Scott Ritter on Iranian Nuclear Program
How fake YouTube posters
try to kill honest debate
An important message from Brasscheck TV
How to restore the conversation
If you've participated in discussions about specific videos online, you've probably noticed the following:
1. A video containing important background information about a topic in the news is uploaded.
2. Large numbers of people find the video, watch it and discuss it intelligently.
3. After the video becomes prominent, one or more people appear in the discussion area and begin to bash the content, bash the speakers and bash other people making comments as well as post blatantly false information.
Confusion ensues and the discussion is often effectively killed in it tracks as people leave to avoid the relentless ugliness.
Now, here's where it gets interesting...
If you track the profiles of the people who are doing the disrupting, you will often find:
1. They are using brand new accounts
2. They have no other activity online beyond posting to and disrupting the discussion of the video in question.
Here's how to identify these people and make your opinion about what they're doing known
1. Go to the video in question
2. Identify account names that appear to be willfully disrupting the conversation
3. They are easily identified by their frequent posts, the personal attacks they make, the incorrect information they assert is true and their general disruptive behavior.
How to check if an account is brand new account and may have been created solely to disrupt a conversation
1. Included at the top of all their comments you will find their user id and a link.
2. Click on the link and this will take you to their YouTube usser profile.
3. If the account is new and has no videos, no favorites, no play list, and little more but disruptive posts about a single topic, you've found one.
How to respond
1. You can post a comment to the person's profile. Simply and calmly point out the reality of the situation: that the account is new and that is had been focused on one topic in a manner that could be considered disruptive.
2. You can post the same comment to the discussion for the video video in question.
The point is not to silence anyone's opinion. Anyone should be free to state any opinion they want.
The point is to flag situations where people open YouTube accounts specifically for the purpose of undermining specific public discussions.
The goal
Who these people are, whether they are freelance sociopaths with too much time on their hands or paid agents, is besides the point.
The idea is to recognize them and deal with the accordingly (i.e. not be fooled into thinking you're having an honest conversation with an honest person.)
Here's a video that is currently (2/12/09) having its conversation frequently posted to by a brand new account called waronterror9
You can come to your own conclusions about this poster's intentions and integrity.
Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XctgkYj5aVk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XctgkYj5aVk
