And you all thought I was a psychotic bad-tempered paranoid.

rsynnott

steveland? wrote:

They lost a director as a direct consequence of that? How did yis find out?

Note the last post. I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with it

steveland?

rsynnott wrote:

Note the last post. I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with it

Ah yes... he sounds so ominous... :v:

Goodshape

Name and shame : apparently Nvidia are it this.

BoingBoing.net wrote:

Nvidia stands accused of hiring online actors to create dozens of personae in online forums, where they won gamers' trust by talking about subjects unrelated to Nvidia's products, and then splurged in an orgy of sock-puppet boosterism of Nvidia's stuff.

more.. from BoingBoing.net.

BoingBoing.net wrote:

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in.

Horrible. And very difficult to catch I'd imagine.

mountainyman

Why don't companies just pay people to strike up conversations in pubs.

Goodshape

mountainyman wrote:

Why don't companies just pay people to strike up conversations in pubs.

Don't give them ideas. As far as I know they already do something similar in the US.

damien

steveland? wrote:

They lost a director as a direct consequence of that? How did yis find out?

Nobody lost their job, not Una or a Director of Esat. They got into a little bit of trouble, nothing more and learned their lesson. I believe that Una still cringes at the thought of boards.ie though. The sheer arrogance to think that a few posts on a forum which wasn't a quarter the size or a 10th as busy as now would result in a director of the 2nd largest telco in the state being fired is well... actually nothing more than I'd expect.

rsynnott

damien.m wrote:

Nobody lost their job, not Una or a Director of Esat. They got into a little bit of trouble, nothing more and learned their lesson. I believe that Una still cringes at the thought of boards.ie though. The sheer arrogance to think that a few posts on a forum which wasn't a quarter the size or a 10th as busy as now would result in a director of the 2nd largest telco in the state being fired is well... actually nothing more than I'd expect.

I'd consider complete dishonesty to be undesirable for a director of a company, or indeed for anyone working for a vaguely reputable company. In some places, this sort of shilling is illegal. Was there reasonable evidence at the time that Una had actually done this? If so, someone should possibly have gone to the media. Truly disgusting behaviour for a company.

Hobbes

mountainyman wrote:

Why don't companies just pay people to strike up conversations in pubs.

Actually a friend of mine had this kind of job in Korea. She worked for a drinks company and was paid to go out friday night drinking only to get people she flirted with to buy the drink in question. They either buy for themselves or she would get them to buy for her. They had a large number of them doing this. They would also go to a bar either in a group or in batchs asking for the drink, knowing the bar didn't have it. Then leave when told they didn't have it.

And then when I was in Singapore the bar I went to the women working there would sit down and chat to you and be really friendly but then as your talking would help empty your beer (which was like 20 euros a jug) and fill you up again.

fade2black

Locked, in 5, 4, 3, 2.....

regi

No no, there's maybe some discussion left in this one.

fade2black

:d

yossarin

mountainyman wrote:

Why don't companies just pay people to strike up conversations in pubs.

I know a guy who owns a marketing company who pays people to do this in dublin. He told me about this when i was still in college 4 years ago.

His shills would go into a pub and either loudly order his beverage of choice or order the competitors, take a sip and then moan about how horrible it was. They'd then leave and go to another place.

not to belabour the point but these sort of shenanigans have been going on for a while. The onion had an amusing take on it: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43456

The Sweeper

...someone handling the PR for Esat posting on boards.ie? I don't believe it.

<_ _<
>_ _>

Though it has to be said, it is pretty stupid to register a bulletin board account purely for the purpose of pushing your company, as the Aggie user appeared to have done. "I hav ten p0st5 and I hem teh l33t poster n00b, buy di5 produckt..."

Being a shill is a far more insidious practice - you infiltrate, educate and if necessary, agitate, on behalf of your employer. The whole reason they're dangerous is that they don't do what they say on the tin. It also violates the idea of 'word of mouth' (WOM) being a reliable source of information.

Many people value another users personal experience of something over and above marketing blurb. How many times have you bought something because one of your mates said it was teh win? It's the whole reason shills exist.

Luckily, most PR people are going to stand out like a sore thumb doing that sort of ham-handed promotion. It's the "WOMs for hire" that you have to beware of.

