Define astroturfing

[ewuska]

@tatianamac requested on Twitter any interesting terms that people came across and would like defined. Long ago, I wrote a small Dictionary of Digital Humanities and before retiring it I would like to donate any definition that could make sense for Self-Defined or at least bring inspiration to write a great one.

Submitting for consideration the following term and its definition draft:

Astroturfing
The practice of creating an impression of grassroots support for an idea, individual, or product to increase credibility and legitimacy when such such grassroots support does not exist, misleading the audience into believing that the position of the astroturfer is the commonly held view. Such forged support can be built using, among others, fake multiple identities, pressure groups, letters to the editor, and social media accounts.
To learn more: Astroturfing: what is it and why does it matter?

[tatianamac]

Hi @ewuska ! So glad to have you here. I didn't know about astroturf and I could see how this would be helpful.

Is this something you'd feel comfortable converting into our markdown format to submit a pull request? If not, no worries, I can file it as an open issue and have someone else do it.

Also we'd love to invite you to our Slack community if you're interested.

[ovlb]

Hey @ewuska,

This dictionary of yours is such a cool project. Thanks for your kind donation :) If you need any help working with the Self-Defined codebase, please let us know.

[ewuska]

Thank you @tatianamac and @ovlb! I've selected 20-ish terms that may have Self-Defined potential. 


Right now I can't submit PRs because I’m dealing with lockdown issues consuming my time and, most importantly, I think the definitions will need iteration in both writing and editorial. Some may be too far from S-D purpose and thus should be rejected or left in hiatus!

Thank you for the hard work. S-D is seen and appreciated. I will continue submitting issues over this weekend :)