unforum

[j5]

Disturbing developments

[CreativeEmbassy]

Funny thing is, I was suprised when I read this. But I'm starting to think I shouldn't have been. Advertisers are getting sneakier all the time, and with word-of-mouth adverts being the best, it only would have been a matter of time before we saw them on wessage boards.

My only hope is that this doesn't turn into another witch-hunt, or we degrade back into McCarthyism. I don't see us happening on our boards with the multiple nick finder, but who knows? Maybe an advertiser will register only one nick on this forum. What solution would you guys propose then?

[ScarpeGrosse]

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... oh damn. I used the wrong nickname...

[Delusional]

This thread reminded me of THIS artical.
Just thought I would share.

But seriously I'm personally not worried about it. Let them throw away there money.

[addlepated]

I seem to remember a similar type of shilling on ARGN for The Ring.

[Dorkmaster not logged in]

Two things:

First of all, we've always been corporate whores to an extent... We don't care if you're shilling your wares, if it's in the form of ARG. (And good ARG, please!?) So, that's one thing. It's not like we're a social forum only that would be completely OMGWTFBBQ!!11!! interrupted should we get a corporate message...

Two, as long as we apply the same critical thinking skills we do to any hyped project, we'll be fine, just fine...

I mean, we can spot a bad ARG at 50 paces around here. We'll catch anything stupid early enough to lock the threads, and monitor the poster, ya know?

I really have no problems with this, and don't think we'll see real issues here.

[Phaedra]

Initially, upon reading the initial post, I found the idea very offensive.

After thinking about it, though, my response ended up being "So what?"

I mean, their end-goal is to be able to bring up their product (presumably, if they're here, a viral marketing campaign or ARG) without seeming like they registered for the purpose. Presumably they'd only be able to have one account, since someone would be likely to spot dupe accounts.

So ignoring their intent for a moment and just focusing on the result, this is what we get:

A new member who focuses on writing well-thought out posts, and eventually, having established themselves, produces a "well-written but subtly placed marketing post. Regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster."

So maybe it's a "subtly placed marketing post" for a bad ARG. So what? Regular members around here point out ARGs that don't turn out to be good all the time. That's one of the things this forum is for, yes? ARGN writes articles that point out ARGs all the time without necessarily approving of them.

The fact that I pointed out Pherotones, for example, should not be taken as a statement of endorsement. I just felt that Unfiction should be on top of anything going on in the ARG world, whether most people here decide to play it or not.

So, worst case scenario is that someone who's been posting around here for a bit and built up a reasonably respected reputation shills an ARG or marketing campaign or two. If the shilling becomes too blatant and annoying, I'm sure the mods/admins will take care of it.

I think we'll survive.

[FLmutant]

[Mikeyj]

[addlepated]

This also brings to mind the recent ruckuses (ruckii?) regarding people altering Wikipedia entries for their own nefarious purposes. I think in the long run, it can degrade the quality of posts and decrease the signal to noise ratio (as in, how many posts is it going to spawn saying, "I wonder if that was a shill?").

I don't think it's a black or white issue, by any means.

[Phaedra]

[j5]

My main concern is less for these forums (as the policing here is pretty tight) and more for other "enthusiast" forums where blatant vendor posts are banned. Say you're on AVS forums, for example, and someone who's opinion you've grown to respect offers buying advice for Onkyo, or HK, or B&K or something. As long as the suggestion is not too incongruous, (e.g. Bose is great! ) that person is believed and product moved. To me, that's insidious.

Actually, now that I think about it, there are people on forum sites who shill for free. They're called fanboys.

[enaxor]

Hmm, she seems to have carried out the job description beautifully.



/me to anyone who has that many posts.

[rowan]

[Phaedra]

AHHHHH!!!! I disapprove of Pherotones!!!!