MediaBiasFactChecker almost broke the whole system - SLRPNK
slrpnk.net
Everything’s been working smoothly, with nothing to report about the moderation bot. The community has been quiet but productive, which was precisely the goal, and the bot working smoothly with no issues. However, something almost went wrong in a particular entertaining fashion which I thought I would share. The algorithm for classifying troll users doesn’t have any polarity. It only knows which users are opposed to which other users. 50% of the time, it’ll get its whole ranking system backwards, so the troll users are the normal ones, and everyone else gets negative rank, because the math works just as well under that ranking regime. Generally this isn’t a problem, because there’s a step: # Flip the sign if we arrived at a majority-negative ranking, which can happen if -min_val > max_val: rank[1:] *= -1 The most popular user is always more popular than the least popular troll is unpopular, by quite a big margin, so that works fine. However. Things have changed. MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world is so unpopular that it’s almost (1% margin) more unpopular than the highest-rank user is popular. If that had happened, the whole polarity would have flipped, every user would have been banned, all the trolls would have been unbanned. Mass hysteria. I only happened to notice it before it happened and stop the bot. It’s on track to be the least popular user on Lemmy, with about 5 times lower rank than some of the most notorious trolls. Have fun with this information. I started checking the median rank of all users, instead. Thanks MediaBiasFactChecker.
  • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
    69·
    19 days ago

    It might have something to do with their steadfast insistence on rating literal Zionist propaganda outlets that spread straight up lies that have been debunked hundreds of times over as “extremely credible”.

    Just ignoring reality like that tends to hurt the credibility of a credibility meter.

    • Catoblepas
      44·
      19 days ago

      And don’t get me wrong, I have a shit ton of gripes about The Guardian as a trans person, but rating its factual reporting as “mixed” while the NYT is “high” is either incompetence or an agenda. I think they bank on Americans not being familiar with what international papers are reputable.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
        13·
        19 days ago

        Absolutely. And also banking on both Americans and non-Americans to be unaware of the extreme pro-zionist, pro-cop, and pro-establishment bias of the NYT as well as the lies they keep spreading as a result.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      19 days ago

      It might have something to do with their steadfast insistence on rating literal Zionist propaganda outlets that spread straight up lies that have been debunked hundreds of times over as “extremely credible”.

      No, that would have made it the most popular user lemmy has ever seen. I think it was because it was something that no one asked for like that one U2 album.

            • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              19 days ago

              They’re openly hostile to anyone who says that Democrats should not support Netanyahu’s genocide.

              • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
                9·
                19 days ago

                Not really, only the ones who say that you should withhold support from all Democrats in a binary election system. And anyone who says anything that can possibly be interpreted as such. And quite a few where they have to invent the nonsupport out of whole cloth.

                It’s not so much that they’re Zionists, it’s more that many of them are pro-Dem to the point where any dissent against any Dems, especially the leaders, gets the same ferocious reactions as when you criticize the Mango Mussolini amongst his fascist cult.

                Or to put it another way: apart from understandable election pragmatism, there’s a lot of people there who cares more about pretending that their “team” is perfect than about holding the people supposed to represent them accountable for participating in countless crimes against humanity.

                • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  5·
                  19 days ago

                  Not really, only the ones who say that you should withhold support from all Democrats in a binary election system

                  I have never, not a single fucking time, suggested withholding support. That has never fucking mattered.

                  Or to put it another way: apart from understandable election pragmatism, there’s a lot of people there who cares more about pretending that their “team” is perfect than about holding the people supposed to represent them accountable for participating in countless crimes against humanity.

                  And I don’t give the benefit of the doubt to people who are willing to jettison their humanity just for their “team”. Particularly when they’re super fucking excited to get Dick Cheney’s endorsement.

                  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
                    2·
                    19 days ago

                    I completely agree. Just pointing out the technical difference between pro-zionism and harassing/othering anti-zionists for reasons only indirectly related 😉