AMA: I was a paid Internet troll
Half-sorry, Above Top Secret, Aug. 10, 2011,
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread738780/pg1,
For almost five years, I was a paid Internet troll. Yes, I admit.
But first let me state that I never performed my job here on ATS, though I believe I have occasionally seen a handful on here who were using a script similar to what I was assigned.
I cannot and will not name names, but after an internship at a firm with government and political party (Republican) contracts, I was offered the position of “Online Communications Associate” at another company by someone from the original firm for which I interned. My contract completed one year ago, and I have since moved on.
Utilizing six artificial personas, I was active in social networks and bulletin boards. But since I came to love and respect this site, as I stated, I never performed my functions here. Each week, I and presumably several others, were provided with information to use in our online postings. At first the information was comprised of fully conceived scripts, but as I became more and more experienced, it eventually became simple bullet or talking points.
At first I needed to provide links to my postings, but when the company name changed (never knew the real names of any people there), that requirement stopped.
The pay wasn’t very good, but since I was working from my apartment, I suppose it wasn’t bad and I was able to do several other writing assignments on the side.
AMA
Thank You to Steve Beckow
