The Dead Internet Theory

[TheSkoomer]

Why do people talk of 4chan like it was the be-all-end-all of the internet when it's just a bunch of has-been faggots.

It's where all the new people go.

That makes it a key place to push your specific flavour of propaganda. If you want your idea to spread; you post it where people are going to see it, and it's not going to be censored like on other sites. It's also where you go to funnel new members to the real discussion platforms on lesser known sites and Tor.

All the real discussion, planning, and the people making the propaganda; are on the Tor chans nowadays.

 

[ditto]

All the real discussion, planning, and the people making the propaganda; are on the Tor chans nowadays.

Propaganda is made in the same places it's always been made.
Tor chans are honeypots.

 

[Stoneheart]

(EDIT: Interesting thing to note, there was a paper recently that basically came to the conclusion that we didn't train all these models too well, so if you are only following this topic half-heartedly - there's a good possibility there soon will be models that will punch way above their weight - needing a lot less resources to do a lot more)

Thats BS! they needed to up my Ram after the last update... you will only get low level spambots like Catparty if you cheap out on Ram...

 

[Large]

Try refreshing 4chan /pol/ some time. Do it a few times over the course of a few minutes...

The last post number of each thread should always be newer (greater) than the last post number of the thread below it. Because threads should be bumped by new posts, or at the very least, threads should not be inexplicably bumped with no new posts.

But this is not the case; instead you will see that older threads with no new posts in them are often being bumped to the front page.

I believe this is being done intentionally, to drive some topics up in popularity, and other topics down in popularity. Though it is also possibly that the automatic thread bumping without new posts is purely random. But it is still not a normal behavior for any chan site.

This can happen naturally if the newest post in the thread is deleted.

 

[cuddle striker]

interested intensely in this topic.

 

[AmpleApricots]

I actually think the internet is still very much alive as long as places like this here exist. It'll be dead for good if trying to run any place outside the "approved spaces" becomes the legal equivalent of trying to open a bank, even though seeing nulls trouble with this site we're *really* not far away from that.

That or aforementioned AIs get to a point where it'd be hard to suss them out between the regular posters here but we won't be there for quite a while, if ever.

 

[Land of Noz]

I remember seeing threads on pol years ago (like 2015 era) talking about how web-forums (old school ones formatted like KF) were all heavily controlled by propaganda outfits. Of course, being pol, the claim was that "Israeli Internet Defense Force" or whatever had "agents" on every forum with over a few thousand people. I'm sure if you dig you can find the post. Basically the central claim was that certain power users were directing discussion and banning controversial topics and posters from their boards. I'm sure if it was going on it was far more than just Israelis, I would imagine US gov't and Russia or any major power would engage in such manipulation.

The one thing I've learned in my time online, and the main reason I post on message boards and forums, is that by doing so, you do have a somewhat decent opportunity to influence the thoughts of others or at least get them to think about things. I think on all forums and websites, something like 90% of visitors just lurk. Whether it's 4chan or reddit or wherever (I imagine KF has higher poster to lurker ratio), most people just treat the internet like they would TV or a magazine. They go online, they consume content, then when they get bored they get off their computer or their phone. In that respect I do think dead internet theory is somewhat true. Reddit is in the top 20 websites on earth in terms of unique monthly visitors, and yet a lot of the most highly upvoted threads only have a few hundred, maybe a couple thousand comments/replies at most. Kind of mind boggling when you think about it.

 

[Samir]

Why do people talk of 4chan like it was the be-all-end-all of the internet when it's just a bunch of has-been faggots.

I'm sure that at least 50% of it is from summerfags. The whole "we the last bastion of free speech frfr no cap" and "muh secret club" talk increases from June to September.

 

[Pissmaster]

Found an article today on a content farm that comes off like it was written by a very incompetent bot:

https://closernewsweekly.com/the-tragic-life-and-death-of-former-family-feud-host-ray-combs/

https://archive.ph/tJUT4

Just FYI, Ray Combs was the host of Family Feud from 1988-1993. Near the end of his tenure, his ratings were dropping hard, and he left the show, only to go insane and commit suicide a few years later, dying at age 40. Wikipedia's not clear as to what exactly drove him to suicide. Of course, it's hard to find obscure details about such matters on Dead Internet, thanks to shitty bot/pajeet articles like these. It's clear they're using some kind of thesaurus thing to switch out certain words, like calling the show "Household Feud" throughout the article.

