Uploaded byTim Farley
The Ninjitsu of the Internet-Savvy Skeptic
Tim Farley is a research fellow at the James Randi Educational Foundation who discusses the "ninjutsu" or unconventional tactics of internet-savvy skeptics. He outlines 18 disciplines of ninjutsu including spiritual refinement, martial arts, horsemanship, weaponry, espionage, and explosives. Farley advocates using social media, websites, crowdsourcing platforms, and search engine optimization to spread skeptical messages and fact-check misinformation. He encourages skeptics to own multiple online platforms, curate content, and leverage community rules to further skeptical goals through asymmetric and guerrilla-style approaches.
The Ninjitsu of the Internet-Savvy Skeptic
- 1. 忍 The Ninjutsu of the Internet-Savvy Skeptic 術 Tim Farley - @krelnik Research Fellow, James Randi Educational Foundation whatstheharm.net - skeptools.com - randi.org
- 2. 忍 術 Who is Tim Farley?
- 3. What s theHarm? 忍 術
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- 6. Virtual Skeptics 忍 webcast 術
- 7. Skeptical Software 忍 Tools 術
- 8. 忍 術 What does ninjutsu have to do with skepticism?
- 9. Evolution 忍 術 ncse.com 6 creationism groups $1,080,000 $35,500,000
- 10. Lobbying 忍 術 secular.org au.org 200+ religious organizations $348,000 $375,000 $350,000,000
- 11. Campus 忍 術 secularstudents.org cru.org $998,000 $500,000,000
- 12. The Nones 忍 術 •Growing and growing •But still a minority •Our weakness in numbers puts us at a disadvantage in grass roots activism
- 13. 忍 Asymmetric Warfare 術 •Unconventional tactics •Weaker side relies on strategy in place of strength •Guerilla warfare or insurgency
- 14. Skeptical Ninjas 忍 •Ninja (or shin-obi) were covert 術 agents and mercenaries in feudal Japan •They were very highly trained •They used unconventional tactics to outmaneuver & outsmart opponents
- 15. 忍 18 ninjutsu disciplines • (精神的 教養) • Seishin-teki kyōyō • 術 Hensōjutsu (変装術) Shinobi-iri (忍び入り) •Taijutsu (体術) •Bajutsu (馬術) •Kenjutsu (剣術) •Sui-ren (水蓮) •Bōjutsu (棒術) •Bōryaku (謀略) •Sōjutsu (槍術) •Chōhō (諜報) •Naginatajutsu (長刀術) •Intonjutsu (隠問術) •Kusarigamajutsu (鎖鎌術) •Tenmon (天門) •Shurikenjutsu (手裏剣術) •Chi-mon (地門) •Kayakujutsu (火薬術)
- 16. 忍 術 精神的 Seishin-teki kyōyō 教養 spiritual refinement
- 17. 忍 First a humane術 person, then a warrior Yossi Sheriff
- 18. Why spirit? 忍 術 • Some become mercenaries simply for the money or the thrill •True ninjas must be dedicated and loyal •Training weeds out the thrillseekers
- 19. Attitude 忍 術 •Steel yourself - the Internet is a rough place •Remain calm - don t become that Someone is wrong on the Internet! person •Know why you are doing this •Argue to a goal - not just to argue
- 20. Ethical 忍 •Don t use unethical techniques 術 •Hacking •Buying links or followers •Spamming •Copyright abuse beyond fair use
- 21. 忍 術 Taijutsu 体術 unarmed combat
- 22. Social media 忍 術 •Which should I support - Twitter, Facebook, Google+, others? •Answer: as many of them as you possibly can
- 23. Be findable 忍 術 •People are less likely to find you unless you are present on their preferred platform •At least have a minimal profile with links to where you do hang out
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- 25. 忍 術 Bajutsu 馬術 horsemanship
- 26. Curation 忍 術 •Simply gathering content can be very valuable •Assists your fellow skeptics & others •Provides new resources •Builds on others work
- 27. Platforms 忍 • Storify (social media) • Facebook feeds 術 • Tumblr • Lanyrd (events) • Reddit (links) • Blog aggregators • YouTube playlists • RBUTR • Twitter lists
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- 29. RBUTR 忍 術
- 30. RBUTR 忍 •Crowdsourced 術 •Subscribe to Subjects and Pages •Request Rebuttals •Good resource for material to rebut! •Requests and rebuttals feeds notify you
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- 34. Skep Tech ison 忍 Lanyrd • Go to http:// lanyrd.com/ckphd 術 • Past talks & videos • Entire schedule • Books for sale • All speakers • Add your blogs, • Twitter handles photos, etc.
