this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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News

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The news mod team has asked to no longer be a part of the project until we have a composite tool that polls multiple sources for a more balanced view.

It will take a few hours, but FOR NOW there won't be a bot giving reviews of the source.

The goal was simple: make it easier to show biased sources. This was to give you and the mods a better view of what we were looking at.

The mod team is in agreement: one source of truth isn't enough. We are working on a tool to give a composite score, from multiple sources, all open source.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Keep it gone. MBFC and others are not a source of truth.

Adding multiple sources of bias does not produce an unbiased result.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

2nd. It's just not necessary. Frankly what's more off putting is the outright bizarre insistence on the mods part and outright denial of feedback. If the bot comes back I'm blocking the community, there are other streams for news.

Edit: didn't realize the "new and improved" bot is back. Good luck yall.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it be easier to just block the bot?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

If everyone who doesn't like the bot blocks it, people entering the community will see the bot upvoted. That will mean they assume the general consensus is that the bot is trustworthy and accurate.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Ok. Think your response through.

That means all news outlets are biased as well. This is why we want something that gives a composite score. If all sources say "this news outlet is shit", maybe we take it with a grain of salt, or maybe we black list it. At a minimum, it helps mods and readers get a context of the content.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago

I've thought it through. We should not outsource critical thinking and media literacy.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

I think the problem arises from the fact that I don't know what you mean by "this news outlet is shit". Maybe we can define exactly what we mean here and block such news sites from being posted.

I don't think bias can be correlated with article quality, and we should be engaging with articles and ideas based on the merits within, not some aggregate made up thing like "bias". I'm not saying it's not a real thing, just that it's made up and subjective enough to be in my view a useless measure and a fruitless endeavour to get a meaningful measure in the first place.

If you want a bunch of opinions on the usefulness of an article then we have votes already.

Obviously I don't have the context of a mod, so if there are specific cases where you need a bias rating, however flawed, to do that job effectively then sure but I think that's best developed as say a browser extension (or maybe one exists already) so it's at least opt in.

EDIT: Also want to say I appreciate both the call for feedback and also the decision to opt out of the bot for now.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

I disagree. I often want to check the reliability of sources. And a composite would be great, because MBFC is obviously heavily flawed.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No one wants this bot. In the last thread asking for feedback there was an overwhelming majority that did not want it. You’re attached to it because you made it. People don’t want it. It happens. Stop it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I didn't make the bot. I'm working on the aggregate tool, which isn't developed yet.

The votes were overwhelmingly more positive than negative about it. We had the vocal minority against it, but the ones who wanted it let it be known.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (24 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (6 children)

166 upvotes, 27 down. Same thread.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago

Upvoting that post is not an indication of support for the bot.

Look at the comments in that post. Overwhelmingly negative feedback.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nope, that's not how it works.

There are instances that only allow up votes. There are people that will up vote any post by a dev as a show of appreciation for the effort, without necessarily thinking about or agreeing with the changes.

If you want a poll, then you have to do a proper poll. Up- and down votes are not it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I want the bot gone but didn't downvote the post. I support the mods reaching out for feedback, and also downvoting could decrease the visibility of the bot's overwhelming negative reception.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

Sorry but you're joining my blocked list. You don't understand how any of this works if you think this way.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are you joking or something? Have you read any of the comments on that thread or this one? I really cant get how denial the mod team on some .world lemmy communities can be.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I read every comment. As I'm a mod here, I will only be civil, so I am keeping all my thoughts to myself. Have a good day.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And you have the balls to cite the upvotes on that thread as an argument when you know for a fact most feedback is against the concept of the bot itself? People upvoted that thread because the title made it seem the mod team was willing to do something.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

This is some extremely willful ignorance.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

This is what you call "Not listening to criticism."

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago

Good riddance.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The news source of this post could not be identified. Please check the source yourself. Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Go home, dude. You're drunk. Oh. That's me.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago (9 children)

Why do you insist on fixing the bot instead of directing your energy elsewhere? Fixing the media bias bot to not have any bias is a fool's errand.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Don't grade sources on leftness or rightness. It's relative. Aggregation doesn't fix the problem of Overton shift.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

My goal with the composite score is to grade based on how factual they are, not political leaning.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)

IMO no need for any bot. As long as articles are factually correct there should be no problem where they are from.

I know someone spent a lot of time writing a cool bot, but sometimes less is more.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Seriously... i just cant understand whats the train of thought on all news related .world communities with this bot, its just mental. All that is needed from the mods is to take down articles that have demonstrated fake news / are factually incorrect. Not to write code for a bot that uses really sketchy websites as their reference.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

The news mod team has asked to no longer be a part of the project until we have a composite tool that polls multiple sources for a more balanced view.

Thank you. It is often difficult to change course once it is set. I appreciate the !news team reaching out to the community and acting on their concerns.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

Rule 1 Ban Count: 5

Not a good look, mods.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

I liked it. Even a biased MBFC that is consistent in it's bias has value, as you can take the bias into perspective on interpreting the rating.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm absolutely for the bot and I know I'm not alone. I like having it and I find it useful. I don't know why other people think it's "a source of truth" like I'm some mindless sheep who can't think on my own. I can and do take its rating with a grain of salt.

I don't like sports but you don't see me asking admins to remove those subs. It's selfish of people to ask for it to take it down for everyone. A good aspect of using Lemmy is being able to customize your experience--so do that. If you don't like bots, hide them all in the settings or block them individually. It's that simple.

Now that I think of it, maybe Lemmy should ask new users how they want to experience the site when creating their accounts.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Because a lot of people don't spend effort researching the sources. When the mods present MBFC ratings on each post without any explanation or context, it's an endorsement of MBFC and their opinion, and presents it as a reliable source.

If people want to do the research to evaluate a source, they can do that on their own. Presenting a biased source like MBFC is counterproductive to that goal.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Thank you mods.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So if it's still showing up what does that mean?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (6 children)

the admin who manages the bot hasn't had a chance to disable it for our community yet.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What I wish we had is a tool for showing which sources tend to be most statistically correlated with each other, without trying to place them on a linear spectrum.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Can you give me an example? I may be able to code it

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I was thinking of something like the graph of subreddits from this paper—although I think that’s based on active user overlap, and I don’t know if there’s a similar metric that would cover all news sites.

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