Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users • Hacker News Board

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#131

Post by roc » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 8:44 PM UTC

vectorpush wrote: post #111

ksec wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry if this comment spark off any other pointless debate and argument or offended any Apple Fan boys or Samsung Fan boys. But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Ans Samsung are at the top of this game. They are number 1 in spending on advertising and they spend double the advertising budget compared to 2nd in place. ( And their Rate are pretty awesome too compared to others ) You…

But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Any evidence or even subjective reasoning why I'd believe Apple is any different from any other company? In the absence of evidence I wouldn't accuse Apple of anything but only a fool would give Apple a pass on something that "every company [supposedly] does". Lots of bashing and irresponsible reporting while bending the truth on Apple. Coincidence…

> "subjective reasoning why I'd believe Apple is any different from any other company"

When your customer satisfaction numbers are that high, who needs to pay for astroturf?

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#132

Post by Angostura » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 8:50 PM UTC

justplay wrote: post #121

archivator wrote: post #41

Hi all. Delyan here. I'm kinda bummed I didn't submit this myself. I would've loved to cash in on those most precious of internet points. Oh, well. :) To address the question of discussing this publicly: I don't think I'm doing them any favours right now. I'd like to think that the developer crowd (especially the one at HN) is not as easily swayed by competitions, challenges and brands as to forget sleazy behaviour l…

Your website is working fast and up,which host you use? It scaled up brilliantly.

Nice try Webfaction marketing guy

(I kid).

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#133

Post by eridius » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 9:24 PM UTC

vectorpush wrote: post #111

ksec wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry if this comment spark off any other pointless debate and argument or offended any Apple Fan boys or Samsung Fan boys. But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Ans Samsung are at the top of this game. They are number 1 in spending on advertising and they spend double the advertising budget compared to 2nd in place. ( And their Rate are pretty awesome too compared to others ) You…

But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Any evidence or even subjective reasoning why I'd believe Apple is any different from any other company? In the absence of evidence I wouldn't accuse Apple of anything but only a fool would give Apple a pass on something that "every company [supposedly] does". Lots of bashing and irresponsible reporting while bending the truth on Apple. Coincidence…

Apple simply does not engage in anything even remotely resembling astroturfing. The simplest reason is that they don't need to, but the more accurate reason is that it's not in the company culture to do things like that.

As a semi-related example, I'm sure you're familiar with product placement in TV shows and movies. Most product placement is done because the company paid for it to be there (for example, all of the Windows 8 stuff I've seen in Arrow I'm certain is paid product placement). However, despite the fact that Apple products are used frequently in TV shows and movies, Apple does not pay for product placement; all the Apple product placement you see was free.

In any case, I personally don't think Apple is the only company that doesn't engage in astroturfing. I'm sure there are many large companies out there that don't do it.

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#134

Post by roc » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 9:43 PM UTC

eksith wrote: post #55

roc wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Blind allegiance (or antipathy) is not how things work here." You may have missed a few threads. HN has had brand/tribe/loyalty slap-fights. More than a few. And more frequently as of late.

But among which parties? Blind allegiance and antipathy tend to bump into things frequently. The noise they cause makes them easy to spot. There's noise in any community, but if it's the same alley cats, you learn to ignore them. I always scroll below to the end of the threads (one of the reasons I never seem to get anything done after landing on HN) to see what I've missed. The populist upvotes aren't always the mos…

So you've gone from "that's not how things work here" to "if you ignore the bulk of what goes on here, you probably won't see it" ?

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#135

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 9:48 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#136

Post by gohrt » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 9:55 PM UTC

eridius wrote: post #133

vectorpush wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Any evidence or even subjective reasoning why I'd believe Apple is any different from any other company? In the absence of evidence I wouldn't accuse Apple of anything but only a fool would give Apple a pass on something that "every company [supposedly] does". Lots of bashing and irresponsible reporting while bending the truth on Apple. Coincidence…

Apple simply does not engage in anything even remotely resembling astroturfing. The simplest reason is that they don't need to, but the more accurate reason is that it's not in the company culture to do things like that. As a semi-related example, I'm sure you're familiar with product placement in TV shows and movies. Most product placement is done because the company paid for it to be there (for example, all of the…

Apple has a team dedicated to making sure their products are easy to access and deploy in a movie/TV, and a preferred choice. They don't pay cash, but they absolutely push their products into movies/TV.

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#137

Post by Nate75Sanders » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 9:57 PM UTC

Hilarious, especially in light of this text from the front page of their website:

"Paying for followers will not get you the results you need. Follower growth needs to be organic. We like to keep things All Natural here at FLLU. It's all about Organic Growth! "

http://www.fllu.com/

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#138

Post by teamgb » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 10:09 PM UTC

archivator wrote: post #41

Hi all. Delyan here. I'm kinda bummed I didn't submit this myself. I would've loved to cash in on those most precious of internet points. Oh, well. :) To address the question of discussing this publicly: I don't think I'm doing them any favours right now. I'd like to think that the developer crowd (especially the one at HN) is not as easily swayed by competitions, challenges and brands as to forget sleazy behaviour l…

Fascinating that this story has far more upvotes and comments than another similar story, yet both boil down to essentially the same thing: money buys influence.

"Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users"

vs

"NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6140881

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#139

Post by AsymetricCom » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 10:16 PM UTC

vectorpush wrote: post #111

ksec wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry if this comment spark off any other pointless debate and argument or offended any Apple Fan boys or Samsung Fan boys. But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Ans Samsung are at the top of this game. They are number 1 in spending on advertising and they spend double the advertising budget compared to 2nd in place. ( And their Rate are pretty awesome too compared to others ) You…

But the truth is, pretty much every company does this.. except Apple. Any evidence or even subjective reasoning why I'd believe Apple is any different from any other company? In the absence of evidence I wouldn't accuse Apple of anything but only a fool would give Apple a pass on something that "every company [supposedly] does". Lots of bashing and irresponsible reporting while bending the truth on Apple. Coincidence…

Apple can get their customers to astroturf for them. Psychological tools are quite effective with a large enough audience.

Re: Samsung agency is buying off StackOverflow users

#140

Post by icebraining » Thu, Aug 01, 2013, 10:23 PM UTC

mathattack wrote: post #113

icebraining wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The morality question may not be so black and white, though. If it's ok to accept goodies to monetize a Klout score, why not for StackExchange? By "monetize a Klout score," you mean spam your followers on social networks sites, right? That seems pretty morally clear to me.

Is it morally clear though? Kim Kardashian gets paid to plug god knows what, and it's not immoral to be a shill. That isn't to say that I would do it. (I won't) But it isn't black and white. It might be a dark gray, but it's still gray.

Kim Kardashian gets paid to plug god knows what, and it's not immoral to be a shill.

Thankfully, I wouldn't know what Ms. Kardashian plugs, since I'm not from the US and our regular news coverage doesn't cover such events. But as for shilling not being immoral, I have to say I seriously disagree. Advertising may not be, but shilling certainly is, in my moral code.