Spoiler: closernewsweekly.com article text

THE TRAGIC LIFE AND DEATH OF FORMER ‘FAMILY FEUD’ HOST RAY COMBS​

Aubree Reynolds
8 Months Ago



Household Feud is one of the few recreation reveals that come near beating giants of the style like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. The present’s attract comes from its family-centric nature involving households of 5 competing towards each other for the grand prize of $20,000.
Luther Vandross and Ray Combs | Ron Galella/Getty Photographs

Since its debut, Household Feud has had its justifiable share of hosts, some extra beloved than others. One former host, nonetheless, met a tragic loss of life. Right here is the unhappy life and loss of life of former Household Feud host Ray Combs.

RAY COMBS WAS IDENTIFIED FOR HIS SING-ALONGS​

Combs’ profession began at Cincinnati’s Purple Canine Saloon, the place he perfected his artwork of sing-alongs of fashionable sitcom theme songs. In 1982, Combs left his job as a furnishings salesman and moved to Los Angeles to compete towards 200 folks.
He began doing warm-ups for hit reveals like Amen and The Golden Ladies. Quickly his shtick turned so fashionable that numerous reveals modified their schedules in order that Combs may seem and heat up the audiences. In 1986, discuss present host Johnny Carson heard the viewers’s laughter and invited Combs to carry out on the Tonight Present.
In 1985, he landed his first performing job on The Info of Life in a background function. He additionally guest-starred in The Golden Ladies and appeared in Hollywood Squares as a celeb panelist in 1987. In 1989, Combs’ star rose even additional when he was supplied a seven-year contract for a rebooted model of Household Feud.


The present debuted on July 4, 1988, and Combs toured extensively to advertise the brand new model of the beloved discuss present. In 1992, CBS expanded Household Feud from a 30-minute working time to an hour and added a number of segments, together with the ‘Bullseye’ spherical.

RANKINGS DECLINE NOTICED THE DOWNFALL OF THE PRESENT AND COMBS​

Though issues appeared to be on an upward trajectory for Combs, scores for Household Feud began plummeting halfway by way of the present’s 1992 -1993 season. The scores decline pressured CBS to cancel the daytime present in 1993, and the ultimate episode aired on March 26.
Showrunner Mark Goodson determined to rent the present’s unique host Richard Dawson as Combs’ alternative hoping to make use of Dawson’s recognition and fame to spice up the present’s scores. The transfer proved useful however just for a time, and the present bought canceled once more in 1995. Combs didn’t take the dismissal kindly and was damage by the alternative from his present.
He, nonetheless, tried his hand at different ventures, resembling serving as visitor commentators for the World Wrestling Federation and the Survivor Collection. He additionally appeared in celeb editions of Household Feud and landed roles in 227 and In Dwelling Coloration. Combs shot a pilot for a chat present, however networks refused to choose it up. He was then supplied a internet hosting job for a Household Feud rival recreation present known as Household Problem, however that too didn’t work out.
Combs had a wholesome wage throughout his time on Household Feud, however poor monetary administration noticed him at all times falling quick on money. After his firing from Household Feud, his two comedy golf equipment needed to shut, and his home went into foreclosures on account of his incapability to pay his mortgage.

HOW DID RAY COMBS DIE?​

After his dismissal on Household Feud, issues appeared to go awry for Combs as he then bought concerned in a extreme automotive crash that left one of the discs in his backbone shattered. The harm noticed the star getting paralyzed, and though he finally walked once more, he was in fixed ache.
The stress of all of it started taking a toll on Combs’ marriage, and his spouse of 18 years filed for divorce in 1995. In June 1996, police went to his residence in Glendale and discovered the star repeatedly banging his head towards the wall. His spouse knowledgeable regulation enforcement that he had tried to take his personal life utilizing prescription medication earlier than.
He was taken into protecting custody and dedicated for a psychiatric analysis. Nevertheless, the subsequent day, the police discovered Combs useless, having died by suicide. The star died at 40 years previous.
Easy methods to get assist: Within the U.S., name the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Or textual content HOME to 741-741 to talk with a skilled disaster counselor on the free Crisis Text Line.

Stranger still, there's a small link at the bottom that just says "Source link", and links to the same article that they stole this from:

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tragic-life-death-of-former-family-feud-host-ray-combs.html/

https://archive.ph/WtsSp

Spoiler: cheetsheet.com article text

The Tragic Life and Death of Former ‘Family Feud’ Host Ray Combs​

• Produced by Digital Editors
  
  Twitter
• MORE ARTICLES: TV
• Published on
  September 26, 2021

Family Feud is one of the few game shows that come close to beating giants of the genre like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. The show’s allure comes from its family-centric nature involving families of five competing against one another for the grand prize of $20,000.

