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COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum. (Trolling 101)
E-Mail and Freepers

Posted on 01/16/2009 12:36:53 PM PST by Sidebar Moderator

Thanks to many FReepers who have sent us this information. Apparently, this is floating around the Internet now. It is a guide to trolling. While it may or may not be fake in its origins, we do see these techniques all the time and felt it would be good to share with everyone.

______________________________________________________ COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum..

There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a ‘uncontrolled forum.’

Technique #1 - ‘FORUM SLIDING’

If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by ‘forum sliding.’ In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to ‘age.’ Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a ‘forum slide.’ The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public. To trigger a ‘forum slide’ and ‘flush’ the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then ‘replying’ to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list, and the critical posting ‘slides’ down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings. By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.

Technique #2 - ‘CONSENSUS CRACKING’

A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at *********) is ‘consensus cracking.’ To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favour is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger ‘evidence’ or disinformation in your favour is slowly ‘seeded in.’ Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then ‘abort’ the consensus cracking by initiating a ‘forum slide.’

Technique #3 - ‘TOPIC DILUTION’

Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a ‘RESOURCE BURN.’ By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a ‘gossip mode.’ In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion. The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to ‘drive in the wedge.’ By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.

Technique #4 - ‘INFORMATION COLLECTION’

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a ‘show you mine so me yours’ posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your ‘favorite weapon’ and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favorite ‘technique of operation.’ From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Technique #5 - ‘ANGER TROLLING’

Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to ‘stage’ a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to ‘lead’ the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you ‘do not care what the authorities think!!’ inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.

Technique #6 - ‘GAINING FULL CONTROL’

It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavorable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the ‘ultimate victory’ as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a ‘honey pot’ gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.

CONCLUSION

Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precedence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.


TOPICS: Announcements; Free Republic; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abuse; definitionoftroll; freerepublic; garbage; howtotroll; pl; repository1; trolling; trolling101; trolls; zot
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To: little jeremiah

Maybe mods think this topic is kookery.
***Well, one of the mods removed “searchin” as a troll for keyword abuse on the CoLB threads. Maybe there’s disagreement about whether this topic is kookery in the stratospheric rarefied atmosphere of modland. If they’re so busy, they wouldn’t have had time to say they WON’T remove the keywords.


201 posted on 01/18/2009 10:35:22 AM PST by Kevmo ( It's all over for this Country as a Constitutional Republic. ~Leo Donofrio, 12/14/08)
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To: Kevmo

KNOCK IT OFF!!!


202 posted on 01/18/2009 10:58:55 AM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: lucysmom

You said — “BTW, isn’t it accepted practice to ping the person you’re talking about?”

Maybe so, but certain ones don’t acknowledge the courtesy, it seems. I guess it’s like talking in a corner in low whispers...

In any case, there are certain ones who “get crazy” because someone doesn’t have the same idea as them — and then posts an idea that is different from them. Now, *that* is the real crime... doncha know...

Whatever you do, don’t have an idea of your own... :-)


203 posted on 01/18/2009 11:21:10 AM PST by Star Traveler
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To: Kevmo

You said — “In particular I accuse Star Traveler to be an Issue Specific troll, in this case the issue is CoLB. The Orly Taitz interview thread would likely suffice to show her to be such a troll:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2162033/posts

Okay, let’s look at that one — just the “numbers” for sake of comparison. It has a total of 1,142 posts (at this point in time). I posted *after* post #750. And I see a total of 34 posts from me.

Now, the interesting thing is that you have a total of 100 posts, and you start posting right at the very beginning, within hours of it being posted. And of those 100 posts, 21 of them you made to me or about me.

Now, it seems that you’re “obsessive” about posting to me (and *about me*, as in here, too...) — doesn’t it?

You need to relax and take it easy... perhaps go on vacation. That does wonders, doncha know... Being stressed can cause you to “think” that things are happening that aren’t...

That’s also why a bit of LOL.. and a bit of :-) is good for the soul...

[Oh..., and by the way, I’m not pinging the Admin Moderator on this either... so I’m not mad at you or anything... ]


204 posted on 01/18/2009 11:44:38 AM PST by Star Traveler
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To: Star Traveler

You, too!


205 posted on 01/18/2009 11:55:44 AM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: Admin Moderator

Talk about a really good topic getting really frakked up...

sheesh.


206 posted on 01/18/2009 12:26:34 PM PST by xcamel (The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. - H. L. Mencken)
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To: little jeremiah
How Buckhead’s analysis flawed? That’s not how I remember it.
And what are you talking about when you say “counter to my experience”?

