₦airaland Forum

Trust in information on the web is being damaged by the huge numbers of people paid by companies to post comments online, say researchers.

Fake posters can "poison" debate and make people unsure about who they can trust, the study suggests.

Some firms have created tens of thousands of fake accounts to flood chat forums and skew debate.

The researchers say there are reliable ways to spot fakes and urge websites to do more to police users.

The researchers from Canada and China say paying people to post comments is an "interesting strategy in business marketing" but it is not a benign activity.

"Paid posters may create a significant negative effect on the online communities, since the information from paid posters is usually not trustworthy," they wrote.

Battles

In some cases, rival companies have used competing armies of workers to wage comment wars that confused members of the public looking for unbiased information.

The researchers say the fake comments can overwhelm some users, causing them to find it hard to trust any information found online.

They give the example of a spike in activity on a World of Warcraft chat forum on the Chinese website Baidu.

A thread titled "Junpeng Jia, your mother asked you to go back home for dinner!" received over 300,000 replies over a two day period.

A PR company later claimed it had employed 800 individuals to run 20,000 separate accounts on the site to help maintain interest in the videogame while it was down for maintenance.

Growing problem

While the practice of flooding forums with fake comments is most widespread in China, where such posters are called the Internet Water Army, it is becoming common in other nations too.

The US military is known to use fakes to infiltrate chat forums to gather information about potential terror groups.

Similarly many Facebook pages are plagued by bogus friends and "social bots" that are used to stage debates.

Many marketing firms also seed forums with comments in a bid to create "viral" interest in a company or event.

However, fakes can be spotted by analysing their patterns of activity and the words they use, say the researchers.

Fakes are more likely to start new comment threads, make inane comments rather than add to a debate, and repeat former comments with minor changes, the study suggests.

The researchers say they are refining software tools to help website administrators tackle the "painful" problem.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683

so many males- where are the females.

@ topic

lord have mercy.

some of the captives were enslaved by the traders and in any case what's the difference?

was jaja of opobo not a slave originally. He wasnt sold to europeans but instead later became a chief.


olaudah equiano was also enslaved by the coastal people before being sold abroad, if the account is 100% accurate.

and there are records of igbos who were freed slaves on the coast.

^^igbos sold igbos to the ijaws and calabars, who in turn sold them to the whites.

^^so who sold igbos to the americas?

yorubas?

i believe my mum did.

on and off relationship, sort of.

i suspect the wazobia sentiment after the war also played a role.

besides those, i'm not really aware of the specifics.

^^ok, i'm asking.

post evidence to back up your claims.

^no need to act s.tupid.

are you saying yorubas sold igbos into slavery?

They required a high CGPA as minimum entry

i dont think soyinka graduated with a high CGPA.


More likely they required coming from a rich background as minimum entry.

same still holds today as most cultists are from rich and influential families.

Is this a joke? Surely the Yorubas were enslaving the igbos and selling them off to america.

there are too many erroneous statements on this thread for me to bother correcting, but i'll make an exception here.


ijaws, igbos, calabars and other coastal people were enslaving igbos and selling them to america.

@ picture

one nigeria.

the pastor can also decide to have a discussion with the policeman, who by the way already has at least a minimal knowledge of somewhere in the bible.

money doesnt necessarily have to exchange hands if he's not so led.

it all depends.

your parents want you to marry a muslim.

but you're dating a christian.

well, the choice is yours, really.

Poster who is the baby in your profile?

Are you having unprotected casual s.ex all over the place?

Ok, let's look at tomatoes.

Those were introduced to nigeria at a particular point in time i think.

I remember hearing people did not cook with tomatóes in the olden days. No tomatoes in stews.

Isnt there a song saying "i will never let you go unless you bless me"

so the pastor should bless him in cash and kind meaning give him something and also preach to him at the same time.

The coin in the fish' mouth comes to mind.

anonymous6:
https://www.roccointeriors.com.au/images/decorative/african/main/african_13_11_african_bronze1m.jpg
http://www.roccointeriors.com.au/phpdocs/product_detail.php?id=77&product_category=decorative&product_subcategory=african

The thingy in front looks like a lighthouse.

huh?

mbatuku2:
Before the arrival of Oduduwa. The ezechima groups who fled eastwards to Benin, and eventually leaving there to Anioma/Onitsha areas.

as you well know, there are owo axis migrants who are currently in delta state.

so most likely benin was a temporary stop on the road for people migrating from the west either for trade, war, on the slave route, or for whatever reason.

meaning most of these groups you mention might not necessarily have originated in benin. Or were probably mixed with yoruba.

in any case, your argument about igbo occupying the southwest is a fallacy and perhaps tongue in cheek?

or are you referring to obj who is said to be of igbo descent.

^^hey, sharrap.

not trying to be insensitive but onlytruth might have a point about taxing emigrants and using the funds collected to build facilities and infrastructure for them in their home states.

doesnt have to apply to igbos alone either.

nothing.

Do you realize that some Igbo once occupied that current territory known as yorubaland?

when was that.

.

.

Pounded yam/Iyan was dated back to the 1700 in the Yagba district present day Kogi

pounded yam seems more like it originated in the ekiti or maybe ondo region.


unless it was brought to these areas by people resettling or early migrants from there.

Not getting your point but the akassa in nigeria (founded around the 17th century perhaps) was preceded by the akassa in morocco.

Lagos portugal preceded lagos nigeria.

I dont think egusi is from igbo but garri could be from central or south america.

^Islam in yorubaland was mainly introduced by nupe slaves, according to some sources.

Nupes were also found in yoruba armies and courts- they were part of the middlemen who supplied the oyo calvaries with horses from libya or hausaland.

So, nobody is saying they had no influence at all. Same way yoruba had influence on them and some northern yorubas were absorbed by them.

So, lets list some things in yoruba culture which were influenced by igbo or other tribes.

Cant really think of anything but maybe someone else can.

I heard masquerades were influenced by nupe but i seriously doubt that. I'd say they're more of ugbo, going by the moremi story.


I dont know if ogbono was adopted from igbo cuisine. Yorubas call it apon.

Who is deleting my posts here.

I was just kidding with the last one- no need to take things serious.

Sorry if i stepped on a nerve but it really is strange seeing an igbo ceremony where everyone is wearing yoruba attire.