Disappearing Article

Jacket05

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
686
Before I get going to be sure I don't scare anyone. I have searched everywhere since seeing the article and can't find it or ANY reference to what it was about so it was obviously false.

I was on Facebook this morning and saw an article about [redacted] saying he was dismissed from the team for a severe violation of team rules. I clicked the link and it was a "news" site I had not heard of but the article read like a legitimate story with statements from Tech and saying that there was no mention of what he violated. I immediately jumped over here to see what the board was saying and didn't see anything. When I went back to Facebook the home page refreshed and the post was gone. I tried searching Facebook for it and checked the various Tech groups I am in and saw nothing. I also searched Google for anything and nothing popped up.

I know this is an odd post but I figured I would check on here to see if I was the only one who saw this article this morning (or if I was still asleep and dreaming this morning 😂). I waited until now to post cause I figured if it was legit it would have come out by now. Did anyone else see this or know anything about it?
 
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cpf2001

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,241
So what do these spammers gain by @Jacket05 clicking on their link?
Best-case for the user who clicks: fractions of a penny from ad views. Lulz from knowing they trolled people.

Worse cases are when sites exploit a vulnerability and install malware on the user’s machine. (Not to be alarming, no reason to believe that was the case here, but it’s a periodic reason for fishing. just keep an eye on if your device acts unusual.)
 

TooTall

Helluva Engineer
Messages
3,281
Location
Vidalia
GIF by Giphy QA
 

swampsting

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,868
Seeing as how LSU offered $600K in NIL money to get Singleton, and he almost took it, he'd have to do a lot to get kicked to the curb by CBK.
 

Jacket05

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
686
Remember, you are not a Facebook customer. You are their Product.

Facebook is not a reliable source of information about anything.

Off soapbox now.
Oh no soapbox needed for me (and hopefully for most on here). I usually don't even click the links on Facebook unless I know it is legit, but I was still half asleep this morning when I was looking so I wasn't really paying attention. However, when I saw the article I immediately went to look to see if I could find multiple reputable and reliable sources as I don't take anything I read on the internet for fact. I made sure to do enough research and leave enough time to verify it was a BS article before posting here. I also made sure to state that it was false in the post to not spread misinformation.

My post was more to see if anyone else had seen it. It was also odd as it didn't seem to have the typical language or tone that you see in the fake SPAM articles that Facebook loves to distribute to everyone. I am a part of many different Tech groups on Facebook and I had thought it was posted by someone from one of the groups but couldn't verify.

Based on a previous comment, it seems like there may be a "site" that has this blanket article and just swaps names and photos randomly to get clicks.
 

roadkill

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,821
Oh no soapbox needed for me (and hopefully for most on here). I usually don't even click the links on Facebook unless I know it is legit, but I was still half asleep this morning when I was looking so I wasn't really paying attention. However, when I saw the article I immediately went to look to see if I could find multiple reputable and reliable sources as I don't take anything I read on the internet for fact. I made sure to do enough research and leave enough time to verify it was a BS article before posting here. I also made sure to state that it was false in the post to not spread misinformation.

My post was more to see if anyone else had seen it. It was also odd as it didn't seem to have the typical language or tone that you see in the fake SPAM articles that Facebook loves to distribute to everyone. I am a part of many different Tech groups on Facebook and I had thought it was posted by someone from one of the groups but couldn't verify.

Based on a previous comment, it seems like there may be a "site" that has this blanket article and just swaps names and photos randomly to get clicks.
Sounds like the spammers are getting ever more clever. The deepfakes are scary.
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,755
I’ve never used Facebook. I think the business model is unethical and the algorithms tend to divide people by rewarding outrage. They also have, in the past, been the single largest platform for Russian political disinformation.

I am also a hypocrite in that I constantly ask my wife to keep me informed about family and friends on Facebook and catch me up on jokes and cute memes.
 

ThatGuy

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
973
Location
Evergreen, CO
Facebook out here using AI to generate fake articles and websites apparently 🤷‍♂️
Facebook isn't generating anything. A spammer is creating clickbait websites to post to Facebook and other platforms to drive clicks and views, each of which translate into fractions of a penny in ad revenue for them. Post it on enough free places, drive lots of traffic, & profit.

This is a scheme that's been going on for as long as the internet has been around, long before social media, since the first message board sprang up. And it won't really stop ever - although Facebook's and Google's algorithms have gotten better at detecting this sort of thing over the years. (Case in point - the fact that said "article" disappeared). So I guess that's something to be thankful for.

Live by the algorithm, die by the algorithm. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

Chas_Jacket

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
368
I’ve never used Facebook. I think the business model is unethical and the algorithms tend to divide people by rewarding outrage. They also have, in the past, been the single largest platform for Russian political disinformation.

I am also a hypocrite in that I constantly ask my wife to keep me informed about family and friends on Facebook and catch me up on jokes and cute memes.
That’s hilarious as I do exactly the same with my wife 🙄
 

Heisman's Ghost

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,858
Location
Albany Georgia
Before I get going to be sure I don't scare anyone. I have searched everywhere since seeing the article and can't find it or ANY reference to what it was about so it was obviously false.

I was on Facebook this morning and saw an article about [redacted] saying he was dismissed from the team for a severe violation of team rules. I clicked the link and it was a "news" site I had not heard of but the article read like a legitimate story with statements from Tech and saying that there was no mention of what he violated. I immediately jumped over here to see what the board was saying and didn't see anything. When I went back to Facebook the home page refreshed and the post was gone. I tried searching Facebook for it and checked the various Tech groups I am in and saw nothing. I also searched Google for anything and nothing popped up.

I know this is an odd post but I figured I would check on here to see if I was the only one who saw this article this morning (or if I was still asleep and dreaming this morning 😂). I waited until now to post cause I figured if it was legit it would have come out by now. Did anyone else see this or know anything about it?
Facebook? Twitter? Don't use them. I am still in the 20th century and don't trust any media of any kind. I am not sure I trust Jacket05 but since he went to high school it would seem in the late 1990s...I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
 
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