127
submitted 2 years ago by FlyingSquid@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

My issues are:

  1. Limited usefulness: I can visit MBFC on my own if I want to. A single-purpose bot is annoying.
  2. MBFC rankings out-of-context aren't helpful: NYTimes can publish the most out-of-touch editorial and the bot says "Highly Factual", while LGBTQNation can post a hard-hitting investigative piece and the bot says "Mostly Factual". The bot didn't read the articles.
  3. Adding a bias rating to every article creates bias: People who treat the bot's rating as a prediction of the value of the linked article, aren't approaching the article with a neutral point of view.
  4. MBFC is biased. The work they do is important, and the information on their site can be useful, but as with any media organization, it's got an agenda.
  5. The bot admin's "block it if you don't like it" philosophy shows zero interest in developing a tool that the community wants, just for building a tool that blasts as much MBFC data across Lemmy as possible.

Honestly, if this was just a bot that gave links to information about the source, like MBFC, Wikipedia, the source site's official about page, info about parent companies, info on the author of the article, etc., I would probably upvote it. A tool that gives me the power to review several different sources of information and come to my own conclusion would be great.

It's the fact that it tries to steer people's perception of the article by giving your MBFC'S score of the publisher out-of-context that bothers me. I don't want a bot telling me how to feel about every media source.

And failing silently is a good failure mode. This top level post here is worthless.

[-] Chip_Rat@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I appreciate you sharing your views on this. You make some good points.

this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
127 points (96.4% liked)

News

39199 readers
3747 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS