Important Programming Note

Over the course of the last two weeks, I have noticed a significant uptick in the comment sections on a few posts about specific candidate(s).

Curious over the source of this, I went into my admin tools to check out who all these people are.  One of the things registered when you post a comment here on Pine Tree Politics is your IP address.  My admin panel is pretty powerful, and lets me cross reference IP addresses and find out all the different comments posted under those IP addresses.

I have noticed that at least four separate IP addresses have been engaging in some rather transparent and frankly lame activities – specifically posting under different names and with dummy email addresses.

Not surprisingly, these IP addresses are astroturfing.  In other words, they are spamming positive comments about their candidate of choice under multiple names to give the appearance of a groundswell of support.  Additionally, I have noticed that these same IP addresses often go into posts about other candidates and trash them (once again under yet another different name), trying to show that there is opposition to them.

This is one of the most revoltingly and annoying things that happens in the online political space.  It is widely considered a terribly unethical activity, and is usually a sign that those engaging in it are highly insecure about the true power of their campaign.

I am not naming names of commenters, nor the candidate(s) they support (or trash), mostly because I have no evidence this is officially directed by any campaign, and so I don’t want to negatively impact them.

But I do want it to stop.  Now.  If you people keep it up, I will be forced to expose your rather pathetic attempt to astroturf my site, and will have to lock down the comment sections, forcing you to log in every time you post a comment.

I much prefer to leave it open to make commenting easier, and I think the candidate(s) you are talking up will end up looking (much) worse in the end if I shine the light on what you are doing.  So just cut the crap and stop doing it.

And so help me God, if I find out any of this is directed from a campaign, I will make it my life’s mission to see you go down in flames.  There is very little I respect less than this kind of underhanded campaign tactic.

I have no reason to believe that is happening right now, so if that is what is going on here, I suggest you stop playing with fire before you get burned.

End of communication.