108
[META] MBFC bot (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by JonsJava@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Melody@lemmy.one 5 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly; I think the "Negative" reactions to the bot are overblown and only done by a vocal minority who are sockpuppeting followed by a few people who are irrationally angry that the bot can be, GASP! Dare I SAY IT???!!11, Wrong.

Personally I don't find the bot problematic at all; and I think it could easily be blocked or ignored by people who find it too inaccurate. So I find it extremely disappointing that the mods are listening to the vocal minority about this.

That being said; I do understand why Mods want to make the bot more accurate. It's assessments and information can easily make obvious extremists and trolls more obvious to the naked eye; and can help people consume media with some grains of salt. More sources of data are good for accuracy.

[-] mriormro@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

What point does a "bias" bot serve if it can be incorrect? And if it can be incorrect then why should we trust it at all?

You may as well write a bot that posts "remember, don't trust everything you read online and use critical thinking when you're doing your own research" to every post.

[-] jeffw@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly, the bias piece was never the important piece for us. It was the credibility piece.

Just trying to give some insight into why we used it in this community.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
[-] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

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

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

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.

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 points 3 weeks ago

Thank you mods.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
108 points (89.7% liked)

News

22876 readers
3927 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.


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


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


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.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


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 or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. 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.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


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 1 year ago
MODERATORS