basically any logical criticism can be described as "spreading FUD."
I see it more as users who do possess those attributes going around sharing it with the rest of the community, thus spreading the negativity in times of price declines as if they are getting paid for it. But there's another word for that which you didn't have listed.
shill
(not sure if that's the real definition of the word, but anonymous users who probably get paid for spreading FUD through comments and social media to try and trick new investors or other bagholders into selling a currency cheap for own gain)
FUD is entirely dependent on who is on the giving and receiving end of this accusation. Having valid criticisms is not something that people with a lot of power and money tend to like. I have noticed this a lot in here....
yeah, shill can refer to anyone who is being paid by a corporation or organization to do various things. Who are these anonymous users you refer to? Are you talking about people involved in a pump n dump scam? or something else?
Just users from reddit mostly, as it seemed to be filled of them during the DAO hack on the subreddits of Ethereum and Ethtrader. I spent most my time there back then, seeing it being invaded just before the hack and months after it, made it impossible to want to stay there and read anything since you didn't know what was going on for sure with the amount of comments and paid upvotes, etc.
that must have been crazy to witness..So, there were DAO shill agents posing as real fans?
Not posing, just commenting negatively on everything that was happening, blaming ethereum as a whole, spamming endless debates in echo-chambers with the control of many accounts controlling votes and which comments get viewed and which don't. Etc.
Who can say where they originated from and what their purpose was, but the big eth short on bitfinex prior to the hack was too coincidental and it seemed like it had been a planned "hack" to screw up the price for a couple days/weeks or purchase it back a lot cheaper by manipulating the market with planned pump and dumps. That's why I recommend everyone not to margin trade as these things happen very often in cryptocurrencies.
adding shill now.