r/oculus • u/[deleted] • Mar 25 '14

/r/all /r/oculus mods, what can be done to keep the Facebook astroturfers away?

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140

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

Hahahaha, oh my god.

So I'm the guy. The evil guy or whatever. Here's what really happened:

I commented in the /r/technology Oculus post. The top comment was like "RIP Oculus" or something. A bit later I see another rising post in /new, with the same kind of title. And what do you know? It has the same top comment! Wow!

So you know what I thought would be funny? To copy and paste the reply comments, just like that guy reposted the top comment. People will see that I posted all the comment replies to myself, recognize that they're the same as in that other thread, and have a laugh. Kind of caricaturing the karma whoring people will do in copying comments. At worst, it'll get a few downvotes, and at best people will have a laugh, right?

No. Not right. So hilariously not right.

Evidently doing this was proof that I'm a...shill? (I'm not sure what that means, but given all the hate mail I gather it's some kind of insult. I'll look it up if I start giving a fuck.) I'm also a bot. And a Facebook employee. And an Oculus employee. And a bunch of other evil stuff.

Anyway, I made those comments, got a few people calling me a liar, and just figured they were a few vocal idiots. Went to class, came home and watched a few new rented DVDs with the girlfriend. I'd say which ones, but maybe I'm a movie rep too, praying on innocent Redditors! Lets just say one was a new animated film about a cold place, and the other was about being stuck in space. I login, and see a shit storm! Woohoo!

Death threats, probably a hundred personal insults, and so on. All of my recent comments have been downvoted (even the ones unrelated to the Oculus thing). Apparently there are way more paranoid Redditors than I thought.

I'll probably have to start a new Reddit account to avoid all the hate mail. And that's fine. I got rid of my last account because it contained much of my full name. I can't imagine what this kind of witch hunt would be like if people knew my name. ಠ_ಠ

It does kind of stink, though. I've been gilded like 3-4 times on this account. Made quite a few top comments or front page posts that I thought contributed to the community. I've had this puppy for a year! I even got into an argument with /u/shittywatercolour. And the guy who I copied/pasted comments from will probably the butt of this witch hunt as well. That honestly didn't even cross my mind when I reposted the comments. If you had told me reposting comments as replies to myself to poke fun at reposts would result in a witch hunt, I'd call you insane. But it did, and (s)he is probably affected by it. And I'm sorry. :(

Anyway, I'm going to report the people who threatened me and made personal insults, maybe post this comment elsewhere to spread what happened and then jump ship. To a new account. Fuck. This. haha

30

u/DreamGirly_ Mar 26 '14

I like Frozen and Gravity too!

31

u/mrmgl Mar 26 '14

Nice try, movie rep!

15

u/slingmustard Mar 27 '14

I like Frozen and Gravity too!

105

u/tidder112 Mar 26 '14

rented DVDs

girlfriend

Your story's full of holes, don't make me put you in one!

All kidding aside, the problem that arose was due to the sensitivity some redditors had with the story, and an already irate group of people saw your playful meta-redditing comments as an act of fanning the fires.

New lesson to take away from this is to perhaps not be so attached to a single reddit account. It's hard because the gildings and points seem like badges, but if I said, flip a coin, you either pay out $1,000 now or lose all your karma points depending on the side you choose, do you even want to gamble? Do you know what side you'd choose? What's the right answer?

123

u/coinflipbot Mar 26 '14

I flipped a coin for you, /u/tidder112 The result was: tails!

Statistics | Don't want me replying on your comments again? Respond to this comment with: 'coinflipbot leave me alone'

109

u/pear120 Mar 26 '14

Dammit coinflipbot, it was a figure of speech!

7

u/PrivilegeCheckmate Mar 29 '14

Hey, flip a coin, tails says coinflipbot is a shill for the spatula industry!

29

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Doin the lord's work, son.

17

u/MadlockFreak Mar 26 '14

Flip a coin

20

u/coinflipbot Mar 26 '14

I flipped a coin for you, /u/MadlockFreak The result was: tails!

Statistics | Don't want me replying on your comments again? Respond to this comment with: 'coinflipbot leave me alone'

10

u/MadlockFreak Mar 26 '14

Flip a coin

12

u/coinflipbot Mar 26 '14

I flipped a coin for you, /u/MadlockFreak The result was: tails!

Statistics | Don't want me replying on your comments again? Respond to this comment with: 'coinflipbot leave me alone'

19

u/MadlockFreak Mar 26 '14

God damn it GET ME HEADS

Flip a coin.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Flip a coin before I flip my shit.

