Sincere question: how do you know if a persistent poster is a paid shill?

[mac56]

I've been on this site since nearly the beginning, but I haven't felt the need to raise this question till this primary season.

[daleanime]

1. You can't, and if you worry about it....

you don't do anything other then damage your own voice.

[TrueDemVA]

2. That's easy

If they are in the Hillary group and they never respond to an actual question, instead they just try to insult you or correct your grammar, or never state fact, just spit out misinformation and outright lies, then they are probably a shill/troll.

Unfortunately, that is a lot of people in that group.

[Baobab]

17. in 2008, the shoe was on the other foot.

the bulk of them were on the other side.

[dogman]

3. I think it's like anything on the internet.

You have to use your own judgement. Look for patterns mainly. A paid shill is not always bad if they can contribute actual information to the subject. You just really have to check their veracity and look at how persistently they push their meme. Also shilling is shilling, does it matter if they are paid?

[LiberalArkie]

4. This seems to be the election that people are using social media, blogs, discussion

systems to gain information. Probably the first really. So naturally the campaigns are now spending money to pay people to post favorable articles for their candidate or to get the other candidates supporters removed from the system.

I don't know how one could tell really. Probably someone a lot smarter than me has found out and there are a lot of smart ones in this group.

[Scootaloo]

5. Well, my guess...

Is that people whose registration date is over a decade ago, they have 30 posts to their name, and the last time they posted was 2008, seems to be a giveaway.

For most of them though? I can't imagine anyone actually PAYING for that kind of quality.

[Old Codger]

11. In this bunch

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511631585


One of the posters has 6 posts in 13 years, that might be an indication, also empty journal, at this point no way to tell which side they favor but pretty odd

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. most are doing it for free

But that's ok, cause #imdoingitfreeforbernie

[SheilaT]

7. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing.

What I have noticed, since someone else pointed this out a few weeks ago, that a surprising number of the most vocal, vicious, and childish of the Hillarybots have an account that goes back several years, but the majority of posts have been made in the past few weeks. It's really quite strange.

Why someone would have gotten an account four, six, or eight plus years ago, essentially abandoned it, and come back only now? Are these people who actually planned ahead in case they wanted to behave like this? Or did someone set up a bunch of accounts a while back and then gives the sign-in information to people for this use?

[Old Codger]

9. Bingo

Started the phony accounts previously just so they could post trash and not worry about being tomb stoned or banned as they have several of them.

[floriduck]

8. It's not hard to figure out who the paid ones are.

Your best bet is to put them on ignore. They're usually the bitter ones who post numerous negative posts with links attached.

[Juicy_Bellows]

10. All I know is, what a shitty job that would be.

To do it for free is even sadder.

[nxylas]

12. Broken English isn't a surefire sign

America is the world's melting pot, and there's nothing inherently suspicious about a Clinton supporter not having English as their first language. But knowing that the Clinton campaign has paid for the services of click farms in the developing world still makes it something of a red flag for me.

[Downwinder]

13. Hillary does not pay her interns, doubt if she will pay trolls.

[jillan]

14. Lol! But Brock on the other hand....

[Baobab]

18. What industries would benefit from a particular candidate winning?

the most?

[Downwinder]

19. One candidate in particular will benefit all of them and US.

If people have no money in their pockets, all industry suffers. If people have money to spend, everyone benefits.

For once, Cash Flow is the solution.

It has been trickling for too long, it is time to let it flow.

[Lone_Wolf]

15. Hillary is well known to use astroturfing

http://reverbpress.com/politics/battlegrounds/confessions-hillary-shill-people-getting-paid-bash-bernie-sanders/

[Baobab]

16. It varies from site to site

And without some magic which i don't have, you never know with 100% certainty.

Especially if a site's management are in on it.