Aptera related disinformation in the media

[john-malcom]

Glad to see this post and the results of your research. I had a similar thought when I ran across “Ausie idea man” but didn’t do anything about it. You took the initiative! For the Aptera channel and the Aptera Owners Channel the moderators can apply these suggestions. It is frustrating to see the trolls/ haters on channels we don’t moderate, especially the prominent ones as you point out. It is hard to refrain from responding to their posts.

[llewellyn-evans]

Aussie Ideas Man is Eric Lawton, a 68 year old retiree who lives with his wife Colleen in Springwood QLD. He can give it but can’t take it when it comes to bullying and even had an article written about him in the newspaper with his law suit against the Logan council for his perceived bullying over a fence. Oh and don’t go to his youtube channel and confront his opinions about his “Free Energy machine” using science ….. he has a full throw yourself on the ground tantrum. 🤓

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Llewellyn Evans.

[Riley]

This kind of negative spam is so common that many of the younger generation have become totally numb to it and ignore it. Only down side is if there is an actual valid point it will be overlooked because it’s not agreeing with me.

[William_J]

Yes, true. Don’t want to be overly aggressive with moderating negative input as that can stifle discourse which could be valuable. If there are no negative comments, then that looks odd, too. My interest is in stemming the few deliberate bad actors who repeat lies and misinformation over and over again. Their actions limit useful discussion.

Since I’m not a channel owner, I’ve been using the three dot menu to the right of the comment to report it when the trolling is especially egregious. I’m interested to know how effective this is. It does make the comment disappear from my view, but I don’t know if it disappears for anyone else. I don’t know if it has any implications on the ability of the poster to continue trolling. Perhaps it could drive a review of the poster’s posting habits by a YouTube administrator, but maybe this is wishful thinking.

[Tom]

The Nick Nimmin video you cite has a couple great tips for monitoring a YouTube channel that belongs to you. If you want to help somebody monitor their channel ask them if they can select you as a moderator. Also, this video has some additional (complementary) tips for filtering out the undesirables from commenting on your videos. As mentioned here and in other comments on this thread, do try to distinguish the malicious and trolling comments from the ones that are just disagreeing with you. Sometimes it’s tough to tell the difference.

[993cc]

Aussie Ideas Man seems to have only three ideas.

1) everyone who disagrees with him is stupid, even if better informed.

2) COVID could be solved in Austrailia if EVERYONE would just DO EXACTLY AS HE SAYS.

3) Aptera is a “scam”. This is based on distortions or misinterpretations of Aptera’s actions so far, or simple factual errors.

I can accept that someone could look at Aptera (the vehicle or the company) and in good faith conclude that it has little chance of success, but the Man of Three Ideas has no basis to assert that Fambro and Anthony are deliberately scamming their investors/ reservation holders in order to enrich themselves.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Bob Kirchner.

[ray-holan]

Thanks, Jon. Aptera has hired a woman as director of PR. I suspect responding to negative or false posting will be one of the issues on her list. I don’t know if it’s better to let trolls do their thing and NOT engage with them or not. I subscribe to a number of forums and each of them has their share of ego-driven know-it-alls who seem to be there just to pick an argument. Life’s too short.

[llewellyn-evans]

His game is not the same as ours. Our game is to talk about cars. His game is to yank your chain.

Aussie IDeaS man (AIDS man) is an absolutely textbook example of a psychopath. If you upset him, he will attack because he is a narcissist with no need for self restraint.

He is looking for passionate people so that he can use their passion to make them dance on his strings. That is why he will never concede an argument and why he is rude. It is to make your blood pressure go up and get you going. I forget where it is but he actually says how gleeful he is to get people going and how much fun he is having. That is why he calls you idiots, from his perspective you are. To him you are not people, you are like kittens that he can make run around chasing a laser dot. Realise that he is playing a different game and you have him worked out.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Llewellyn Evans.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Llewellyn Evans.

