Paid Trolls (Page 1 of 2)

I think you mean "acronym", not anagram. 

Paid trolls isn't surprising, I've seen some crazy ass stuff on some message boards.  So crazy that my only conclusion was that it had to be knowingly deliberate on the part of the "people" who were derailing things and denying certain conspiracies and aspects of reality.

No, it isn't really.  But it might be helpful, in the case of a future troll attack, to check out whether they clicked over from a site like Netvocates--or whether traffic is coming from services like that.

There are plenty of ways to deal with trolls, and one the best ways is not getting worked up, but if I knew for certain that a troll had come from one of these sites I'd call them out.

Thanks for clarifying.  Yeah, I did misread you.  It's been a while since I posted here.  Thank you.

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It's interesting that Netvocates doesn't list their clientele.  Usually PR companies display their corporate clients rather boldly.  But, I guess, this is a more sensitive type of service.  They don't advertise for companies by shooting TV commercials, they do it "door-to-door" at internet sites--and surreptiously, too.  At least I'm assuming that Netvocates employees don't announce themselves like: "Hi, everybody, I'm an independently contracted PR representative for WalMart...Now you guys've got your facts wrong..."

Okay, uh, ummm, [Valley Girl accent] what's up with your alias anyway?  "Lyra?"  You think you're, like, a star or something?

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[In my normal voice] What I think about, when I think about paid trolls, isn't that there are genuinely zealous people out there in the employ of nefarious organizations.  What I think about is the sicker possibility that there are people soullessly and robotically defending a company or a political ideology just because it's their job.

There are probably college grads--poli-sci majors or business marketing majors--who can't find any work so they become an internet troll for Sony or for some Chrisitian organization lobbying against contraception.

Learning this also makes me aware that advertising isn't confined to electronic or paper media or even T-shirts.  I've of course heard of "word-of-mouth" advertising, but this goes a step beyond WOM.  It's covert WOM. 

Geez, we must live in Hell.  I mean, it's too funny: people acting like ordinary people who are actually being paid to be and do and say certain things!  (Or, at least, things that jive with the pre-decided-upon image of a group).   

Weird, weird, weird.

there's another term you should be familiar with: astroturfing

There are paid people who will start blogs, comment on blogs or become members of message forums. Their job is to blend in, assume personalities, post regularly, and gain trust. Then they start inserting their BIAS and promoting the products, companies, and agendas that they are paid to do. I don't know how widespread it is. But I do believe there is a lot of this going on. There's a lot of subversive marketing happening trying to disguise itself as genuine word-of-mouth grassroots promotion.

Sinaptix, your post answers a question I've had for a while.  On another site I post to that's geared toward booksellers, I had posted for quite a while and was at the same time researching a few software applications designed for out type of business (I sell books on the side).  I found a few products that really worked well and I was excited about, so I posted on the third-party board, where people are supposed to discuss things like that.  I was waylayed by people accusing me of being a sock-puppet and working for the respective companies.  It really freaked me out, because I wondered what rock these people had crawled out from under to be so paranoid, especially since I'd been posting for about a year.

Now I understand why--- they must have seen this astro-turfing thing before.  Unfortunately for me, I was just honestly being exhuberant about an inventory managment program I'd discovered.     It hit home a bit, though, because my "day job" is an advertising copywriter, and so I was afraid some of that had come through.

The feeling was a bit like the time I was stopped for shoplifting at WalMart when I was 13.  They found nothing because I hadn't stolen anything, but it was many years before I could shop without feeling like a suspicous person.