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Re: Microsoft's Shiils in Digg.com

yttrx wrote:
> 
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I have been noticing some systematic modding down of all my comments by:
> >
> > http://digg.com/users/rodtrent/naio21
> >
> > I also noticed submissions that are favourable to Microsoft technology (as
> > well as modding down of my comments) coming from:
> >
> > http://digg.com/users/rodtrent/dugg
> >
> > Guess what? He's a Microsoft MVP.
> >
> > True. Microsoft may still be using its shills (or 'compensated' associates)
> > to hide facts which reveal how vulnerable it is. If it involves community
> > sites, then so be it. They should at least be disclosure.
> >
> 
> Its worse than that.  It's very much a fact that the marketing departments
> of many dozens of companies include shills that post and mod on sites like
> digg and slashdot...and that Microsoft is only one of many.

20 years ago (before the Internet was widely known), I used to see
editorials that praised various companies written by (supposedly) non
employees. Trouble was, when they wrote about the outfit I worked for,
many of them used too many of the buzzwords currently in vogue by our
management. Many were undoubtedly written for pay, per the instructions
of the companies (or political positions) they promoted.

The only difference between then and now is that Google and Usenet
archives have made syntactic analysis easy to flag such authorship.

> I know that this is a fact because I know people who do it.  Now, I have
> no desire to cost anyone their jobs, despite who they work for (shit man,
> I used to work for a major telecom--and there are no bigger thieves on
> this planet than major telecoms)...but I'll also point out that shilling
> is rarely if ever in their job description as such, and furthermore its
> rarely if ever even more than a minority of their duties.
> 
> Its generally just safe to assume that if there's any website that has
> discussion forums which have any meaningful traffic, they're tainted by
> shills from at least a few companies, probably many.  And don't forget
> that Microsoft isn't the only one.

There are businesses (highly paid) that do public image management for
corporations.
 

-- 
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------------------------------
Our bombs are smarter than the average high school student.
At least they can find Kuwait. - A. Whitney Brown

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