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Original poster

Astroturfing, was wondering how much of this may be going on on MN.

39 replies

foxytocin · 14/03/2011 19:52

Seeing that it is a big and popular site, some of this must be going on. Not necessarily in the more elaborate form as you may find in the wiki entry and other definitions on the web but more in the sense of people pretending they are something they are not.

Eg, I remember not so long ago a link to a young man's blog which states that he works for a PR company representing a child care product that is in a v competitive and lucrative market and that the company reps like himself posted positive comments on the product when the opportunity strikes.

Another one I can think of off the top of my head is the Medela Mom Mavens scam where mothers are hired to big up Medela on parenting message boards whenever the opportunity lends itself. Politics imo is ripe for this sort of seeding of ideas. I have seen threads about infant feeding and weaning which have made me wonder if the poster is paid by a formula company too.

I see some threads on here and I wonder sometimes if the OP has an 'agenda'. But then again that may be the cynical and paranoid side of me showing.

Thoughts, anyone?

OP posts:
HecateTheCrone · 14/03/2011 21:05

but what is chuggington?

I think I remember the threads. I thought it was something daft invented by mners, like IPOAT chat threads - oh - and that insane mornington street thing that was all over the place ages ago

BeenBeta · 14/03/2011 20:49

There was a lot of this happening in the lead up to the election. Not in the form of supporting one party or another but in denigrating another party by placing malicious and untrue 'facts' about the party.

In its most insidious form there were posters who pretended to support a party and then made extreme comments about for example immigrants. The idea was to make other posters so horrified and disgusted to put them off voting for that party.

There are some posts on here recently that I thought were deliberately designed to start a debate about a particular consumer product. One particular consumer product has been pushed recently quite hard on here with three threads started in short order n a few weeks which seemed to have no purpose but to encourage people to say how good the product was.

StayFrosty · 14/03/2011 20:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BoysAreLikeDogs · 14/03/2011 20:39

Hec when Chuggington started there was a RASH of Oooh I Love Chuggington threads by new posters and they completely clogged up active convos, transpired they were 'viral marketer' types but Mners cottoned on pretty quick and they got the heave-ho by MNHQ

HecateTheCrone · 14/03/2011 20:30

chuggington threads? what the hell are they?

HecateTheCrone · 14/03/2011 20:29

never heard of the term. however, quick google makes it all clear and actually, I think it's pretty savvy business marketing.

Might start doing it myself Grin

Original poster
foxytocin · 14/03/2011 20:27

off to google haliborange kills otters and I didn't know about chuggington threads.

OP posts:
MmeLindt · 14/03/2011 20:26

Never knew it had a name. Off to google the otters.

I think that it definitely happens, I read something recently about companies doing it on MN, but cannot remember where.

They have to be very sneaky though. I know that I have often spotted people advertising stuff (most often their own companies) and have reported.

bootilicious · 14/03/2011 20:19

not on MN

bootilicious · 14/03/2011 20:19

If you find out Fling PM me, of course on on MNWink

FlingonTheValiant · 14/03/2011 20:15

I was just thinking that bootilicious Blush. Not that I'd do it on MN obv.!

bootilicious · 14/03/2011 20:10

Where can a person sign up for such a job? Is it lucrative?:)

BoysAreLikeDogs · 14/03/2011 20:08

I never knew it had a name

BUT

remember all those sodding Chuggington threads? they were deffo astroturfing

silly sods

and the whassit called, the vitamin drops, MN made it into Haliborange Kills Otters, hah that backfired SPECTACULARLY

(go on, google haliborange kills otters)

StayFrosty · 14/03/2011 20:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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