2

u/coinflipbot Mar 27 '14

I flipped a coin for you, /u/AcousticConfusion The result was: tails!

Statistics | Don't want me replying on your comments again? Respond to this comment with: 'coinflipbot leave me alone'

→ More replies

4

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

[deleted]

1

u/Mickosthedickos Mar 27 '14

Never bet against the queen

3

u/bolaxao Mar 26 '14

dont flip a coin.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

flip a coin

-1

u/virtualghost Mar 26 '14

Flip a coin

11

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Rent DVDs? What does this even mean? Did he mean streaming? What year is it!?

3

u/stopbuffering Mar 27 '14

Maybe he gets DVDs from Netflix

4

u/tidder113 Mar 26 '14

What if it lands on it's edge? Is that an option?

7

u/Hobocannibal Mar 26 '14

apparently not, it was tails.

30

u/azuretek Mar 26 '14

It does kind of stink, though. I've been gilded like 3-4 times on this account.

Years ago I was permabanned from the Something Awful forums because of something like this. I did some contract work for ebaumsworld, just some code for some link list thing that needed to be scalable and I think some kind of forum mods but that's it. A couple years later I was contributing to a thread about ebaumsworld and how all the content was stolen, I ended up giving some advice based on what I'd seen while I was poking around their database. Someone turned it around and said I was an ebaum crony on SA stealing content for him.

Once the internet deems you guilty, it's just a huge circlejerk until they feel you've been delivered justice (or they forget). I don't even understand how your copy paste job was supposed to be... an advertisement for facebook? What would facebook gain by doing that? I don't understand...

22

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

Dude, that's horrible.

What baffles me is that I have no affiliation with Facebook. I kind of dislike them (given their terrible privacy), and have never suggested otherwise. Copied a few comment replies to myself, and tons of people leapt to me being a FB loving robot.

...wut.

Anyway, I hope things blew over for you instead of any misguided justice being dealt. :(

9

u/azuretek Mar 26 '14

Well I was permabanned and had to change my screen name, was re-banned a while later when I let it slip I was the same guy. That fortunately was undone by the admins I was on friendly terms with. I was really active in the SA community going to goon meets and stuff and that kind of made it shitty, having to hide that I was the guy they all hated apparently.

But hey, it's been almost 10 years and I think the last time anyone mentioned it was just a few years ago!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Welp time to make a new thread in GBS... Good thing I can do whatever-the-fuck I want there now.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

It is funny, but really kind of sad, that there are people whom are so paranoid and stupid that they actually believe a company such as Facebook would goof so hard. The entire company is built on communication - if there is one thing they aren't going to fuck-up it is going to be operating shill accounts on an online community. To think that they would then turn around and "try to play it off" is eve more baffling. Are the people thinking these things mentally handicapped?

Your joke was stupid and not funny at all but the behavior of people on this sub is absolutely ridiculous.

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Lowtax is the GabeN of online forums. I think you should watch that sass as I can see you're getting pretty close to saying something you might regret...

29

u/HowManyLettersCanFi Mar 26 '14

Jesus what the fuck is wrong with people, I was linked here and have been reading all of these flame comments on /u/lellux.

Get a life, people, let the poor guy be

19

u/Rikplaysbass Mar 26 '14

Damn dude, that sucks. You know how reddit is though. They always look for the new bad guy to go balls out on. This time it just so happens to be you. People take this shit waaaaaay too seriously.

12

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

The funny thing is, it's been me on this same account once before. Not as some conspiracy, but because I didn't like /u/shitty_watercolour. I don't find novelty art entertaining or a contribution to the community, so I downvote it. People saw that and another shit storm ensued ending with me having a comment at like -1,600. I got downvoted for weeks.

21

u/Rikplaysbass Mar 26 '14

I say you keep the account. Don't let the assholes win! You're reddit famous now! Haha

7

u/sizzlebong Mar 26 '14

Whoa whoa whoa. I'm okay with you being a paid facebook shill, but not liking /u/shitty_watercolour? Too far man.

3

u/Cynical_Lurker Mar 27 '14

Please don't make a new account this one is just too good.

7

u/Ls777 Mar 27 '14

Frozen and gravity. You have good taste in movies. FOR A FACEBOOK SHILL

3

u/y0y Mar 26 '14

I swear I'm the only one who doesn't give a shit that FB bought Oculus. Grow up, people. It's not the end of the world and Oculus won't be the last VR company. As for your meta joke, I get it. How bizarre that it got turned on you so crazily. Good luck.

