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View Full Version : Microsoft has no shame? (shills)



kripkenstein
February 5th, 2008, 02:16 PM
Reading reddit today, I come across this reddit user who is apparently a Microsoft shill (http://reddit.com/info/67pp5/comments/). I honestly can't think of any other explanation except that Microsoft is paying him/her: this user posts lots of comments, all are pro-Microsoft, and every single one of Microsoft's products gets praised at every opportunity. He/she also puts down all competing products, and has apparently no opinions about any other topic than areas in which Microsoft competes (it's nice that you can see all past comments).

I've seen XBOX fanboys and Windows fanboys, so I don't automatically assume anyone who likes a Microsoft product is a shill. But all of their products? Windows, IE, SQL Server, Silverlight, IIS, etc. etc.?

Has Microsoft no shame? This is, frankly, pretty disgraceful. I hope I'm wrong here, perhaps someone can explain this?

bufsabre666
February 5th, 2008, 02:18 PM
how much are they offering cause i will gladly do this, i have no conscience

xyz
February 5th, 2008, 02:29 PM
how much are they offering cause i will gladly do this, i have no conscience

lol!

bufsabre666
February 5th, 2008, 02:34 PM
im not discriminent, any company that wants to pay, ill say how great hasbro toys with the lead paint are if the price is right

kripkenstein
February 5th, 2008, 02:37 PM
how much are they offering cause i will gladly do this, i have no conscience

I would guess it is more than gold-farming on WoW, since a good shill needs to know something about the products, well enough to repeat whatever it says in the sales brochures. But how much more, no idea.

Actually it might be a lot more since it also needs to buy the silence of the shill, or else they can sell their story to some tech news site.

karellen
February 5th, 2008, 03:51 PM
how much are they offering cause i will gladly do this, i have no conscience
:lolflag:
that was a cool one :)

Tristam Green
February 5th, 2008, 04:04 PM
Why call them shills? Why not just call it what it is: being a tool.

~LoKe
February 5th, 2008, 04:08 PM
It's a job like any other.

Tristam Green
February 5th, 2008, 04:17 PM
Sure, but as mentioned previously, so is gold-farming in World of Warcraft or any other MMO. That doesn't mean it is right to do so.

This slightly reeks of a kind of bait-and-switch.

Car salesman to customer: Hey sonny, how about this 1974 Ford Pinto? Primo automobile right there....
Customer: I don't know, I kinda wanted to look at an AMC Matador.
"Customer": You don't want a Matador! Real men drive Fords! I have it on good authority that AMC autos are made in Soviet Russia!
Customer: Oh, well if you put it that way, I'll take the Pinto. What can go wrong with American Engineering?

~LoKe
February 5th, 2008, 04:23 PM
Sure, but as mentioned previously, so is gold-farming in World of Warcraft or any other MMO. That doesn't mean it is right to do so.

This slightly reeks of a kind of bait-and-switch.

Car salesman to customer: Hey sonny, how about this 1974 Ford Pinto? Primo automobile right there....
Customer: I don't know, I kinda wanted to look at an AMC Matador.
"Customer": You don't want a Matador! Real men drive Fords! I have it on good authority that AMC autos are made in Soviet Russia!
Customer: Oh, well if you put it that way, I'll take the Pinto. What can go wrong with American Engineering?

That's not bait and switch at all. :confused::confused:

Tristam Green
February 5th, 2008, 04:28 PM
That's not bait and switch at all. :confused::confused:
True. Forget it. The advertised Matador was already sold, and the Corvette being advertised out front belongs to the General Manager.

They're still tools is my point.

SomeGuyDude
February 5th, 2008, 04:31 PM
Years ago I had a job with a vendor for certain specialty products (I'll keep it vague so as not to indicate who). I worked customer service and retail in the brick & mortar, and one of my sort of "unsaid" jobs was to sign up on message boards or review sites simply for the purpose of promoting the place.

Even on a smaller level people realize the power of the internet, so to think that there aren't shills for EVERYONE floating around out there is just naive.

Tristam Green
February 5th, 2008, 04:35 PM
Years ago I had a job with a vendor for certain specialty products (I'll keep it vague so as not to indicate who). I worked customer service and retail in the brick & mortar, and one of my sort of "unsaid" jobs was to sign up on message boards or review sites simply for the purpose of promoting the place.

Even on a smaller level people realize the power of the internet, so to think that there aren't shills for EVERYONE floating around out there is just naive.

Let it be noted that I don't think SomeGuyDude is a tool. Maybe just his old job ;-)

mozetti
February 5th, 2008, 04:40 PM
I honestly can't think of any other explanation except that Microsoft is paying him/her: this user posts lots of comments, all are pro-Microsoft, and every single one of Microsoft's products gets praised at every opportunity. He/she also puts down all competing products, and has apparently no opinions about any other topic than areas in which Microsoft competes.

I hope I'm wrong here, perhaps someone can explain this?

Wow, you're making quite a stretch there, aren't you hoss? Just because you can't think of another explanation doesn't automatically mean that it's the truth. This post tells alot more about you than it does about MS or some dude/dudette you don't even know. But, I guess it's cool to make disparaging remarks with absolutely nothing more than ignorant speculation. :confused:

All I can say is, Wow.