[jacob-schmugge]

I generally respond, “If you don’t like Aptera and aren’t going to buy one, then why do you even care?” It’s not a silver bullet, but generally exposes them to themselves as posers and trolls, and has gotten those trolls to chill. They are people who compensate for lack of agency in a life they where they don’t [believe] they have the ability to make their own, and think they are saviors protecting us from our own decisions, because they are trapped in their limited bubble of perspective and in that narrow minded conceit think that we can’t make informed decisions for ourselves.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Jacob Schmugge.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Jacob Schmugge.

[OZ.]

Just as a helpful hint, and a bit of perspective. Aussie ideas man, don’t engage him, ignore him, and for Gods sake don’t click on any of his videos. If you look at his YouTube channel overview, he has (currently) 20 videos, 7 are Aptera related, 2 are EV related, and the other 11 are mix of whatever lunacy has grabbed his attention at the time. (Covid, free energy, water shortages) The Apteras account for about 4,600 and more views, the other 13 total about 900 including the 2 EVs (Which were probably Aptera folk.) are about 300 so subtract that from the 900. He wants to feel important, and we’re giving him hope, we’re responding, just ignore him and he’ll sink back under whatever bridge he climbed out from under. (Feel free to send him links to videos of you in your Aptera when the time comes, I’m sure he’ll just brush it off as mass hysteria.)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  OZ (It's OZ, Just OZ).

[Markus]

Although I generally support the golden rule of not feeding the troll, ignoring trolls on Twitter, YouTube or wherever, is not always the best solution, especially not if they are spreading misinformation that only is ridiculous and obvious to the adept.
Putting the record straight can cost quite a bit of effort and much more time than a troll spends on spreading misinformation.
Not putting the record straight may lead others to repeat a wrong statement, especially if it is a simple one. But getting into long wound explications or even a back and forth discussion is not the way to go.

I tried it this way, keeping my response to the ridiculous statement the Aptera was “a scooter” as short and catchy as possible:

[Tom]

A tactic you can use on YouTube is to “Hide user from channel”. Here are the instructions. However, to do this you must be the owner of the channel. If you’re not, then a message to the owner suggesting they do this would be an option.

Generally I’ve found comments to be positive and supportive, but occasionally there are some who are just pessimistic about Aptera’s chances, but are not rude or offensive. And then there are a few (one in particular 😬) who are downright obnoxious, rude, and offensive.

The challenge here is captured in Brandolini’s Law.

[Pragmatic_to_a_Fault]

Forgive me for my ignorance but I don’t actually see any attack in that screenshot that you posted…..

censoring people you don’t agree with us more like China or North Korea.

If you think that string was an attack on aptera you need to read some of the stuff that’s posted in other places like on Instagram for instance.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by  James Lee.

[OCS12]

While I disagree with that guy’s statement, I also disagree with people acting as if Aptera exists and bragging about all its specs outside of forums like this. Elio had prototypes, investor backing, and a factory. I’m still wondering where my deposit went there. Most trolling like that comes in response to “fanboy “ bragging about a car that is still fictional.

Please don’t mistake that for trolling, I’m a deposit holder, so clearly a fan and hoping it comes to fruition.

[Roshiyu]

Ignoring them would be the best course of action normally.

Though I do make an exception for a certain Aussie based troll on youtube. I find it absolutely adorable that he thinks he can build a channel on Aptera hatred. 😛

[steven-g-bueche]

I’m old school so I don’t ignore them at all. I give them as much as they deserve. I’m tired of these non educated lowlifes running their mouths and spewing falsehoods about Aptera of anything for that matter. Their bullies plain and simple. I don’t back down on bullies and refuse to let Not The Right types influence what people think. I try to educate them as much as I can until they keep coming back with non fictional responses. Once this goes on for a while the crowds can tell they’re morons and they make my point for me. Then I say, “Have a nice day”

[-Rich-]

Heads up! Lots of commenters (the majority) throwing shade on Aptera in response to an excellent CleanTechnica article today, “Aptera Partners With Italian Composites Manufacturer…” Let’s get out the truth and answer reader concerns at:

Aptera Partners With Italian Composites Manufacturer To Accelerate Production

[Doug]

There seems to be plenty of anxiety and speculation regarding production, features, and order of distribution to spawn an abundance of bogus posts.

