TL;DR When a coronavirus focused troll descends, it would be nice to have a concise, direct page to point them to telling them how they may expect to be handled here.
I don’t use the BBS a whole lot other than in response to articles on the blog, and so I apologize if I’m saying something already said or suggesting a resource that already clearly exists here.
I suggest BB editors come up with a welcome message specific to coronavirus trolls. They are descending on all other forms of social media. I am bumping into them (as well as fake sexy girls) on LinkedIn now. I can’t tell which are homegrown fanatics and which are bots and which are soviet agents. But perhaps there could be a welcome statement suited for the present bizarre times. Contentwise, basically a “congratulations! you’ve been directed to this page because somebody believes you are a coronavirus troll.”
Background articles that make me conclude troll appearances will be happening with increasing frequency and may be very well funded (though I am striving not to think of this in a partisan manner):
The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
Putin’s Long War Against American Science
I believe these two things are very closely tied together, whether or not they are working directly in concert.
Additionally, two podcasts:
NY Times Daily (Podcast & Transcript): Who’s Organizing the Lockdown Protests?
NY Times Daily (Podcast & Transcript): The Next Year (or Two) of the Pandemic
Both the moderators and the community in general here have, in my experience, done an excellent dance around open exchanges of ideas vs. allowing freedom to tell lies or leverage personal attacks. So it’s in that tradition I think there could be a message to welcome diversity of thought, but expressly not allow dangerously bogus or already visited and disproven medical claims, hate speech or false accusations… That is, I know its already part of the code, but I’d like to see it wrapped in a bow emphasizing the present medical issue (which could be with us for another four years - per that second linked podcast) for the newcoming trolls.
As for the articles I link above, when I’ve posted them in response to a trollvalanche, the trolls are not bothering to read them. So, repeating the TL;DR line: When a coronavirus focused troll descends, it would be nice to have a concise, direct page to point them to telling them how they may expect to be handled here.