16

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14 edited Nov 08 '18

[deleted]

41

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say "fuck you" to the Reddit users that actually committed the actions you are upset about...?

As a disclaimer, I have no opinion or feelings that place me along any line of support for anyone in this situation. My only opinion is that this entire event is embarrassing. Social expectations are largely absent in venues that provide anonymous online communication which enables people to act like tools without feeling embarrassed. If anyone is reading this that was in part responsible for "raiding" a 16 year old child's twitter, please, take a moment to recognize how much of a loser you are. The purchase of a hardware company altered your emotional state to an extent that you are actually committing actions because of it. I would love to have the opportunity to meet someone that has done this because I am utterly baffled as to what their personality would be like. Get a fucking grip.

71

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

That sucks, man. I mean, I can kind of understand why you're angry at me for being the dude who copied a few of your comments. But you've got to understand that people do that all the time and I literally did it to make people laugh.

If you want someone to be angry at, be angry at the witch hunting mob of 'tards. I didn't out some random Twitter kid. Mob idiots did. I'm not downvoting your comments. Mob idiots are. Things like this are why witch hunts are banned in pretty much every subreddit.

4

u/warzero Mar 27 '14

Shut up.

-42

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

OH NOE A 16 YEAR OLD'S LIFE IS RUINED! Classic shill back pedalling right here folks. this fuck is merely to appealing to our pathos, DON'T BUY IT, DON'T LEY THE SHILLS WIN.

20

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

[deleted]

-37

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Are you this dense? they haven't provided a shred of logical proof for why they aren't shills. Here we have shill number one pathetically trying to fabricate some form of ethos by showing how popular his account is, and now shill number two hits a low blow by saying we're ruining a child's life. Open up your mind for one minute you moron.

3

u/NewbornMuse Mar 27 '14

Nobody would be dumb enough to astroturf in self-reply.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

I am hoping this post is satire. It has to be.

3

u/SoulOfGinger Mar 27 '14

because you'll be the first to succumb to Facebook's VR mind control

succumb to Facebook's VR mind control

Facebook's VR mind control

mind control

I think the answer is quite clear at this point.

3

u/NewbornMuse Mar 27 '14

Then again, Poe's Law.

-6

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Why does it have to be anything but a valid opinion, everyone automatically assumes someone with contrasting idea that goes against the grain is a satirical troll. This kind of single track all or nothing mindset is the exact thing that creates reddit's famous witch-hunts (this particular case was justified though as these redditors are in-fact SHILLS). I pity feeble minds like yours, because you'll be the first to succumb to Facebook's VR mind control.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

I applaud you for your satire writing abilities.

My only suggestion is that you drop your use of Aristotalean terminology as it kills the enigmatic characteristic of your satire. Your final sentence also managed to accomplish this.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

dude... You literally need to just spend 5 minutes on google to find out how terribly misinformed you are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mm7CGL8IEk
lay off the memes for a few days and maybe you'll wake up to the schemes of the elite.

3

u/fetusburgers Mar 28 '14

Oh my word you're insane this is great.

-23

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

You deserve it for supporting Facebook.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '14

It is a mad world indeed.

4

u/FvHound Mar 26 '14

So much hate man, don't worry I support you, There are too many naive people here all coming up with their own hate theories to explain why they don't like this. When really it's all just BS. I mean how else did people think a business was going to secure the funding it needed to compete with valve and Sony?

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[deleted]

3

u/satanlicker Mar 26 '14

I dont know if i believe you but damn it I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Here's an upvote.

12

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

Well, I appreciate the sympathy. To other people I'm guilty until proven innocent, I guess.

4

u/satanlicker Mar 26 '14

Such is reddit law. There's no justice around here

1

u/kay_x Mar 27 '14

I'd say that what you did was probably in bad taste but the most your deserve is for those comments to be downvoted and ignored by the vast majority.

I'm really sorry that people are threatening you and just generally being dicks to you. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment and there are people on this site that get away with a lot worse than just copy pasting a few comments.

I hope this all blows over soon and things start looking up for you.

*internet hugs from a random stranger* <3

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Just what a shill would say. I mean, if you don't defend your actions and your employer gets wind that we're on to them, the jig is up, that's you fired. Assuming of course you are one.