SomeGuyDude
February 5th, 2008, 04:44 PM
Let it be noted that I don't think SomeGuyDude is a tool. Maybe just his old job ;-)

:lolflag:

Thanks. I had to quit because after a while I couldn't handle some of the business practices.

For example: while we were at once one of the biggest retailers in the country for our field, we also had a pretty nice in-house development line. Since we only got a 20-30% profit on other companies' products but near 80% from our own, it was heavily frowned upon to suggest a customer buy something we didn't make ourselves.

This became a problem since my upbringing was to help people, so they'd come in and ask for something to fit A B and C needs, and I'd give them the best product for them. Next thing I know the manager's up my *** because I should have told them about product Y, which didn't really suit them as well but yielded more money for the store.

We were a niche store of sorts, but I was definitely on multiple message boards and websites subtly promoting the place. I can only imagine how many Apple/MS/Google/Yahoo/Fox News/Adobe/Wal-Mart employees are filtering around on the old interwebs.

Tristam Green
February 5th, 2008, 04:47 PM
I can only imagine how many Apple/MS/Google/Yahoo/Fox News/Adobe/Wal-Mart employees are filtering around on the old interwebs.
I agree; this is the exact reason I take any "independent review" of any product, movie, television show, restaurant, etc with a grain of salt. I apply it to newsprinted reviews also, not web-exclusive.

Also, don't think I've ever said this: +1 for David Bowie Tesla avatar

SomeGuyDude
February 5th, 2008, 04:50 PM
I agree; this is the exact reason I take any "independent review" of any product, movie, television show, restaurant, etc with a grain of salt. I apply it to newsprinted reviews also, not web-exclusive.

Absolutely, be very careful of anything that seems a little too glowing or too negative. The "shill" doesn't always need to be on the payroll either, they've just got a vested interest in it some how. For those in the political realm, think Judith Miller. She printed glowing stories about the Bush Administration because by doing so she got greater access and could thus grant exclusives. Not an employee by any means, but certainly not being honest.

I even admit I almost fell victim to that exact same syndrome, writing far too uncritically about my local Congressman because I'd gotten an "in" and could talk to his team. After a while I felt like a tool so I ratcheted that back. Sure I don't have the same access, but I can sleep a little better.

p_quarles
February 5th, 2008, 04:56 PM
The "shill" doesn't always need to be on the payroll either, they've just got a vested interest in it some how.
+1

Very nicely said. In fact, I think it's safe to say that 90% of internet trolls basically amount to unpaid shills.

Bungo Pony
February 5th, 2008, 04:57 PM
All I can say is, Wow.

The Wow starts now!

Sorry, it's just the Microsoft shill in me coming out.

DoktorSeven
February 5th, 2008, 05:39 PM
Sorry, but I've met people that have admitted to me that they sign up for message boards, post on certain Linux Usenet groups, and other such things specifically to badmouth Linux and promote Microsoft, and MS pays them for it.

It's a known practice.

kripkenstein
February 5th, 2008, 06:33 PM
Wow, you're making quite a stretch there, aren't you hoss? Just because you can't think of another explanation doesn't automatically mean that it's the truth. This post tells alot more about you than it does about MS or some dude/dudette you don't even know. But, I guess it's cool to make disparaging remarks with absolutely nothing more than ignorant speculation. :confused:

All I can say is, Wow.
Umm, I did specifically say in my original post


I hope I'm wrong here, perhaps someone can explain this?

So as you can see, I in fact hope that I am wrong, and am open to being given a better explanation. I agree 100% with your statement that just because I can't think of a better explanation, that doesn't make something the truth. Hence I asked for the help of people here to correct me. Notice also that I carefully wrong


who is apparently a Microsoft shill.

- I was very clear that this is only how it appears, and that I might be wrong.

You seem to be misunderstanding me, I hope I clarified myself.

SomeGuyDude
February 5th, 2008, 06:59 PM
It's a perfectly valid observation. It isn't that it's MS specifically. If someone was on Reddit doing nothing but pimping Simply Orange and badmouthing Tropicana, the same point would be made.

The only exception tends to be Linux guys and Ron Paul nuts, because they'll shill for those no matter what.

phrostbyte
February 5th, 2008, 08:59 PM
Microsoft has been cought red handed with the astroturfing in the past. In fact they have just recently been caught astroturfing in the OOXML advocacy, and I believe a manager in Microsoft got fired over the shenanigans. But as others have stated this is common practice in many companies. I think even Apple got caught once astroturfing on places like Digg.

Wikipedia is also a huge battleground for astroturfers. Notice how nice some of the Microsoft articles look? Why? Microsoft hired an editor who's only job is to improve Wikipedia articles on Microsoft stuff. But you'll find CIA agents editing criticism out of the the CIA article, Congresspeople modifying the articles of rivals, and all kind of crazy stuff.

Flying caveman
February 6th, 2008, 05:30 AM
I suspect they're even present here on Ubuntu forums:confused: