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.worldOPM
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          40 minutes ago

          Not seeing any suggestions there to improve the bot, but lots of bannable attacks on other users, mods and admins.

          So I’ll say it again, as I’ve told other people complaining, I’m open to making the bot better. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

          1. It has to be automated, which means accessible through an API.

          2. It has to be no/low cost. Lemmy.World doesn’t have a budget for this. We met with an MBFC alternative, they wanted 6 figures. HARD no.

  • hamid@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    Haha, wow you guys really need to work on your PR

    There are so many good reasons to block aggregators and you picked the worst one, your bot that no one likes.

    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah, seriously, aggregators are annoying as fuck, they’re link rot waiting to happen, it’s impossible to tell the quality of the source from the URL…

      And the problem is of course the MBFC bot. It’s a change for good, but this is what we’re going with? They chose the one line that would get them backlash for an objective improvement.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours ago

    Really? That’s your compelling argument?

    It’s to difficult for your bot, that’s universally hated in this community, to work with?

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 hours ago

      The bot is instituted by the Admins and with good reason.

      But yes, this has been the problem that pops up recently. The bot sees “Oh, MSN, they’re reliable…” but the OG source is not.

      • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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        3 hours ago

        The bot is instituted by the Admins

        When did this happen? The admins instituted it for !politics, and the admins changed their minds about having it for !news and friends, but wanted to keep it in !politics?

        with good reason

        What’s the reason?

          • PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat
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            2 hours ago

            In what way does having the MediaBiasFactCheck bot help with misinformation? It’s not very accurate, probably less than the average Lemmy reader’s preexisting knowledge level. People elsewhere in these comments are posting specific examples, in a coherent, respectful fashion.

            Most misinformation clearly comes in the form of accounts that post a steady stream of “reliable” articles which don’t technically break the rules, and/or in bad-faith comments. You may well be doing plenty of work on that also, I’m not saying you’re not, but it doesn’t seem from the outside like a priority in the way that the bot is. What is the use case where the bot ever helped prevent some misinformation? Do you have an example when it happened?

            I’m not trying to be hostile in the way that I’m asking these questions. It’s just very strange to me that there is an overwhelming consensus by the users of this community in one direction, and that the people who are moderating it are pursuing this weird non-answer way of reacting to the overwhelming consensus. What bad thing would happen if you followed the example of the !news moderators, and just said, “You know what? We like the bot, but the community hates it, so out it goes.” It doesn’t seem like that should be a complex situation or a difficult decision, and I’m struggling to see why the moderation team is so attached to this bot and their explanations are so bizarre when they’re questioned on it.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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              53 minutes 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.org
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                37 minutes 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.world
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            3 hours ago

            Misinformation like the website MBFC, which equates the level of factual accuracy of The Guardian to Breitbart?

              • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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                42 minutes ago

                I don’t hate Radio Free Asia as much as some people, but even I recognize that MBFC is on crack when talking about it compared to – as I keep bringing up – The Guardian.

                The MBFC Credibility Rating for RFA is “HIGH CREDIBILITY”, while for The Guardian, it’s “MEDIUM CREDIBILITY”. For factual reporting, RFA gets “HIGH” while The Guardian gets “MIXED” – which is two ranks down from RFA and is – again – on the same level as Breitbart. Meanwhile, didn’t RFA run an anti-China story using a picture from a Reddit thread as their only source?

              • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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                1 hour ago

                No, no, you see, they have a left-center bias because they… Report the news factually and dispassionately. Seriously, this article titled “AP exclusive: Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin” is cited by MBFC as “utiliz[ing] moderate-loaded language in their headlines in their political coverage”.

                They specifically cite: “However, in some articles, the author demonstrates bias through loaded emotional language such as this: “PUSHED Ukrainian officials to investigate BASELESS corruption allegations against the Bidens.””

                Yeah, no fucking shit it was completely baseless and no fucking shit Trump pushed for this. How dare they present reality the way it actually is instead of fucking both-sidesing an obvious lie. Clearly left-center bias.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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              3 hours ago

              MBFC does NOT equate the Guardian with Breitbart:

              https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-guardian/

              Overall, we rate The Guardian as Left-Center biased based on story selection that moderately favors the left and Mixed for factual reporting due to numerous failed fact checks over the last five years.

              https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/breitbart/

              Overall, we rate Breitbart Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, the publication of conspiracy theories and propaganda, as well as numerous false claims.

              If you check their list of questionable sources, Breitbart is listed, the Guardian is not:

              https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/fake-news/

              • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                3 hours ago

                Example of a “failed” fact check for The Guardian:

                “Private renting is making millions of people ill with almost half of England’s 8.5 million renters experiencing stress or anxiety and a quarter made physically sick as a result of their housing, campaigners have said.”

                OUR VERDICT

                A survey found almost a quarter of private renters agree that housing worries have made them ill in the past year. This doesn’t mean the sickness was specifically caused by renting privately as opposed to any other type of housing situation.

                This was an article entirely about stress and anxiety. Ignoring that stress and anxiety have physical effects on the body, the only way someone could conclude that the article was about like, toxic apartments and not stress and anxiety was if they failed to read the article at all and instead just read the headline and made up an article in their head.

                Such obviously agenda driven nitpicky bullshit is why people don’t respect the bot.

                • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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                  47 minutes ago

                  Correlation is not causation. I had my first heart attack when I was renting. It wasn’t BECAUSE I was a renter. You literally cannot say someone is experiencing stress because they’re a renter, that’s a stretch.

                  They could be experiencing stress by their overall socio-economic status which is also a reason they are renting, not the other way around.

                  I had my 2nd heart attack as a home owner. Again, my status as a renter or owner has nothing to do with it.

              • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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                2 hours ago

                Jordan, please look at the ‘Factual Reporting’ metric. They consider both of them to be ‘MIXED’, and as @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone correctly points out, the sorts of few-and-far-between “fact checks” performed on The Guardian are complete nitpicks, while Breitbart is outright a disinformation outlet, peddling climate denialism, anti-vaxx, and other things that make it – based on what you said earlier – a source that isn’t credible enough to be posted to this very community.

                The Guardian is much more factually accurate than “MIXED”, and Breitbart is much less factually accurate than “MIXED”, yet somehow they elevate Breitbart while dragging The Guardian’s credibility through the mud.

                (To be clear, though, I still think what you guys are doing with this change is a huge improvement.)

                • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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                  51 minutes ago

                  That’s not the overall rating though, which is why Breitbart is Questionable and the Guardian is not.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    What if the Yahoo article is because the original is paywalled?

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 hours ago

      You can use an archive link to get around a paywall, that’s always been allowed.

        • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOPM
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          59 minutes ago

          Archive links are allowed, and, in fact, if you submit a link from the web interface, it offers to generate an archive link for you.

          I specifically clarified that with the Admins when they asked us to crack down on copy pasting full articles.