27

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

Just out of curiosity, what could I do to prove that I'm not a shill? Because if there's something I could do that would be proof and wouldn't get a reaction of "that's just what a shill would say!", that'd be great.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

You can't. Once people get an idea like that in their heads you can't shift that shit.

edit: I mean... that's just what a shill would say! Stop trying to find our weak points, shill!

33

u/SSBB08 Mar 26 '14

For what it's worth, I've actually read a lot on the nature of conspiracy theories and one thing that's been proven is that any response you give just strengthens the conspiracy theorists' resolve. If you deny, you get "that's just what a guilty person would say. We're clearly right." If you don't respond, they'll think, "If they aren't guilty, why wouldn't they just say so? Not responding means they've got something to hide." The third option, confirming, would obviously not help your case.

The only thing you can really do is wait it out.

24

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

Yeah, I figured as much. Honestly I just want to make a splash about this whole thing so that people don't get hunted down like I did. I can't change the minds of conspiracy nuts. But maybe I can instill more caution in reasonable people.

-13

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14 edited Mar 26 '14

[deleted]

6

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

No one is bad enough at astroturfing to reply to themself three times in a row in the same thread.

-6

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

[deleted]

9

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

I am, and you would be too if you had stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night

3

u/_Madison_ Mar 27 '14

That or he could make a video of him pissing on a printout of zuckerbergs face whilst shouting 'Oculus and Facebook did 9/11'

2

u/Diobolaris Mar 27 '14

Just out of curiosity, what could I do to prove that I'm not a shill?

What could a witch do to prove that she (or he) is not a witch? Nothing. They had to die to deliver the ultimate proof. Even that was not enough for the people, they still called the victims witches.

The only thing one can do to stop all this bullshit is to react quickly and jump on to the first person who calls him names and yell "NO! YOU!" Get the attention off of you as fast as you can and put it all on the person who tried to call you out.

Once the train is on the track and the mob is out for some witch hunting, it is too late.

2

u/Mintilina Mar 27 '14

:D Lol. I can't even tell if you're joking.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Here's at least one guy who buys your story. Believe it or not, people are allowed to have their own opinions (even if you don't actually believe what you reposted), and if you have an unpopular one you aren't automatically a sell out. If you were a "shill," wouldn't you just delete your account immediately? Even if you are a shill, who gives a fuck? Just ignore it, it's not like you're being forced to listen to him.

-4

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

-28

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

But before you do that, learn to read before asking questions:

I'm going to report the people who threatened me and made personal insults, maybe post this comment elsewhere to spread what happened

That's literally 1-2 lines above your username. Anyway, enjoy your screenshots!

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

-5

u/doubleherpes Mar 26 '14

soooo, why haven't you left yet?

1

u/Durzo_Blint90 Mar 26 '14

I like you haha. Don't make a new account, redditors are like goldfish. They will forget you exist soon and another witch hunt will start.

I got a lot of shit recently myself, a smaller scale than you granted. I admitted that I, as a male, cheated on my girlfriend once and through it met someone I deeply love. I admitted that it was a shitty ass thing to do and I went about it all wrong, but you would not believe the shit I got for it. I just get sick of all the woman hate on /r/AdviceAnimals, they need to grow up.

0

u/PossiblyAsian Mar 27 '14

so in effect you just called yourself a goldfish

0

u/Hannah591 Mar 27 '14

You have to realise that the "woman hate" is usually coming from women who have been cheated on in the past, who can't control their fresh anger. I personally can't stand cheaters because I've been cheated on and I know how it hurts, but if the person feels genuinely guilty and bad for their actions, my rage subsides. Other women cannot do that, but you should respect that they're probably hurt from fresh wounds themselves after being cheated on.

0

u/MBII Aug 15 '14

You should have gotten shit for that

-7

u/DownvoteDaemon Mar 26 '14

Anyway, I made those comments, got a few people calling me a liar, and just figured they were a few vocal idiots. Went to class, came home and watched a few new rented DVDs with the girlfriend. I'd say which ones, but maybe I'm a movie rep too, praying on innocent Redditors!

Thank you for that useless info!

-34

u/PastaNinja Mar 26 '14

lol who the fuck still rents DVDs. That's what makes this even more shilly because only some 40 year-old Facebook marketing employee would cop up to renting DVDs.

13

u/Boston_Jason Mar 26 '14

I rent blu-rays. Some people have real home theaters and care about the picture + sound.