How many times have you shopped for something online, then read the user reviews to help you make a selection? Do you ever feel like you can always tell the reviews that are written by the product manufacturers PR department? ...now, imagine that sort of impartial fluff in everything you read.

WhiteWashMan

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

...someone handling the PR for Esat posting on boards.ie? I don't believe it..

as i said before about considering the effect that boards.ie has on the effect of shills.

lets take minesajackdaniels for example.
worked for esat and part of the job was to spy on the unhappy esat people way back then who had gathered on boards.ie to discuss and protest.

now, look at minesajackdaniels now.

what was once a budding PR protegee has now not only become hooked on boards.ie, but is a moderator, has an alcohol problem and has married a cat mod.

i mean seriously people, i feel for the shills here....

damien

She married him? I didn't even get an afters invite. I'm glad I didn't buy that ironing board for the miserable bastards in advance.

*Removes her name from the Blog Awards nominations (she's doing quite well in the voting btw.)*

solas

do it like christy (moore)

We have been beaverin' away on the website and now have a lyrics section. I will now begin the mammoth task of bringing it up to date. We are also trying to bar the Spamfùcks. Oh dear God in heaven but I could fukken well strangle some of them gamble fùcks with their free blackjack and shaggin' craps and poker. I got the hot chicks and the viagra merchants sorted and the bleddy gamblefux came onto me like a ton of pricks.

and then write a song about it.

The Sweeper

WhiteWashMan wrote:

as i said before about considering the effect that boards.ie has on the effect of shills.

lets take minesajackdaniels for example.
worked for esat and part of the job was to spy on the unhappy esat people way back then who had gathered on boards.ie to discuss and protest.

now, look at minesajackdaniels now.

what was once a budding PR protegee has now not only become hooked on boards.ie, but is a moderator, has an alcohol problem and has married a cat mod.

i mean seriously people, i feel for the shills here....

Here that's not true!


I don't have an alcohol problem!

seamus

In denial too. It's worse than WWM feared...

KdjaCL

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060208/tc_cmp/179101447




kdjac

DeVore

I was phoned 20 minutes after the event by a mate in Esat and told her job had just been put up on the intranet. Beyond that I don't know. I don't care and if I meet the people behind any of this crap, I wont stop myself giving them part of my mind.

DeV.

boardy

KdjaC wrote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060208/tc_cmp/179101447

From above:
AEG said it had developed a campaign of “community outreach and involvement” to build enthusiast support for Nvidia products and software.


Oh look, they have a new term for shilling.

CrowdedHouse

Is this a shill ?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50855084&postcount=10

or old fashioned pimping,or just trying to be helpful ?

boardy

CrowdedHouse wrote:

Is this a shill ?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50855084&postcount=10

or old fashioned pimping,or just trying to be helpful ?

I think we need a shill-metre for boards.

I also think that the post above is dodgy, especially with the capitalisation of the word "FREE". It may appear to be from a teenager, but that the persona that the shillers (shysters) use.

Steveire

To be a shill the user has to be established on the board. A first post with a recommendation can't be a shill by definition.

Maybe this is something boards could do though. It's got to be worth a shilling or two.

*awaits stoning*

RuggieBear

whiskeyman

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=50856373&posted=1#post50856373

Universal records are back...

Talliesin

Those or more Spams than shills, or maybe just really poorly done shills

They'll be getting banned now.

boardy

Steveire wrote:

To be a shill the user has to be established on the board. A first post with a recommendation can't be a shill by definition.

But who says that the user is not established with another username. This is where technology comes into play.
And for a first post, it is highly suspicious. I am judging it wholly from a spam aspect and the likelihood of a filter flagging it as spam.

I am very sensitive to "false positives" (incorrectly marking it as spam) and tend to err on the side of allowing posts to be published when there is doubt.

Talliesin

Oh, and Universal records, their employees and agents, and their families, are all banned too!

Talliesin

boardy wrote:

But who says that the user is not established with another username. This is where technology comes into play.
And for a first post, it is highly suspicious. I am judging it wholly from a spam aspect and the likelihood of a filter flagging it as spam.

I am very sensitive to "false positives" (incorrectly marking it as spam) and tend to err on the side of allowing posts to be published when there is doubt.

A shill is a Spam that uses a particular tactic to hide its Spamminess. Those two don't (though it does look like they have the shill idea in mind, they just don't quite get it).