I didn’t comment on the botnet story when it broke a little while ago, but there’s something almost as interesting happening now.
Now, to get this out of the way: I don’t hate Ron Paul. It may seem like I do, but I don’t. I actually agree with him on several major issues, and he’s better than most of the other Republican candidates out there. On the other hand, I do hate his fan club. That is the reason I decided to go on this rant. If you don’t know who Ron Paul is or don’t care, don’t bother reading this article.
EDIT: After doing a bit of digging, I’ve found information relevant to this post. It appears there was and is a blatant, organized effort among Ron Paul supporters to cheat Digg and other such sites. It was written about here and here, among other places.
Paul is having some sort of donation drive today. I know this because I saw the news on Reddit. Then Digg (several times). Then got an email about it. Then I read it about another hundred places. Several million dollars raised in 20 or so hours is pretty damn impressive — especially for a candidate so far behind in the race — but I don’t need the story shoved down my throat at every opportunity. But it isn’t really a big deal. I mean, they aren’t talking about it in the mainstream media, so why not let the Paulites post it all over the social bookmarking sites? I mean, we aren’t exactly surrounded by relevant and important news as it is. The problem isn’t the fact that the news is being posted, however. The problem is the manner in which it is posted.
Turns our the Digg population got tired of seeing a new post about Paul every hour (most likely consisting of “YAY FREEDOM” or some reasoned political argument like that) for the last few months, and are now burying posts about the donation drive (Paulites are calling it censorship because they like to pretend they’re being oppressed). It is legitimate news, but I now just bury any post on Digg that mentions Paul; there’s so much spam that I just decided to bury everything with his name, even I would otherwise digg it.
And that’s what these supporters are doing. Spamming. I thought it was strange when my previous post on Ron Paul received so much attention from Paul supporters (a lot of the comments were from stumbleupon users, which is weird since the post was submitted under “liberal-politics”… they must have been stumbling liberal-politics to find something to disagree with), but at least most of the disagreeing comments had some thought behind them. The same can’t be said for Digg Paulites. My favorite was one comment on Digg that was rated +16, and it just consisted of the url of the Ron Paul 2008 website.
Reading through some of the comments on a post entitled “Ron Paul (We just keep going!)” I managed to find a perfect example of what I’m talking about. This is a comment by a Digg user named Jim0000000002:
FIRST COMMENT! DIGG DIGG DIGG! MOBILIZE PEOPLE—MOBILIZE!
1) donate more today
2) be there saturday in Philadelphia for the rally
3) donate again during the next “money bomb” on SundayTHIS REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE STOPPED! WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!
And that certainly wasn’t his only comment… see this one, lower on the page:
i am not spam. I’m just very excited and ENERGIZED BY THE SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/MostPopular
RON PAUL IS BEING COVERED ON EVERY MAINSTREAM MEDIA OUTLET RIGHT NOW!
MILLIONS ARE WAKING UP
TENS OF THOUSANDS HAVE DONATED ON THIS VERY DAY, THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER
MILLIONS HAVE BEEN RAISED, ALMOST 4 MILLION IN FACT!
RON PAUL IS THE MOST POPULAR STORY ON ABC!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/MostPopular
THE RON PAUL REVOLUTION CONTINUES INTO PHILADELPHIA AND INTO VETERAN’S DAY!
9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT!
TIME TO SHUT DOWN THE NEW WORLD ORDER!!!
ALSO,
EVERY RON PAUL STORY ON DIGG TODAY GOT 1000, EVEN 3000+ DIGGS! AHHHAHAAHAHAHAA
THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS TOAST!
To me, that’s not just idiotic. It’s spam.
Flame me, threaten me, accuse me of being a government agent… I don’t care. I’m tired of you people. I can’t wait until the primary is over and you all shut up.
YES!!! I’m soooo glad someone finally put all this into one post! I’m fucking sick of all the ron paul clones all over the place! No one cares about him ouside of the little bubble of paul fanatics!
LOL at that last comment. What a dumbass. CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!!!!!1
“None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
– Goethe
Woah, that wasn’t me. Leaving comments under other people’s names is lame. If I were admin you’d be banned.
u still believe the gov about 9/11… wake up, the official story makes no sense… its all crap, youve been lied to bush attacked us so he cud invade iraq
ron paul supports freedom and the constitution, unlike you and your neocon pals who just want to control us.
