Comment on A Completely Natural Conversation in the NYC Reddit

• Sergio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Well let’s see… first we gotta figure out the analogy:

  • carriers = posts promoting a product
  • carrier escorts = posts commenting on and upvoting the “carrier” post
  • torpedos/dive-bombs = bot-delivered replies that disparage “carrier” posts. They “hit” if they get highly upvoted
  • fighters = bots that downvote carrier-fleet posts and upvote torpedo/dive-bomb replies
  • carrier “screen” fighters = bots that post attacks on enemy fighters and munitions
  • carrier AA fire = bots that downvote attacks by enemy fighter bots

  The analogy is still a little clumsy… are “carriers” posts, or are they the bots that make the posts? etc. But a Midway-like battle would involve a modest but strategically-positioned product-promoting community that is about to be surprised-attacked by a rival, who will make several posts disparaging the product. But the attack is identified through corporate espionage. The posts are hard to find, so the “fighters” have to search for them but ultimately they do, and after fierce up- and down-voting, the attacking posts are deeply downvoted.

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