[Air-L] A guide for disguising online sources (Was: Research: Short exercise on disguising online sources)

[Joseph Reagle]

Thanks those that responded to my request below!

With "Spinning words as disguise: Shady services for ethical research?"
now [published][1], I feel comfortable sharing a [guide][2] for
improving the practice of ethical disguise -- it also has a summary and
status of the continuing work. In short:

	Researchers often include phrases from online source in their
	reports; readers looking for the sources of those phrases can be
	likened to looking for needles in a haystack of similar content. To
	prevent the needles from being found, researchers should enlarge
	the haystack, paint the needle tan, keep track of their efforts, and
	then test the results by looking for the needles themselves.

[1]: https://reagle.org/joseph/2020/spin/spin.html
[2]: https://reagle.org/joseph/2020/spin/disguise-recommendations.html


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Air-L] Research: Short exercise on disguising online sources
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2021 15:36:24 -0400
From: Joseph Reagle <joseph.2011 at reagle.org>
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>

Hello all,

I'm researching the necessity, methods, and efficacy of researchers altering (i.e., “fuzzing”) prose to disguise their online sources. I have a brief instrument where I ask you to alter three quotes and then judge three alterations. It's very simple and shouldn't take more than 10--15 minutes. The short URL below takes you to a consent form and then the exercise.

...