GoodSearch selflinker? October 18, 2006 5:55 PM Subscribe
2 Posts, registered a day after a post highlighting Goodsearch, all in favor of the search engine. I'm guessing spammer? The "I think GoodSearch is a brilliant idea and my friends and family are now rallying around it." sentence really tipped me off.
It's less a little passion and more a coincidental registration date, plus only 2 comments posted since that date (both in that thread, both in wild support of the product mentioned), and then marking the thread as favorite. It's not hard to see how viral marketers make their living.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:02 PM on October 18, 2006
posted by thanotopsis at 6:02 PM on October 18, 2006
People sign up here for all sorts of reasons. Maybe he/she felt like it was worth five bucks to try and praise what they considered to be a worthy cause. Again, what have they done wrong to warrant this kind of attention, aside from disagree with you in-thread?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 6:06 PM on October 18, 2006
posted by SeizeTheDay at 6:06 PM on October 18, 2006
thanto, you've been around here for a while, I would think that you would provide some sound evidence for such a callout. But, in any case, I hate charity and especially charitable spammers.
Seriously being that "goblue" doesn't have an e-mail or anything else in profile makes this pretty dificult to figure one way or the other. Let's wait for the great #1 to chime in with the juicy details!
posted by snsranch at 6:06 PM on October 18, 2006
Seriously being that "goblue" doesn't have an e-mail or anything else in profile makes this pretty dificult to figure one way or the other. Let's wait for the great #1 to chime in with the juicy details!
posted by snsranch at 6:06 PM on October 18, 2006
SeizeTheDay: I'm not saying: "Hey, look, a spammer", I'm saying: "I'm guessing spammer?". Certainly, this is something on which Matt can shed more light.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:10 PM on October 18, 2006
posted by thanotopsis at 6:10 PM on October 18, 2006
Frankly, it's a little insulting to be accusing someone of spamming on such little evidence. Everyone is such a smartypants around here. Yeah, you just know it all. Jeez.
posted by caddis at 6:14 PM on October 18, 2006
posted by caddis at 6:14 PM on October 18, 2006
These premature callouts are killing MetaFilter. You're supposed to let the spammers become emotionally attached to the awesomeness that is MeFi first so they can feel the sweet, sweet sting of bannination all the better. Why do you hate MetaFilter?
posted by loquacious at 6:28 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]
posted by loquacious at 6:28 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]
I think that maybe, just maybe, thanotopsis is goblue. Craftily appearing to prematuely call out a viral marketer, thereby causing all of us to defend the posts, which extends both the life of the original post and comments, while simultaneously driving the discussion of this "Goodsearch" deep into the heart of Metatalk...
posted by R. Mutt at 6:51 PM on October 18, 2006
posted by R. Mutt at 6:51 PM on October 18, 2006
It just as likely that this person found this site after that post, was already enthusiastic, and joined in order to say so. If that is the case, then you are impugning someone for no reason. Proof first.
posted by Falconetti at 7:00 PM on October 18, 2006
posted by Falconetti at 7:00 PM on October 18, 2006
A few things:
- Don't call comments posts. Don't call every enthusiastic commenter a spammer. The person made two comments, not two posts. It's not exactly spam, just overdoing it a bit.
People are throwing accusations around and messing up vital things like terminology which makes the offenders seem so much worse than they are "OMG HE POSTED A SELF-LINK IN A POST" often really means a comment that was linked to something that contributed to the discussion.
- We have to be careful here about the pitchforks. We seem to do it quite a bit, and often there is so little to go on. I would strongly suggest people email me directly and I'll do my best to figure out if there was a problem or not and we can figure out what to do. Ultimately in this case, no one can do anything but me.
- That all said, I did look up the details on this user and it turns out the paypal links up to the whois for Goodsearch. I removed the comments and locked the account. I think it was very dishonest, but not something I'd call the work of a spammer, more like people reviewing their own books on amazon highly. Less than spamming but not ethical at all.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:13 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]
- Don't call comments posts. Don't call every enthusiastic commenter a spammer. The person made two comments, not two posts. It's not exactly spam, just overdoing it a bit.
People are throwing accusations around and messing up vital things like terminology which makes the offenders seem so much worse than they are "OMG HE POSTED A SELF-LINK IN A POST" often really means a comment that was linked to something that contributed to the discussion.
- We have to be careful here about the pitchforks. We seem to do it quite a bit, and often there is so little to go on. I would strongly suggest people email me directly and I'll do my best to figure out if there was a problem or not and we can figure out what to do. Ultimately in this case, no one can do anything but me.
- That all said, I did look up the details on this user and it turns out the paypal links up to the whois for Goodsearch. I removed the comments and locked the account. I think it was very dishonest, but not something I'd call the work of a spammer, more like people reviewing their own books on amazon highly. Less than spamming but not ethical at all.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:13 PM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 6:00 PM on October 18, 2006