We’ve had some trouble recently with posts from aggregator links like Google Amp, MSN, and Yahoo.

We’re now requiring links go to the OG source, and not a conduit.

In an example like this, it can give the wrong attribution to the MBFC bot, and can give a more or less reliable rating than the original source, but it also makes it harder to run down duplicates.

So anything not linked to the original source, but is stuck on Google Amp, MSN, Yahoo, etc. will be removed.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    410·
    2 months ago

    Well, for example, just today (or maybe it was yesterday? Things get blurry after a while) somebody posted a Breitbart link.

    Now, most of the Lemmy audience is smart enough to know Breitbart is bullshit, and I did remove the link when I saw it, but until I removed it, it was up with the MBFC bot making it clear to anyone who did not know that it was, in fact, bullshit.

    We can’t catch everything right away, so it’s good having a bot mark these things.

    • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      14·
      2 months ago

      Overall, we rate Breitbart Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, the publication of conspiracy theories and propaganda, as well as numerous false claims. (M. Huitsing 6/18/2016) Updated (01/29/2022)

      Yeah mbfc really doing heavy work showing how bad it is…

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      151·
      2 months ago

      Wouldn’t the fact that the Breitbart article had – if I recall correctly – a 25:10 upvote-downvote ratio by the time it was removed suggest that the MBFC bot was functionally useless in counteracting a disinformation source? Presumably because most people simply read a headline about Zelensky that wasn’t negative, said “oh cool”, upvoted without reading the article or looking at the source, and continued scrolling? And I can hardly imagine any of the 10 downvoters actually checked the MBFC bot; instead they noticed that it was Breitbart and downvoted because of its notoriety.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
        25·
        2 months ago

        We discussed boiling the bot down to a tag on the posts, but apparently there was some technical limitation doing that? Frankly, it’s a little over my head.