Why did you comment? You could just block me if you dont like my suggestion.
To be serious, I think it’s much better for the community if we do not allow misinformation bots to spam every post.
Comment on Ban the MBFC bot
geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Just block it if you don’t like it?
Krono@lemmy.today 2 months ago
geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Because this is the first thing I think I’ve seen you post and blocking everything you disagree with seems sort of stupid?
I think the bot has issues, but I hardly agree that it’s posting misinformation. Incomplete? Imperfect? You bet. But that’s not “misinformation” in any commonly understood meaning. I think the intent of providing additional context on information sources is laudable.
As someone with such a distaste for misinformation, how would you suggest fixing it? That’s a much more useful discussion than “BAN THE THING I PERSONALLY AND SUBJECTIVELY THINK IS BAD!!!” You obviously think misinformation is a problem, so why not suggest a solution?
Krono@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Currently the bot’s media ratings come from just some guy, who is unaccountable and has an obvious rightwing bias.
If I were to suggest a fix, as you so rudely demanded, I would suggest making the ratings instead come from an open sourced and crowdsourced system. A system where everyone could give their inputs and have transparency, similar to an upvote/downvote system.
Such a system would take many hours to design and maintain, it is not something I personally am willing to contribute, nor would I ask it of any volunteers. This is why I believe the cleanest, easiest, and best solution is to simply ban the bot.
geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Currently the bot’s media ratings come from just some guy, who is unaccountable and has an obvious rightwing bias.
Wow! Talk about misinformation!!! mediabiasfactcheck.com/about/
Or maybe you think they were bought and paid for by some nefarious source? Nope…
Media Bias/Fact Check funding comes from reader donations, third-party advertising, and membership subscriptions. We use third-party advertising to prevent influence and bias, as we do not select the ads you see displayed. Ads are generated based on your search history, cookies, and the current web page content you are viewing. We receive $0 from corporations, foundations, organizations, wealthy investors, or advocacy groups. See details on funding.
…I would suggest making the ratings instead come from an open sourced and crowdsourced system. A system where everyone could give their inputs and have transparency, similar to an upvote/downvote system.
Such a system would take many hours to design and maintain, it is not something I personally am willing to contribute, nor would I ask it of any volunteers.
Thank you for at least providing an iota of something constructive. It’s an interesting idea, and there is academic research that shows it might be possible. But the problem is then in a world already filled with state- and corpo-sponsored organized misinformation campaigns, how does any crowdsourced solution avoid capture and infiltration from the very sources of misinformation it should be assessing? Look at the feature on Twitter and how often that is abused. Then you’d need a fact checker for your fact checker.
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
mbfc has been independently shown to be accurate.
what are you referring to?
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Something so universally destructive to understanding is not an opt-out feature of any competent system.
geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 2 months ago
So what you’re saying is that no one derives any use from the bot? Wow, with that kind of omniscience, I’d expect we could just ask you to judge every news source. Win-win for everyone I suppose if you’re up for it.
Now “generally destructive” would probably be better wording for us mere mortals, but stills seems to be a wildly generalized statement. Or maybe “inadequately precise” would be more realistic, but then that really takes the wind out of the sails to ban it, doesn’t?
Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
what are you basing that critique off of?
Rooki@lemmy.world 2 months ago
His opinion as he can not provide any source than “trust me bro”.