Shills...

[barrows]

What are everyone's opinions about the new members here who appear to just be shills for various (often Chinese) manufacturers?  It appears to me that there are members who sign up just to post what are essentially free advertisements for various Chinese manufacturers in the guise of being "interested" in these new products...  Personally i am  a bit tired of seeing "newbie" member posts which read as an advertisement of a product.

 

@The Computer Audiophile, does AS have a policy addressing this?  I guess it would be nearly impossible to police, but it does appear to be both relatively deceiving to unsuspecting members, as well as somewhat unfair to your actual paid advertisers.

[AudioDoctor]

Annoying to read, I see your point of this being unfair to actually paying advertisers.

[The Computer Audiophile]

I agree. Nobody likes this, except the people posting. 
 

I encourage everyone to use the report post function, so I can better research the posts using the behind the scenes tools available to me. 

[Norton]

Hey guys 

 

I’m new here but wondered if anyone has had a chance to compare <insert hyperlink to product no one has heard of let alone reviewed> with <insert name of well respected existing product>?

 

I hear <insert name of product no one has heard of let alone reviewed>is a giant killer but just wondered what you guys think?

[Superdad]

5 hours ago, barrows said:

It appears to me that there are members who sign up just to post what are essentially free advertisements for various Chinese manufacturers in the guise of being "interested" in these new products...  Personally i am  a bit tired of seeing "newbie" member posts which read as an advertisement of a product.

 

I'm guessing you mean something like this recent example:

 

[TubeLover]

11 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I agree. Nobody likes this, except the people posting. 
 

I encourage everyone to use the report post function, so I can better research the posts using the behind the scenes tools available to me. 

Thanks for keeping an eye on this Chris. I agree with Barrows and the rest, unfair to legitimate advertisers who support this site, and also a waste of everyone's time.

 

JC

[feelingears]

Well, what about the most offensive trolls, too?

[TubeLover]

No less, and possibly more irritating, but this has been discussed previously, and I think that Chris does about as much as he reasonably can to attempt to control it.

 

JC

[feelingears]

Yeah. (Sigh) Carry on...

[sandyk]

6 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

I'm guessing you mean something like this recent example:

 

Hi Alex

 

 Given that so many members loathe and detest the Audiophile press, we would never know about new and alternative products,

which may be a brand new type of product, and not necessarily in competition with our Paid Advertisers.

Perhaps we could have a new thread where bona fide manufacturers could post a ONE OFF information release, with neither members or the manufacturer being permitted to post any replies ?

 It would then be up to any interested members to check the manufacturer's site for themselves.

 I agree that it could be a Double Edged sword, but in the absence of reading sometimes biased reports elsewhere, we could be missing out on some new and worthwhile products.

 Chris could even charge a small nominal fee for each product listed in this area to deter Spam ?

 

Kind Regards

Alex K.

[marce]

7 hours ago, feelingears said:

Well, what about the most offensive trolls, too?

Trolls or people who's view you disagree with...

[barrows]

8 hours ago, sandyk said:

Hi Alex

 

 Given that so many members loathe and detest the Audiophile press, we would never know about new and alternative products,

which may be a brand new type of product, and not necessarily in competition with our Paid Advertisers.

Perhaps we could have a new thread where bona fide manufacturers could post a ONE OFF information release, with neither members or the manufacturer being permitted to post any replies ?

 It would then be up to any interested members to check the manufacturer's site for themselves.

 I agree that it could be a Double Edged sword, but in the absence of reading sometimes biased reports elsewhere, we could be missing out on some new and worthwhile products.

 Chris could even charge a small nominal fee for each product listed in this area to deter Spam ?

 

Kind Regards

Alex K.

The standard approach for a manufacturer of a "new and worthwhile" product would be for a manufacturer to send a press release (new product announcement) to Chris for him to review and publish, if the product seems worthy to him.  There is no need for a specific and unmanaged forum area for this.  The publishing of press releases is already an established practice for product announcements.  This can be published as "News" and need not be considered any kind of endorsement.  Then if the manufacturer desires further exposure they are welcome to advertise, or to offer a sample for review.

[davide256]

I like reading CA member posts where something new is introduced ( I'm trying "this" now with the following results). I detest posts where the material is just "fanboy" advertising, some guy used to spam legitimate threads on CA with multiple giant Sony product pictures, no actual user experience. Haven't seen anything from them lately, might be one of the few cases where I blocked someone.

Its also good to see someone post a question, I saw "this", anyone tried it?

 

But advertisements, pure "buy this/look at me/like me on the internet" messages don't belong in a forum thread

[barrows]

1 minute ago, davide256 said:

I like reading CA member posts where something new is introduced ( I'm trying "this" now with the following results). I detest posts where the material is just "fanboy" advertising, some guy used to spam legitimate threads on CA with multiple giant Sony product pictures, no actual user experience. Haven't seen anything from them lately,

might be one of the few cases where I blocked someone.

Agreed.  I have no problem hearing about actual members who have some experience with a new piece of gear (or music) and are posting about their experience with it, that is great-I love hearing about folk's actual experiences.  To me that is one of the main benefits of being part of an online community such as this.

[wgscott]

9 hours ago, sandyk said:

Given that so many members loathe and detest the Audiophile press,

 

10 hours ago, feelingears said:

Well, what about the most offensive trolls, too?

 

I do see the point....

[Kimo]

I believe shills and trolls are going by the name "Influencer" these days.

 

 

[PeterSt]

16 minutes ago, Kimo said:

I believe shills and trolls are going by the name "Influencer" these days.

 

Astroturfers ?

[Kimo]

21 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

 

Astroturfers ?

 

Now I am getting confused.  Are we talking about the audiophile press again?

[kilroy]

I find the less time I spend here the less important those things become. Simple. In fact I moved on long ago.

[marce]

26 minutes ago, kilroy said:

I find the less time I spend here the less important those things become. Simple. In fact I moved on long ago.

Thank you for coming back and reminding us...

[Ben-M]

On 9/30/2019 at 12:09 PM, sandyk said:

Hi Alex

 

 Given that so many members loathe and detest the Audiophile press, we would never know about new and alternative products,

which may be a brand new type of product, and not necessarily in competition with our Paid Advertisers.

Perhaps we could have a new thread where bona fide manufacturers could post a ONE OFF information release, with neither members or the manufacturer being permitted to post any replies ?

 It would then be up to any interested members to check the manufacturer's site for themselves.

 I agree that it could be a Double Edged sword, but in the absence of reading sometimes biased reports elsewhere, we could be missing out on some new and worthwhile products.

 Chris could even charge a small nominal fee for each product listed in this area to deter Spam ?

 

Kind Regards

Alex K.

I like this idea too. 

 

It could become a total gong show, but an unmanaged channel where manufacturers didn't need screening and could post there garbeled English and whatever links without worrying about passing some kind of test would be nice. 

 

There's lots of gear out there, like the Denafrips stuff, that was on the scene for a while before it caught on and got digital love. If there had been places where manufacturers could have posted it for any willing party to have a look, that would be cool. 

 

It could even become a platform for upvoting which could entice reviewers to take on new gear that wouldn't otherwise consider. 

 

But it would need policing because for sure assholes would abuse it and try to game the system.