#anyone feel free to recommend other blogs that would suit what anon want btw

[garciapimienta]

Hey not really Arthemis :) I want to follow more blogs like yours -a fan of Barca but still loves Messi too? Can you help me out?

first of all SORRY FOR THE DELAY (again) but here we go:

obvious recommendations for leo content, but: @liomels @worldcupwinner @teammessi @afadaily (leo but also everything argentina nt) @lionelmessidaily @liohnelmessi

and for the most part I think most barça blogs (including me) don't post about leo suuuuper often because he's no longer here so we aren't as "exposed" to him anymore, but these are the main barça blogs I follow that I know also love leo and post about him: @iguessricciardo @rubendiass @mssi @palaugranetes @doinggreat @edersonfc @adelightfulandsarcasticmess @lenglet @ikram1909 @oliviergir0udfc @dortman @getting-messi @mesqueunclub-ish @mhessi

[decoding1432]

The Art Behind Manipulating & Guarding a Fandom (p. I)

NOTES:

*I’ll be quoting a lot, esp the parts I consider more relevant, however if you want to study the whole thing [which I HIGHLY recommend] I’ll attached the link to each of the sources. It might seem like a lot of info but PLEASE do yourself a favour & check it ALL out.*

*I’ve divided the subject in FOUR PARTS bc since I need your total attention & I don’t want you to start sleeping halfway, I’ll be posting periodically, at least till you end processing the prior post*

*Most of the posts I direct you to, are SHORT & in my opinion not too dense to read. In fact, the great majority are Q&As. I'll identified every post with a letter, it means that throughout the various posts you’ll see them repeated, so no need to read one twice*

*If you’re starting to get tired or feeling swamped with the amount of info. Take a break, process it, go eat something & free your mind then come back. It’s highly relevant to read the whole & if you think it helps you to rest for a moment, I encourage you to do it*

*Everyone who has a 5H blog or related, READ & SPREAD THIS. At the end of the day we’re equal victims of this happening*

- decoding1432.

Ever felt like you get fishy anons? Ever questioned whether if your blog or Twitter acc is monitored? Ever doubt those “exposing accounts” claiming to be insiders? Ever mistrust a mutual or similar? Yeah, well all that encircles a phenomenon better known as:

Astroturfing

Before we jumped into the meaning & detailed explanation of it, allow me to tell you the story of how I found out this fascinating concept. I’ve been wanting to do a post about “bot accounts” & “fanbase manipulation” since I read this post about the way Sony deals with fandoms. If there’s someone out there who knows about this better than anyone else, is the directioners. I swear the amount of data they own regarding the industry is enough to fill 10 libraries (I went through hell to find everything lol)

I must say in advance that most of the information obtained in my research are posts from theirs– all credit to them for their masterposts– so I apologise if you get too tired of reading “Harry, Louis, Ziam, Modest & bla, bla, bla” but it is ultimately very worthy stuff & let’s not forget that band came out from the same womb (great thing fans over there are too woke & we can grab a lot from their knowledge, seriously I have insane respect for that fanbase). Anyway, like I was telling, I first heard the word “astroturfing” when I was talking to lawyerlarry:

I asked her with the purpose of being linked to a post relating “bot accounts” or alike but to my surprise I was lead to a much more complex principle. At first, I deadass thought my lack of vocabulary in English was the cause I hadn’t understood what lawyerlarry was trying to tell me. When you look it in the dictionary, you’ll probably get something like this:

Now, what does it really mean in the SM context?

(NOTE: I’ll leave several definitions so that you can get a clearer idea).

No.1 *link A*

“This sounds very much like, trolling, you say. It does, but whereas trolling is done by one or several individuals for mischief, astroturfing is an organised, professional form of trolling with an agenda, an objective, a set mode of operation and an end-goal. Think trolling on steroids.

It sounds very far-fetched and very conspiracy theory-ish, but it’s been used in a lot of forms, from maligning celebrities and high-profile people to companies using astroturfers to provide fake consumer reviews, boost their credibility (thank you for reblogging that article mirandaskye, btw!), or discredit their competition. Some even go on a nationalistic scale of seeding political dissent among political parties. Because of the anonymity that the internet can provide, astroturfing is mostly common online.

Astroturfers can take several forms:

Posts, comments, etc from fake social media identities

Fake consumer reviews or brand/product testimonials

Fake online organisations/watchdog communities”

No. 2 (summarised) *link B*

Means pretending to be a fan, when in reality the agenda and strategy are controlled by a non-fan or “tptb” organisation. (‘tptb= the powers that be’ for the 1D fam is what we refer here to men in suits).

“Astroturfing takes place all the time it happens all across the internet everyday. There are varying degrees in which it happens. There are corporate bought twitter followers (x) and paid for positive and negative yelp reviews (x). It goes on and on. It is just part of business. Unethical? Misleading? Yeah but they’ve been doing it since forever. Big multibillion dollars have been fined for engaging in astroturfing (x) yet they still engage in it. The financial benefits must outweigh the risk.”

No. 3 *link C* (more summarised)

No. 4 *link D* (even more summarised)

If you ask me, I would personally keep the first definition because certainly astroturfing encompasses more than just Tumblr. It extends to Twitter up to the political world. If you’ve gotten to this point thinking it’s a conspirative aspect, watch the following video, IT’S A MUST:

Since I’m such a nerd for TED Talks I enjoyed it besides  I’m so fascinated by this concept. But in all honesty, ten minutes of your life that won’t go to waste.. However if you decide to keep scrolling down at least I suggest you skip to minute 2:08- 2:48 & 8:56- till the end. For anyone who can’t play the video, I’ll remark the points:

Min 2:08- 2:48

“What is Astroturf? It’s a perversion of grassroots, as in fake grassroots. Astroturf is when political, corporate, or other special interest disguise themselves & publish blogs, start Facebook & Twitter accounts, publish ads, letter to the editor, or simply posts comments online to try to fool you into thinking an independent or grassroots movement (in our case fans) is speaking. The whole point of Astroturf is to try to get the impression there’s widespread support for or against an agenda when there’s not. Astroturf seeks to manipulate you into changing your opinion by making you feel as if you’re an outlier when you’re not.”

Min 8:56- till the end

“I have a few strategies that I can tell you about, to help you recognise signs of propaganda and astroturf. Once you start to know what to look for you’ll begin to recognise it everywhere.

First, hallmarks of astroturfing include use of inflammatory language such as crack, nutty, lies, paranoid, and conspiracy. Astroturfers often claim to debunk myths that aren’t myths at all. Use of the charged language tests well, people hear something’s a myth, maybe they find it on snopes, and they instantly declare themselves too smart to fall for it. But what if the whole notion of the myth is itself a myth and you and snopes fell for that?

Beware when interests attack an issue by controversialising or attacking the people, personalities, and organizations surrounding it rather than addressing the facts, that could be astroturf.

And most of all, astroturfers tend to reserve all of their public skepticism for those exposing wrongdoing rather than the wrongdoers. In other words instead of questioning authority, they question those who question authority.”

Why is this so incredibly familiar…?