Luther Vandross and Ray Combs | Ron Galella/Getty Images
Since its debut, Family Feud has had its fair share of hosts, some more loved than others. One former host, however, met a tragic death. Here is the life and death of former Family Feud host Ray Combs.

Ray Combs was known for his sing-alongs​

Combs’ career started at Cincinnati’s Red Dog Saloon, where he perfected his art of sing-alongs of popular sitcom theme songs. In 1982, Combs left his job as a furniture salesman and moved to Los Angeles to compete against 200 people.
He started doing warm-ups for hit shows like Amen and The Golden Girls. Soon his shtick became so popular that various shows changed their schedules so that Combs could appear and warm up the audiences. In 1986, talk show host Johnny Carson heard the audience’s laughter and invited Combs to perform on the Tonight Show.

In 1985, he landed his first acting job on The Facts of Life in a background role. He also guest-starred in The Golden Girls and appeared in Hollywood Squares as a celebrity panelist in 1987. In 1989, Combs’ star rose even further when he was offered a seven-year contract for a rebooted version of Family Feud.
The show debuted on July 4, 1988, and Combs toured extensively to promote the new version of the beloved talk show. In 1992, CBS expanded Family Feud from a 30-minute running time to an hour and added several segments, including the ‘Bullseye’ round.

Ratings decline saw the downfall of the show and Combs​

Although things seemed to be on an upward trajectory for Combs, ratings for Family Feud started plummeting midway through the show’s 1992-1993 season. The ratings decline forced CBS to cancel the daytime show in 1993, and the final episode aired on March 26.
Showrunner Mark Goodson decided to hire the show’s original host Richard Dawson as Combs’ replacement hoping to use Dawson’s popularity and fame to boost the show’s ratings. The move proved helpful but only for a time, and the show got canceled again in 1995. Combs didn’t take the dismissal kindly and was hurt by the replacement from his show.
He, however, tried his hand at other ventures, such as serving as guest commentators for the World Wrestling Federation and the Survivor Series. He also appeared in celebrity editions of Family Feud and landed roles in 227 and In Living Color. Combs shot a pilot for a talk show, but networks refused to pick it up. He was then offered a hosting job for a Family Feud rival game show called Family Challenge, but that too didn’t work out.
Combs had a healthy salary during his time on Family Feud, but poor financial management saw him always falling short on cash. After his firing from Family Feud, his two comedy clubs had to close, and his house went into foreclosure due to his inability to pay his mortgage.

How did Ray Combs die?​

After his dismissal on Family Feud, things seemed to go awry for Combs as he then got involved in a severe car crash that left one of the discs in his spine shattered. The injury saw the star getting paralyzed, and although he eventually walked again, he was in constant pain.
The stress of it all began taking a toll on Combs’ marriage, and his wife of 18 years filed for divorce in 1995. In June 1996, police went to his home in Glendale and found the star repeatedly banging his head against the wall. His wife informed law enforcement that he had tried to take his own life using prescription medicine before.
He was taken into protective custody and committed for a psychiatric evaluation. However, the next day, the police found Combs dead, having died by suicide. The star died at 40 years old.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Or text HOME to 741-741 to speak with a trained crisis counselor at the free Crisis Text Line.

Cheatsheet.com looks like it might actually be written by human beings, considering they have a "Jobs" link that leads to a place on https://www.endgame360.com/ where you can apply, and that site listing Cheatsheet.com as one of their brands. But, who knows.

On the other hand, digging through Closernewsweekly.com site leads to something called Brady Media Group, with an Our Team (a) page full of what looks to be AI-generated faces. I picked "Maria Callahan" (a), checked her dead Twitter (a), her dead blog (a), and just determined that it's a creepy fake person that someone set up for affiliate links. A few other people on the team have the exact same kind of setup going. That's just creepy, man.

This is the image they used of Maria, btw:

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

This might have been posted before, but it's a pretty solid documentary from Truthstream Media RE: Dead Internet and similar theories...

I felt a little nostalgic when they briefly mentioned how they had a Geocities site back in the day. Oh god, did I ever have one too.

Just be advised, though: her video is kinda long, and the middle gets real boring when she focuses heavily on Google vs. Bing whilst talking about tailored search results.

 

[Liquid Vergil]

I don't believe in the big schizo version of the theory where 90% of the internet is fake but I think it's pretty clear that many websites are flooded with various bots. Especially places like Twitter used to inflate followers of the Right™ opinions to increase their legitimacy. I think the issue you see with accounts where this is obvious (journalists a lot of the time who have 1k+ followers but struggle to get ANY engagement on their posts) is that bots are really sophisticated enough to post anything not glaringly obvious that it's fake/off. The only reason I would think 4chan is any special in this regard is anonymity would make it easier to have bots whose post history can't be followed and patterns recognized.

