Astroturfing

[imanikin]

I think a lot of threads we see here recently are Astroturfing designed to showcase Bitcoin as an instrument useful to criminals and other destructive forces.

IMHO, it's really dumb of the Bitcoin "old-timers" and proponents to continue to get involved in those discussions, and continue to respond to the same accusations for the n-th time.

On such things, it seems best just to let Bitcoin speak for itself, as every other currency does... 

[1714939187]

1714939187

[elewton]

Interesting.
Or journalists going for the "Look what we were able to do" bit.

[Horkabork]

Can you give a few specific examples of threads?

[imanikin]

Can you give a few specific examples of threads?

It's hard to tell for sure, and impossible to prove; Astroturf is professionally made and meant to look real! 

The ones in general that look suspicious are the one started by newbies, with weird, nonsensical usernames. They obviously don't know much about Bitcoin, yet begin with long, condescending dissertations about why Bitcoin is sure to fail, using arguments already discussed to death in previous threads... 

Perhaps, all who care to do it can link here to threads they think might be Astroturf. I'll keep my eye out for specific examples from now on...

[BombaUcigasa]

There is a difference between "things that harm people" and "things that are illegal".

I don't use drugs, I won't buy them (I'm limited to caffeine, very cheap), but I can't say I have something against people that prefer more "intense" stimulants and experiences.

Whoever thinks they need to punish bitcoin and it's users because they don't want drug consumers to buy drugs is "harming people" even if he's acting "in legality".

[gigitrix]

I don't think it's astroturfing, I think it's a certain type of new user.

They seem to come here, not even knowing what a "blockchain" is, and yet they start [RFC] threads in the technical discussion section, it's quite amusing

[Dhomochevsky]

I think astroturfing on the official forums of the very thing you're trying to discredit is a pretty counterproductive thing to do. You're bound to hit the most hardcore wall of fans you could hit. You'll hardly convert people here away from the currency. Well, at least most of them. If astroturfing is your game and you have the funds for it, paying off bloggers, spreading rumors and half-truths on various other message boards and generally spreading misinformation through more mainstream channels would yield a much better result.

So no, I don't think naysayers here are astroturfing, I think they're just misinformed people or just trolls trying to have some fun. And I can say flamebaiting on this forum is extremely easy. It's like most of the populace here is in their teens...












...oh wait.

[giszmo]

i'm new to btc and was involved in discussions about murder-bounties and silk road because i want to find out for myself if it is compatible with my moral to do btc. asking more experienced users to not take part in those discussions sounds pretty silly to me.

with btc, electricity consumption will likely go up to 3GW in a year - so what? Visa and Co. need more.
with btc and tor you can set bounties to assassin people - so what? you can do the same with dollars or gold.
...

getting to the right reply is the point of these threads.

in order to not have to explain 51%-weakness over and over again, point to a wiki and improve the explanation there.