAARP is not a weapon.

To be honest I use these shills as a reverse compass....i believe there is a Planet X..etc..same for 2 & 3...