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.
Modular Monolith - a Practical Alternative to Microservices @ Devoxx UK 2024
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
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
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
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
30. RBUTR 忍
•Crowdsourced
術
•Subscribe to Subjects and Pages
•Request Rebuttals
•Good resource for material to rebut!
•Requests and rebuttals feeds notify you
34. Skep Tech is on 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.
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 s website
•Pros: • 術 Cons:
• Learn more about • Moderation of
them posts
• Reach out to their • Banning of users
lurkers
• Debate them
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
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
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
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
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