As I remember it (this goes back about 5 years) he claimed that a document that was supposed to have been produced in the 60s could be reproduced (line brakes and spacing) with MS word using the default settings - I couldn't get his results. Further, he claimed that typewriters back in the day didn't do proportional spacing, or have certain characters or type faces available. I knew that wasn't true because I had used such a typewriter way back when.

In addition, he was basing his analysis on, again a digitized image of a very poor quality document due to photo copying and faxing.

More than 20 years experience producing a wide variety of material for various forms of publication.

207 posted on 01/18/2009 1:04:17 PM PST by lucysmom
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To: Star Traveler
In any case, there are certain ones who “get crazy” because someone doesn’t have the same idea as them — and then posts an idea that is different from them. Now, *that* is the real crime... doncha know...

Someone once said (sorry I don't remember who) if two people agree on everything, one of them is extraneous.

208 posted on 01/18/2009 1:15:39 PM PST by lucysmom
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Comment #209 Removed by Moderator

To: STARWISE
You can troll all you want Assholerod. My convictions were formed very young and haven't changed. Your web tricks only work on the weak of mind and 58 million public school victims.

Raise up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it

... G-d

210 posted on 01/18/2009 6:07:59 PM PST by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: STARWISE
Alinsky

Master of deceit. But, only fools can be deceived.

Be as clever as serpents and as gentle as doves.

211 posted on 01/18/2009 6:10:15 PM PST by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Sidebar Moderator

212 posted on 01/18/2009 7:32:37 PM PST by Albion Wilde ("Praise and worship" is my alternate lifestyle.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
213 posted on 01/18/2009 8:58:56 PM PST by vox_freedom ("If God be for us, who is against us?" -- Romans 8:31)
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To: lucysmom
...he claimed that a document that was supposed to have been produced in the 60s could be reproduced (line brakes and spacing) with MS word using the default settings - I couldn't get his results. ....More than 20 years experience producing a wide variety of material for various forms of publication.

If that's true, why don't you know how to spell "line breaks" properly? It is one of the familiar commands in MS Word.

214 posted on 01/18/2009 9:47:27 PM PST by Albion Wilde ("Praise and worship" is my alternate lifestyle.)
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To: Star Traveler

Okay, let’s look at that one
***Sorry, can’t. Orders from above.


215 posted on 01/18/2009 11:28:53 PM PST by Kevmo ( It's all over for this Country as a Constitutional Republic. ~Leo Donofrio, 12/14/08)
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To: Albion Wilde
If that's true, why don't you know how to spell "line breaks" properly? It is one of the familiar commands in MS Word.

I don't do spelling, nor do I answer spelling questions. ;-)

216 posted on 01/19/2009 6:04:26 AM PST by lucysmom
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To: Albion Wilde; lucysmom

You asked — “If that’s true, why don’t you know how to spell “line breaks” properly? It is one of the familiar commands in MS Word.”

As I well know from typing fast and then reviewing what I did type, many times I find that I’ve typed words as different words than intended. It’s sorta funny, actually, how the mind works, in conjunction with the fingers. So, I’ve come to *know* that my fingers have a sort of “memory” at times, and at other times, they just don’t do the right thing, and then they mispell, when I personally know how to spell.

I wouldn’t attribute anything seriously wrong with the post, in the way of spellling, when I’ve seen that my own fingers don’t obey the mind very well... LOL...

[... if we had 15-minute window to correct a post, that would be great... I don’t know how many times I’ve seen something *exactly* when I’ve pushed “post”...]

I’m going to have to start putting a disclaimer in here that any spelling problems are the fault of my fingers and not of my brain. They sometimes don’t agree with one another... :-)


217 posted on 01/19/2009 9:03:30 AM PST by Star Traveler
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To: Star Traveler
It’s sorta funny, actually, how the mind works, in conjunction with the fingers.

Often the mind covers up for the fingers, pretending not to see what the fingers have wrought.

The truth is I am just a hopelessly bad speller.

218 posted on 01/19/2009 7:05:23 PM PST by lucysmom
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To: null and void
Examples can be seen on any 0bama birth certificate thread.

I agree. I have never seen so many trolls trying to deminish the issue. That tells me more about their fear of it than anything they can say. They know Obama should just have Hawaii mail Chrissy Mathews a long form Birth Certificate, but he apparently can't. I have taken to calling these trolls, AINO (American's In Name Only). They don't care about the America that our Constitution established.

219 posted on 01/20/2009 9:48:49 AM PST by FreeAtlanta (Join the Constitution Party)
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To: Sidebar Moderator

Thank you!

BUMP!


220 posted on 01/20/2009 3:29:20 PM PST by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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