[ratel]

Nothing in this article is specifically related to forum posts. This stuff can be found within any gathering of people and most have been described way earlier than the internet, as far back as the original Forum or Agora. That is not what is wrong with it.

If you read the article and think there is something to it, please read it again and compare all the 'evidence' to the behavior of what you suspect a normal forum user would do: Ask questions? Gather information? Establish rapport? Propose something stupid or dangerous? Comment on the wrong thing? Post something that leads people away from the post you are interested in and have so much people comment on it that your important information disappears. You can get that just by the number of people telling the original poster it is 'off-topic'. Yes you would expect normal users to do all of them some of the time.

If you value your (online) community judge all actions by Hanlon's razor: "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". If malice was that easily distinguishable from normal behavior there would be a lot less of it. Don't let anyone tell you you should approach your community with suspicion, because then they are already halfway there in destroying it.

[generalizations]

What is your specific suggestion? It sounds like you're saying that we should assume it's all just stupidity, and there is no intentionality to any kind of apparent psyops/agitators/shills, and we should just pretend like it's all good.

That's naive. We simply end up with forums where, if such bad actors do exist, they have a much easier time controlling the narratives. Better to harbor a modicum of suspicion, for the sake of protecting the genuineness of the community.

[ratel]

Well my suggestion would be to be confident and positive. Confident that your issue/ cause/subject is important and that there are enough other people sharing that believe in the forum, regardless of the nay-sayers. With positive I mean post things that are on topic for you, comment on things you find contributing to the issue/cause/subject and refrain from the rest. You really don't have to tell people that something is inappropriate, that they are wrong, dangerous. They will learn by not getting a response. Don't try to control a narrative, try to share a narrative with as much people who are willing to join the forum.

[Eisenstein]

Hanlon's razor should be modified to to include 'without adequate evidence' at the beginning. You can gain this evidence from repeated interactions or from the community as a whole. This is going to be subjective so there is not going to be a list of pass/fail tests you can apply.

[PixyMisa]

Clarke's Corollary to Hanlon's Razor: Any sufficiently profound stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.