Shill Posters.

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Shill Posters.

Very few days go buy that I don’t find a shill poster joining the forum.

Some do get past me and I find those on a regular basis. Shill posting is dishonest and tries to the idea of heard mentality to sway people. There have been shill posters on this forum from the first week it has existed. It ends up taking a lot of time and now that I have been talking to quite a few other forum owners most of them say it cannot be stopped and it takes to much time to fight.

Every once in a great while I reveal a shill poster but that is the rare exception. Some businesses that practice this are ones that I have contacted and told them about the forum, some of these say they are not interested in the forum or never reply back but they do seem to be interested in being a member and be active posting acting like a happy customer.

While taking care of routine business I found another shill poster that is a company everyone knows about out here. I had called them before and have emailed them. Well now I found they have been out here since last year. Not long after I contacted them initially. The poster did offer something to me at one time that would not have made one lick of difference to the forum but would have got that products name out there.

I didn’t like shill posting the first month this forum existed and I don’t like it now. Let your customers speak in your behalf but do not encourage them to do it. Let them do it on their own. I want this forum to have at least a shred of integrity and with shill posting it does not have it. I guess this is true of all forums since it is epidemic and very time consuming to catch.

Shill posters make it feel to me that having the forum is not worthwhile. If I have to keep dealing with it I will start keeping an organized shill posting list and it will be public or we might consider putting the product on the banded word list.. It does not matter if it is a company that supports the forum or is a company that slaps the forum in the face. We cannot for the sake of integrity allow shill posting to go on. Some of the members out here will not like it so as a company and you are shill posting, absolutely no more.

I will be calling a company in the morning and be having a talk with them about this. If they want to try and continue this practice their name will be on a list I will keep and perhaps I will post that list one day. Not sure.

This is avoidable guys….don’t shill post!

From wikipedia with link

On the Internet

In online discussion media, satisfied consumers or “innocent” parties may express specific opinions in order to further the interests of an organization in which they have an interest, such as a commercial vendor or special interest group. Websites may also be set up for the same purpose. For example, an employee of a company that produces a specific product may praise the product anonymously in a discussion forum or group in order to generate interest in that product, service or group. In addition, some shills use sock puppetry where they sign on as one user soliciting recommendations for a specific product or service. They then sign on as a different user pretending to be a satisfied customer of a specific company.

In some jurisdictions and circumstances this type of activity may be illegal. In addition, reputable organizations may prohibit their employees and other interested parties (contractors, agents, etc.) from participating in public forums or discussion groups in which a conflict of interest might arise, or will at least insist that their employees and agents refrain from participating in any way that might create a conflict of interest. For example, the plastic surgery company, Lifestyle Lift, ordered their employees to post fake positive reviews on websites. As a result, they were sued, and ordered to pay $300,000 in damages by the New York Attorney General’s office. Said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo: “This company’s attempt to generate business by duping consumers was cynical, manipulative, and illegal. My office has [been] and will continue to be on the forefront in protecting consumers against emerging fraud and deception, including ‘astroturfing,’ on the Internet.” [4]
[edit] Sock puppets

Sometimes shills may be used to downplay legitimate complaints posted by users on the Internet. See Spin (public relations) and sock puppet (internet).

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