4 ms·

What evidence is there of widespread astroturfing on climate change, specifically on HN?

jbooth 17y ago
I'd call it more of an enthusiasm gap than astroturfing. Most of us understand that the temperature is in fact rising, ice is in fact melting in record quantities most summers, and ocean acidification is indeed happening. We also know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Those are all facts. If you think they aren't, re-check your facts. What's up for debate is how much CO2 is affecting the rising temperature. The so-called "skeptics" don't seem to be honing in on this, they're attempting broad brush methods to tar the facts and the uncertainties alike. So most of us don't bother to engage with those idiots. And you get what looks like astroturfing when in fact it's just a case of being louder.
vannevar 17y ago
If you look at the recent rash of posts on climate change, you see some patterns: - The posts tend to focus on the idea of conspiracy rather than on climate science. - The articles posted tend to be from fringe sources, or popular news sources that skim the technical details - The postings tend to cluster, with frequent posts that are nearly duplicate. People posting out of honest interest on HN tend to focus on the technical and scientific; not always, of course, but you'd expect to see more technical posts than conspiracy posts on climate change, and that's not what we're seeing. They also generally post articles from scientific or technical sources: after all, if we just wanted to read nontechnical news, we'd look elsewhere. Finally, bona fide posters generally avoid posting duplicates---again, not always, but astroturfed posts naturally tend toward duplication because the whole point is to keep the topic in view at all times. Given the sustained presence of all of these warning signs, I think it's safe to say there's some astroturfing going on here.

I'd call it more of an enthusiasm gap than astroturfing. Most of us understand that the temperature is in fact rising, ice is in fact melting in record quantities most summers, and ocean acidification is indeed happening. We also know that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Those are all facts. If you think they aren't, re-check your facts. What's up for debate is how much CO2 is affecting the rising temperature. The so-called "skeptics" don't seem to be honing in on this, they're attempting broad brush methods to tar the facts and the uncertainties alike. So most of us don't bother to engage with those idiots. And you get what looks like astroturfing when in fact it's just a case of being louder.

vannevar 17y ago

If you look at the recent rash of posts on climate change, you see some patterns: - The posts tend to focus on the idea of conspiracy rather than on climate science. - The articles posted tend to be from fringe sources, or popular news sources that skim the technical details - The postings tend to cluster, with frequent posts that are nearly duplicate. People posting out of honest interest on HN tend to focus on the technical and scientific; not always, of course, but you'd expect to see more technical posts than conspiracy posts on climate change, and that's not what we're seeing. They also generally post articles from scientific or technical sources: after all, if we just wanted to read nontechnical news, we'd look elsewhere. Finally, bona fide posters generally avoid posting duplicates---again, not always, but astroturfed posts naturally tend toward duplication because the whole point is to keep the topic in view at all times. Given the sustained presence of all of these warning signs, I think it's safe to say there's some astroturfing going on here.