Unfortunately, the FB Aptera pages are a mix of useful conversations and stuff of questionable value. It appears anyone can construct a video and interpret images, audio, and text through their own brain and post it on YouTube.

Is there any way to separate the wheat from the chaff?

Does Apter.US have an official YouTube Channel?

[len]

Yes… at the bottom of their website’s pages are the social media links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCymAe0Jy9qd7ESSQISq3Wow/featured

[kerbe2705]

@Doug Happ I think it’s a question of due diligence: After a few minutes of watching it’s very easy to tell which YouTube channels are of value and which are not. Some simply repost Aptera’s own clips while others attempt to analyze them. Some few actually apply journalistic tools and reach out to Aptera for answers.

IMHO, you can’t go wrong with “Aptera Owner’s Club”, “Transport Evolved”, or “Now You Know.” There are a few others of value out there, but I tend to stick to Aptera’s own monthly releases for the latest “chapter and verse”.

[jonah-jorgenson]

Agree 100%+ for Aptera Owners Club. Very objective. Not a fraid to criticize Aptera as well as applaud their efforts.

[UnidentifiedDrivingObject]

https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/10h4evr/so_is_aptera_motors_for_real_or_just_a_scam/

Time to school the uninformed.

So is Aptera Motors for real or just a scam?
byu/RunALittleWhile inelectricvehicles

[993cc]

Yeah. Scammers don’t spend money on specialty steel to make CFSMC molds.

[kevin-queen]

While reading articles about Aptera news on various EV blogs, I can’t help but read the comments where many claim that this is a fraud and that they’ve been in design for 15 years. While most of us know that story and understand the immense value the Aptera brings, here’s a little reminder of what the same critics had to say about Tesla back in the day on the same EV blog:

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/04/a-short-history-of-tesla-critics-claims/

Hopefully that helps stave off the negative comments. 🙂

[curtis-cibinel]

The big 3 comments I always see:

• It is unsafe: Safety testing and more official information by Aptera like the airbags and roof strength would definitely help this point.
• Need more seats / I’ll wait for the sedan: Most people want the vehicle to be able to handle edge cases they only need 1-2 times per year. If you have a 2 vehicle home then Aptera plus a larger vehicle really makes sense.
• Looks too weird: This one is really just subjective and everyone has their own taste. Just ignore them. Personally I think it looks like an amazing sports car that would be FAR more expensive.

[gary-ward]

If there is any criticism to be made against Aptera it is that they haven’t gone into production and likely will not do so unless some large funding comes their way. I think many people might have a poor opinion of Aptera based on that alone. So many innovative startups in the automotive industry have gone under for lack of funding.

Aptera has already said that there is a 12-month delay from when they get the necessary funding (last determined to be around 50 million) before they will actually produce a vehicle on a production line. Well, at the very least, that is April of 2024. And every month that goes by in 2023 pushes that date further and further away.

I want the Aptera. I am an early reservation holder, but realistically, is it ever going to be produced? Time will tell.

[UnidentifiedDrivingObject]

Are any 3 wheeled commuter electric vehicles going to be sold in the US?
byu/tennisatheist inelectricvehicles

Aptera being defamed in the r/electricvehicles subreddit. I’ve been posting defending Aptera. Request for Reinforcements here.

[Sam]

Why even bother, we know better.

[UnidentifiedDrivingObject]

Hearts & Minds. It’s these times that we need to spread the good word for Aptera. Prove the doubters wrong. They can be part of Aptera’s success (conquest Aptera customers)..

[Mike-Mars]

There are an infinite number of idiots on the internet. It’s impossible to persuade them all.

[craig-merrow]

There’s an Einstein quote I read the other day: “Avoid negative people. They have a problem for every solution”.

[Gozer]

You empower trolls by making them relevant, like this fukn thread. You kill trolls by ignoring them.

They disappear when they run out of arguments.

For me, it’s the naysayers that motivated me to step up and become an Accelerator, so they have their purpose.

Aptera can stand on it’s own merits, the drive to production continues as planned.

This troll knows I already put my money where my mouth is.

He can go pound sand.

• This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by  Glenn Langit.
• This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by  Glenn Langit.
• This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by  Glenn Langit.