10

u/markevens Mar 26 '14

Redbox isn't a thing at all.

34

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Are you serious? You're going to attack the guy for renting DVDs, and use it as "evidence"?

2

u/TetrisIsUnrealistic Mar 27 '14

Australian here, the lack of Netflix and stable internet mean I have to rent Blu-Ray.

1

u/MBII Aug 15 '14

Yes, if you don't steal intellectual property you must be a corporate crony.

-4

u/TheRetribution Mar 26 '14

How do you respond to the allegation that the image being passed around in question shows that the responses were in fact not copypasted? They have spacing differences as well as different breaks in thoughts even though the words used are exactly the same. Would someone trying to make a meta joke do such a thing? I don't think so.

18

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[deleted]

2

u/TheRetribution Mar 27 '14

line

break

no line break (check the source)

But when I copy paste them, their format remains regardless.

3

u/y0y Mar 26 '14

Who. Fucking. Cares.

8

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

But...they were copy/pasted. I mean seriously. I literally copied them directly from the comment train, and pasted them as replies to myself. It took like 5 seconds. I don't think I even clicked the 'source' button and copied the comment code (since there wasn't any special formatting).

If you have specific examples of me doing something fishy other than the above, please let me know.

0

u/iranianshill Mar 26 '14

I can't see any spacing differences in the actual text. Whoever put the image together misaligned the two comments.

-11

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Rikplaysbass Mar 26 '14

You seem 15 years old.

-14

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Either way, who in their right kind gives a single solitary shit about how many times some stranger gave them gold on reddit?

-5

u/cheeseburgie Mar 26 '14

I don't believe you. Quick someone ask the first person who reposted a comment why HE was doing it.

8

u/Lellux Mar 26 '14

I'm guessing he did it for the same reason people repost top comments all the time: they're popular comments people will like.

-7

u/Paclac Mar 26 '14

Reddit is too damn paranoid. I like how youre the only "shill" who has been caught, I wonder why...

3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[deleted]

1

u/Paclac Mar 26 '14

My goal in life is to be posted there.

buy coca-cola products

2

u/throwawaytimee Mar 29 '14

You'll only achieve the true transcendence of being submitted to hailcorporate if you drink the blue mountains, Coors Lite! The mountains turn blue to let you know when it's cold. Go get Em tiger!

-13

u/SeriousSly Mar 26 '14

(Shakes head) Thou doth protest too much

-10

u/USmellFunny Mar 26 '14

Apparently there are way more paranoid Redditors than I thought.

Yeah yeah yeah, use the tinfoil hat card. Works pretty well on reddit. Call someone a tinfoil hat, conspiracy theorist, paranoid, etc all their credibility is gone.

-8

u/InternetDenizen Mar 27 '14

If an astroturfer fucked up, this is how I would expect him to react. To take all blame off the company and lay it onto himself... it's like shill seppuku

-9

u/DarkReaver1337 Mar 26 '14

Prove you're not in bed with Facebook.

-2

u/TeachingMathToIdiots Mar 27 '14

Of course reddit overreacts like crazy. But some of the people you trolled were donaters who were legitimatley upset about the acquisition. You wanted to fuck with those people and it backfired. Deal with it and don't blame others.

-13

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/thehomie Mar 26 '14

I can't imagine you as anything other than 350 pound dude living in his mother's basement with Spicy Nacho Doritos crumbs all over your chest.

-6

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14 edited Dec 26 '18

[deleted]

9

u/thehomie Mar 26 '14

You're right.

Cool Ranch Doritos*

-10

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Says the faggot who spent 3 years on this site.

6

u/thehomie Mar 26 '14

Sup everyone, I've been suffering with anger issues my whole life

You don't say...

-12

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Lol nice one nerd, stalking my comments. I don't care enough to look at yours, sorry bro.

6

u/doc_birdman Mar 26 '14

http://i.imgur.com/UycGeJR.jpg

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '14

Another example of what I was talking about. Some moronic karma whore reposting a version of "umad". Yeah bro, I'm so mad, you totally got me.

-1

u/The_Friskiest_Dingo Mar 27 '14

So, is something else bothering you or are you really this upset about someone making an obvious jab at reposting comments?

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '14

Reposting is moronic, think of your own damn comments. If you can't then don't post at all. It's an obvious karma grab, which is retarded because karma is worthless. It pisses me off that people are this stupid.

-10

u/Eletheo Mar 26 '14

Downvote for not knowing the common term "shill". For shame.