RON PAUL 08!!!!
I’ve met some intelligent Paul supporters. They aren’t all as idiotic as the commenters on Digg. Though, Digg commenters tend to be less intelligent overall, regardless of political preference.
Also, it was really level-headed of you to aim your attack on just the stupid supporters rather than the Paul campaign in general. Usually the msm just lump them together. Who knows how much the botnet thing damaged Paul’s credibility, when it was just his overzealous supporters (or even opponents of his who wanted to make him look bad).
theres a reason we keep posting the news of ron paul. hes the only candidate that stands for freedom!
we need to get the word out and save the country!
LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!!
digg has to be censoring… theres no way a post with 3000+ diggs shouldnt be on the front page
LOL, dude, everyone knows Digg sucks. Just stay away and let them have their little bubble.
They’ve been constantly spamming for months now, all over social bookmark sites and blogs. I’ve really gotten tired of it. And they all follow the same idiotic pattern too. I get it, freedom, unconstitutional, etc. It really gets on my nerves. It’s just too excessive.
There’s nothing wrong with supporting a political candidate. Just don’t spam.
not all ron paul supporters are like that idiot you quoted
I realize that. He’s just the kind of supporter that pisses me off.
I know I talk in generalizations, but I don’t really mean to include traditional libertarians in my sweep of “idiotic spamming paulites.” I’m aiming at a specific group that pisses me off. If you don’t belong to that group, then this post isn’t about you.
Good post. The second digg user comment made me laugh out loud!
I don’t spam, I digg articles on RP I like.
the scream out on the internet because if they did it in the streets people would look at them like they are crazy.
Weird… there might be something wrong with the commenting system. The last two comments (both as “unknowable”) are from different IPs and obviously different people. I’m not sure what could be wrong, though.
Yeah… I didn’t post the second one. Weird. Maybe they meant to be anonymous and it set them to the last posted nickname or something.
Can’t wait to see him loose in the elections, then good-bye spam!
The fanclubbery drives me insane. I seriously can’t wait until the primaries are over. But of course, we’ll have to deal with this again. Third-party hysteria always repeats itself.
dugg!
The trouble is, there’s no perfect way to sort out the nutcakes from the regular, sane people who like to follow politics. I support Paul myself, but I try to make my posts thoughtful, and I try not to “digg” a post unless it makes an important point.
Let’s try not to lump everyone together unfairly. I’m sure Clinton and Obama and Romney and Guliani all have their fair share of wacko supporters, too. The only reason the loonies supporting the top tier candidates don’t run wild on the ‘net is because they can turn on the TV news and get their “fix” more easily.
Even if you don’t spam, as long as you support Ron Paul you’re pretty much still a “nutcake”.
…
Or a “nutcase”, “nutjob”, “nutbar”, ect.ect.
Just be glad you’re a good source of fiber for Ron Paul is full of shit.
Bada bing!
why dont you get outraged that Romney basically tried to buy a straw poll after the youtube debate?
Stop being a whiney bitch.
I am sick of the constant spam I see on tv nonstop on the other candidates as well. Others call those ads but its one in the same.
If you hate it when other candidates do it, why do you do it? How hypocritical.
Besides, last time I checked, ads were paid for and allowed by the networks, and spam was unwanted or unwarranted annoying messages.
Wow, I hadn’t realized how crazy this all is. Woo politics.
>If you hate it when other candidates do it, why do you do it? How hypocritical.
In the magical world of Ron Paul, two wrongs make a right.
Seriously, the whole thing annoys me. A majority of his online supporters are probably 14 year old kids who don’t know wtf they’re talking about. If they aren’t, they sure give that impression.
Okay, paulites: acting immature and posting crap like “LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!!” (btw, posted here under the name “ilikecandy91″ hehehehe) is not going to win you any support. It’s just going to convince people like me that you’re all a bunch of nutcases.
This is a first, really, Ron’s campaign has for the most part survived and thrived by the grace of networking and the internet. I can’t think of another time in history when this has been the case. ANYTIME you afford complete annonimity things are gonna get wacky.
All things being equal it could be worse.
Though I am disappointed, certainly Ron isn’t going to be pulling any votes from center if the staunchest of his followers are cramming cap-lock conspiracies down their throats.
I love the Paultards. Gay libs pretending to be republicans. Keep spamming Ron. Crash and Burn that Blimp whacko