- 35. 忍 術 Naginatajutsu 長刀術 pole sword
- 36. Arming yourself 忍 •Was 2012 the year of skeptical 術 software tools? •Browser plug-ins •Smartphone apps •Gamified web sites
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- 38. FourMatch 忍 術
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- 40. Reality Drop 忍 術
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- 43. 忍 術 Chi-mon 地門 geography
- 44. Choosing a battlefield 忍 術 • Your own website(s) • Your enemy s website(s) •Common platforms
- 45. Your own website 忍 • Must-have resource 術 •You own and control it •Other spaces can become inhospitable - banning, DMCA takedowns, etc. •Domains are portable
- 46. Host carefully 忍 術 •Keep in mind potential future battles •Pick a provider with a good record of legally defending their customers •(Example from Romania)
- 47. 忍 Your enemy swebsite •Pros: • 術 Cons: • Learn more about • Moderation of them posts • Reach out to their • Banning of users lurkers • Debate them
- 48. Platforms 忍 • Ning sites (Atheist Nexus) 術 • Scribd • LiveJournal • Stack Exchange • Wikis • Soundcloud • Prezi,
- 49. Cross-posting 忍 •YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, etc - video 術 •Meetup, Facebook, Eventbrite, Plancast, Lanyrd - events •Flickr, Facebook, Smugmug, etc - photos •Slideshare, SpeakerDeck, Present.me, etc - presentation slides
- 50. 忍 Platform plus/minus •Pros: • 術 Cons: • Discoverability • Banning • Compatibility • You don t own your site • Support from third parties • You may not own your content
- 51. Recommendation 忍 術 •Don t put all your eggs in one basket •Spread bits of content across many sites •Best discoverability, insulation against platform problems
- 52. Community 101 忍 • 術 Create an account •Fill out your bio •Post an avatar •Reveal your identity (if you can) •Be nice to other people •Participate in friend and follow process
- 53. Community 101 忍 術 •Carefully read & understand all community rules •Go slow at first if you are unfamiliar •Ask questions, get permission •Use all features of the community, not just the ones that benefit skeptics •Don t be a spammer! •Don t just be negative!
- 54. Skeptics vs public忍 • 術 Many communities are not explicitly skeptic - may be averse to skeptic use •Try to mix skeptic uses with non-skeptic - shows you appreciate the platform (not just abusing it) •Be direct and polite - this is not the place for sarcasm & hyperbole
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- 56. 忍 Wikipedia v Whatsthe Harm 術
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- 58. Skeptics Stack 忍 Exchange 術
- 59. What formal educationdid 忍 L.Ron Hubbard have? 術
- 60. 忍 術 手裏剣 Shuriken-jutsu 術 throwing weapons
- 61. Outreach via SEO 忍 •Search Engine Optimization 術 •Technical changes to make your site more appealing to Google •Simple things •Avoid the snake oil
- 62. 忍 術 Non-brain-damaged web design and link building are 100% of SEO. Ted Dziuba
- 63. Easy Help 忍 術 •Google s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide •30 pages, very straightforward
- 64. Example - Headlines 忍 •Newspapers don t use clever 術 headlines much online •SEO is the reason •Headline should contain keywords and search terms that someone would use to find you
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- 66. 忍 術 Kayakujutsu 火薬術 fire & explosives
- 67. 忍 Meta-data and feeds 術 •Meta data makes your content more discoverable •Feeds make it more adaptable to other uses
- 68. Meta-data 忍 • Keywords • MP3 ID3 tags 術 • Tags • Captioning on videos & transcripts • Hyperlinks • Google authorship • Alt= text • Twitter Cards & • Geographic encoding Facebook Open Graph
- 69. Twitter / Facebook忍 • • Twitter Cards & Facebook Open 術 Most blogs can support them if you Graph use the right template • Decorate your posts to make them more engaging
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- 71. Google Authorship 忍 術 •1. Google Plus profile with photo •2. Put your site in Contributes To in your profile •3. Link from your content back to your Google Plus profile
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- 73. Geographical 忍 術
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- 75. 忍 術 Chōhō 諜報 espionage
- 76. Investigations 忍 術 •Know how to obtain information about an adversary •Standard tools allow you to gather it •Can come in handy later
- 77. Tools to know忍 • NSLOOKUP - look • 術 up a site name to get Email headers can tell you where an an IP address email originated • WHOIS - find out • IP2Location & who owns a WhatIsMyIPAddress domain name or IP can tell you where address an IP address is physically
- 78. Image search 忍 術
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- 80. Psychic Pat isa stock 忍 photo 術
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- 83. 忍 術 Questions?
- 84. Tim Farley 忍 •Twitter: @krelnik 術 •Facebook: /krelnik •Blog: skeptools.com •Site: whatstheharm.net •Email: webmaster@whatstheharm.net