Has r/conspiracy been compromised? a comprehensive, data-driven suggestion to find out.
109 2016-12-30 by a9832941
pretty frequently there's mention of up/downvote bots (which i think is entirely possible) or that certain ideas/groups have muddied the waters in this sub to push or defeat certain viewpoints. my idea is that we create a github (maybe private, maybe personal) and do constant querying via the reddit api of:
- the types of stories that receive up/downvotes on this sub
- the speed at which certain stories/links receive up/downvotes
- whether or not certain commentators are being swarmed with up/downvotes
- whether or not bot-esque behavior (votes switching outside of the normal fuzzing range within a certain period of time, etc.) is influencing the sub
i propose that we write a script/program that would monitor this sub and collect data on the above 4 questions using the reddit API. if there's any interest in this, I'd write the initial part and then we could kinda treat it like an open source project going forward where people could make tweaks/changes as needed. what do you all think?
edit: the response from the voting pattern seems to be positive so I'm going to create a github repo for this and post the link here. Then, I'll write the initial logic for monitoring and grabbing posts from r/conspiracy and it can just kind of go wherever it's going to go from there.
edit #2 - https://github.com/a893249121321/r_conspiracy_crawler
edit #3 - realized that if I post my code to the github ppl could easily post shit from my account. luckily I realized this before I uploaded the files with my actual keys. so, if you want this code to work on your end machine, you'll have to create an app on reddit by going to preferences and clicking apps.
edit #4 - kk been working on this on and off for the past couple hours, what we have now is something that will, when ran, scrape this subreddit's new posts and collect the data into an mysql db. i imagine a script workflow something like this: script grabs initial new posts and writes to the db for each post in the db, each minute (30 seconds? different timescale maybe?) we check that post again and collect info on up and down votes for each post not in the db, add it to the db and then monitor it like above
it looks like reddit's API doesn't give downvote data so we'll just have to work off upvote for now, though. Please let me know if you have any thoughts or comments on this.
31 comments
38 gaseouspartdeux 2016-12-30
Pfffttt...all of Reddit is compromised. Especially when you have a Reddit CEO that goes into accounts and edits comments.
21 twofaceHill_16 2016-12-30
And alters the algorithms so many times people forget and can't comprehend the voting system anymore..
2 SethVermin 2016-12-30
What really??
16 cakes_and_pies 2016-12-30
Spez was caught editing a comment he didn't like.
6 8n0n 2016-12-30
A few actually, I 'member it every time I post.
Read this post at own risk and presume this has been modified by Reddit Inc.
9 rippleffect81 2016-12-30
I would LOVE to see these results! would confirm what a lot of us humans here have been suspecting.
5 twofaceHill_16 2016-12-30
Yes. Thanks for doing this..
1 throwaway000000017 2016-12-30
Double thanks - can't wait to see the results!
8 HillarysPizzaParty 2016-12-30
I suspect it's humans with upvote/downvote capability. There are also shills pushing certain narratives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Earnest_Voice
2 NoNameForSteve 2016-12-30
And spying on its own citizens is illegal! But you know, it's cool if we invite some friends over to the States to watch... then they can just like, tell us. I spy for you if you spy for me!
It's like that 4 year old kid on the playground, inches from your face pointing that finger at you I'm not touching you, can't get mad. Still not touching you, can't get mad!
5 echarded 2016-12-30
It was me that Downvote you. :)
4 Exec99 2016-12-30
Fuck it. Lets co-opt it
3 Casey_fckn_ryback 2016-12-30
Definitely.
3 awful_website 2016-12-30
Lol, of course it is. Every forum on reddit is compromised, the fucking CEO of reddit edits posts, for the love of God, why even ask this question?
2 jonnywut 2016-12-30
If someone with the resources wanted me to program a down vote bot army I would use the following method.
I think the primary weakness of such a system would be the controversial filter, but demonstrating that lots of anti subject X stuff ends up in the controversial list is hardly sufficient evidence of a bot conspiracy because the topics are actually controversial.
1 Exec99 2016-12-30
Anyone here a Yeti?
2 Exec99 2016-12-30
Whom downvote the Yeti
2 JamesStrangefellow 2016-12-30
Not yeti.
1 Wuped 2016-12-30
I think a study like this for r/politics on when it changed in the middle of the democratic primary to be super super pro-Bernie/anti-Hillary to overnight being suddenly pro-Hillary/anti-Bernie would be more blatant.
3 This_hand_is_my_hand 2016-12-30
Then back to pro-Bernie/anti-Hillary mere moments after the election was called.
3 Wuped 2016-12-30
To me it seemed like organic content for one day then since it's been 100% Trump-hate/should've been Hillary/This is all the Russians fault/people who believe in pizzagate are crazy posts with very nearly no mention or acknolwegement of how bad the DNC fucked up
3 This_hand_is_my_hand 2016-12-30
I could be more generous but it felt like organic content for about half a week. Then it devolved back to business as usual (i.e. before mid-2015).
2 Clivepwnens 2016-12-30
Are you trying to suggest that a large group of people with strong ideology didn't just completely reverse their thinking over night?
1 capitan_canaidia 2016-12-30
I want to halp.
30 seconds? Your data will scale to high to fast, I think. I would do 5 or 10 minutes, but make it configurable should you need to change it easily :).
Idea: Semantic Analysis and Topic based Quantification of Posts
1 snowmandan 2016-12-30
The easily disproven and clickbait bullshit posts that make it to r/all every week doesn't tell you already? Posts with big claims and lack of evidence are regularly manipulated to r/all and heavily brigaded by shills attacking any attempt for a reasonable discussion. Welcome to 1984, man.
Edit: I mean the one right now with over 2k votes is a good example. It's a good post with one caveat that the money is going to Amazon, so everyone uses that to discredit the entire argument. That then gives an impression that the sub as a whole is the same.
1 DataPhreak 2016-12-30
Can you host the DB and allow read access? would also recommend a delete check, and caching the OP text as well as OP username. Once that's done, automated graph generation and the ability to request that be posted by the bot similar to RemindMe. Finally, shill track. Reply to comment with !shill to flag them. Too many flags, and the bot replies to all users comments on the sub with a list of all other comments that have been previously flagged.
n/a a9832941 2016-12-30
hey guys, sorry I haven't been able to update this yet - got a shitload of work. But I didn't forget!
n/a HardKnocksAlum 2016-12-30
Yes. I just googled it because I've noticed it too. Something is fucky. Definitely shilled and brigaded all the time.
-1 Ninjakick666 2016-12-30
Sounds like you have been reading some of my posts over the last couple weeks... Haha... I've been chatty about this for a while... I notice patterns... Theres also a website that lets you track upvotes and downvotes in real time... I got 250plus upvotes in short time for calling this out earlier... That's why I think yer on FrontPage now.... Bot on bot warfare and yer a pawn for one side....
2 twofaceHill_16 2016-12-30
Feels like whenever I visit a post.. the total upvotes goes down by one instantly. Back out and go into post again.. and the votes go down by one every time I visit a post.
Down-vote bots on my account?
3 This_hand_is_my_hand 2016-12-30
More like unreliable voting systems caused by vote fuzzing implemented years ago.