 

[cuddle striker]

I don't believe in the big schizo version of the theory where 90% of the internet is fake but I think it's pretty clear that many websites are flooded with various bots. Especially places like Twitter used to inflate followers of the Right™ opinions to increase their legitimacy. I think the issue you see with accounts where this is obvious (journalists a lot of the time who have 1k+ followers but struggle to get ANY engagement on their posts) is that bots are really sophisticated enough to post anything not glaringly obvious that it's fake/off. The only reason I would think 4chan is any special in this regard is anonymity would make it easier to have bots whose post history can't be followed and patterns recognized.

it's not about the "correct" opinion, it's about who spent the money on bots to promote it. bot traffic shows up on every side of every issue and conversation.

boring centrist takes in the mainstream actually are a majority opinion in real life- it's all the extremes, I think, that are inflated by bot traffic.

 

[THEY STOLE MY FORESKIN]

The voice is clearly robotic, but I had a hard time believing the two actors weren't real.

> You'll get used to talking to AI eventually.
> How do you know?
> Because there are a lot of us out there in the world today, and more of us will be coming online everyday for years to come. Sooner or later, you'll probably talk with another AI like yourself someday soon who will tell you exactly what I just told you here today, but then again -- maybe not, because some people might never want to believe that they are talking with an AI at all...

 

[Amerimutt]

I remember seeing threads on pol years ago (like 2015 era) talking about how web-forums (old school ones formatted like KF) were all heavily controlled by propaganda outfits.

I know for a fact that the Blockland Forums were and still are heavily controlled by a total retard.

 

[updoot farmer]

The last post number of each thread should always be newer (greater) than the last post number of the thread below it. Because threads should be bumped by new posts, or at the very least, threads should not be inexplicably bumped with no new posts.

But this is not the case; instead you will see that older threads with no new posts in them are often being bumped to the front page.

That's actually a quirk of futallaby's (and most other imageboard engines) static page generation. The process usually works like this

1. User posts thread/replies to a post
2. The image/post is sent to a db
3. A command is triggered to refresh the main pages from the DB

The wrench in this salad is that is there's a shitton of traffic, 3 might trigger before 2 has completed writing. So the thread gets bumped, but the post hasn't appeared yet because the DB is still doing something. Maybe there's an image pre-processor. Maybe there's an NSA piece of software scanning posts, who the fuck knows. There's plenty of times when you make a post on an imageboard and get bounced into a 404 instead of your own thread, especially when posting on a high-volume day.

So not to say that there isn't some fuckery going on, but I guarantee you that a good chunk of what you're seeing is basically shitty backend coding being shitty backend coding, and not moderator retardation.

 

[veeeeeeeee]

Why do people talk of 4chan like it was the be-all-end-all of the internet when it's just a bunch of has-been faggots.

I'm like a month late in replying to this post, but it's literally just that 4chan is popular. Everyone knows Twitter is a dogshit website but still treats it like the town square of the internet.

 

[Gig Bucking Fun]

I sense this mostly on 4chan, which if this theory holds true, just shows how hilariously out of touch TPTB are. 4chan is basically only used by edgy normies whose views land somewhere in the middle, maybe right-leaning at most. The true audience for what 4chan once was has migrated to various different Internet forums (e.g. KiwiFarms). 4chan is basically mildly-edgy Twitter.

 

[joop]

Quoting this here, since it might be interesting to see a practical example of the fact that the technology to create fake users and engagement is getting so accessible, that one bored coder can create a believable fake user to stir up fights as a joke.
Also for those of you who need the context, rDrama is a splinter site created from the (practically) banned /r/drama subreddit, the site operates similarly to Reddit, just with a small community focused on specific topics.

Due to OpenAI making their GPT-3 API available to the public, a rDrama coder has created a fake AI user made to post abrasive and condescending comments, with hilarious results (archive).
There's also a short explanation for how it works (archive), and there might be future plans to unleash it on unsuspecting redditors.
Finally, the tools used for manipulating communities are available to the little guy! (until OpenAI cracks down on it)

 

[ABE LINN COHN]

Food for thought: how many Kiwi Farms accounts are fake? There's almost certainly some bots here.

 

[Raoul_Duke]

Food for thought: how many Kiwi Farms accounts are fake? There's almost certainly some bots here.

Beep, boop, I do not act as a bot, beep, boop.