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http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57579749-94/samsung-probed-for-allegedly-bashing-rival-htc-online/
The Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission has reportedly launched an investigation into Samsung on allegations that the phone-maker was paying students to post negative online comments about HTC devices, according to AFP. HTC is one of Samsung's most staunch rivals.
Supposedly, the South Korean tech giant hired students to both write the inflammatory comments about HTC products and also recommend Samsung cell phones. The commission says that this type of behavior is akin to false advertising. According to AFP, the Fair Trade Commission spokesman Sun Lih-chyun said, "The case was set up last week after we received complaints."
For its part, Samsung has said that what happened was "unfortunate" and it occurred because there was "insufficient understanding" of the "fundamental principles" of the company's online procedures. The company also said that it has stopped all marketing that "involves the posting of anonymous comments."
Remember that Samsung guy that got banned off TL a while ago? It seems like his enthusiasm for Samsung may have been more than voluntary...
Mod edit:
On April 16 2013 16:51 ControlMonkey wrote:Relevant.
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too?
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Samsung hwaiiting (literally)!
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Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
I'm only just 23 and this has to be before my time. :O
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Did someone call?  . I'm not surprised by this news one bit. Although I'm glad Apple is getting slandered in China. I think that company is terrible.
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
what time was that lol
or was that sarcasm XD
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On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too?
Are you suggesting that a company from South Korea bought off Chinese state media? That seems like a massive leap from Samsung paying people to post anonymous comments criticising a rival. It is hardly the first time that somebody or a company has done that, but buying Chinese state media seems a whole new level. It seems more likely to me that the Chinese state has its own reasons for bashing Apple.
Also, I am confused by the title. What does "astroturf" mean in this context? To me it is a type of artificial grass... :p
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On April 16 2013 16:35 jinorazi wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions? what time was that lol or was that sarcasm XD
It was sarcasm haha. Companies probably were even worse back then compared to now.
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Reminds me of that former EA employee who was hired to "troll forums and websites to create viral marketing effects and deflect bad press from the inner circles of gaming."
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On April 16 2013 16:35 Melliflue wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too? Are you suggesting that a company from South Korea bought off Chinese state media? That seems like a massive leap from Samsung paying people to post anonymous comments criticising a rival. It is hardly the first time that somebody or a company has done that, but buying Chinese state media seems a whole new level. It seems more likely to me that the Chinese state has its own reasons for bashing Apple. Also, I am confused by the title. What does "astroturf" mean in this context? To me it is a type of artificial grass... :p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
Astroturfing refers to political, advertising, or public relations campaigns that are designed to mask the sponsors of the message to give the appearance of coming from a disinterested, grassroots participant. Astroturfing is intended to give the statements the credibility of an independent entity by withholding information about the source's financial connection. The term is a derivation of AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
At least in France there's a law against comparative publicity (essentially putting down a specific competing product to make your own product look good). The problem is that this is hard to enforce on the internet, so everything is fair game. For example, students are paid during election time to drown comment sections of popular news sites with disparaging/praising of a particular candidate. It's very cheap and very effective compared to the traditional methods.
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On April 16 2013 16:35 Melliflue wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too? Are you suggesting that a company from South Korea bought off Chinese state media? That seems like a massive leap from Samsung paying people to post anonymous comments criticising a rival. It is hardly the first time that somebody or a company has done that, but buying Chinese state media seems a whole new level. It seems more likely to me that the Chinese state has its own reasons for bashing Apple. Also, I am confused by the title. What does "astroturf" mean in this context? To me it is a type of artificial grass... :p
Astroturfing
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On April 16 2013 16:39 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:35 Melliflue wrote:On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too? Are you suggesting that a company from South Korea bought off Chinese state media? That seems like a massive leap from Samsung paying people to post anonymous comments criticising a rival. It is hardly the first time that somebody or a company has done that, but buying Chinese state media seems a whole new level. It seems more likely to me that the Chinese state has its own reasons for bashing Apple. Also, I am confused by the title. What does "astroturf" mean in this context? To me it is a type of artificial grass... :p Astroturfing
Actually, Chinese state media are fairly easy to buy off
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=400783
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United Kingdom3685 Posts
Samsung pays Stork's salary. They can do whatever they want and I will still love them :D
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On April 16 2013 16:43 Sayle wrote:
Samsung pays Stork's salary. They can do whatever they want and I will still love them :D
It looks like their KeSPA marketing plan worked for you :D
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On April 16 2013 16:44 Shady Sands wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:43 Sayle wrote:
Samsung pays Stork's salary. They can do whatever they want and I will still love them :D It looks like their KeSPA marketing plan worked for you :D
And they didn't even have to pay him directly! Man, what an effective strategy.
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read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one
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Where do I get a job in the flaming products online industry? I do that for free everyday.
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On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one
That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing.
Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products.
Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions?
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On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions?
uhm isnt HTC one of the most expensive smart phone producers?
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On April 16 2013 16:54 Skilledblob wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions? uhm isnt HTC one of the most expensive smart phone producers?
Yeah but so is every other smart phone vendor... but Samsung is making money, they are losing money.
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
Was this before the money was invented? Or before the time of trade?
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On April 16 2013 16:54 Skilledblob wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions? uhm isnt HTC one of the most expensive smart phone producers?
their poorest strategy is too much identity crisis for their phone.
if you just look at the name, which phone is the best?
HTC One, One X, One X+
I would expect One X+ to be the best, but One is actually the newest and best of them all.
Another is they have a slightly weaker, but still a premium phone.
Why they fail in chinese market is basically the Chinese are offering similar spec while being much cheaper. Why would you spent so much more when you can either just get a samsung (made in Korea and has all the fuss now) or get a normal chinese brand phone that is much cheaper and perform similarly?
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
how old are you?
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On April 16 2013 17:09 ooni wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions? Was this before the money was invented? Or before the time of trade?
LOL so true. Slandering, lying, and false advertisement have been around since the dawn of mankind. Hell, even before then. Look at camouflage and flowers, etc. Lying and deception is a part of nature.
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Huh I've never actually thought of this before lol. Hope I don't get banned on my other forums xD I keep saying how TL is the best SCBW/SC2 website there is
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5930 Posts
I don't think this is surprising. Anyone remember affinity_12? The same bloke has been doing rounds all around major tech forums and websites like The Verge, Engadget, Hardforum, Anandtech, Whirlpool, and so forth. Its kind of obvious that its him, he has a very specific posting style. Got the fucker banned because dude was shitting in my monitor thread,
I'm fairly sure more companies (hello Nvidia) do this sort of astroturfing but Samsung seems particularly egregious. The more amusing thing is their response. They're not sorry about doing it but they're sorry they got caught doing this, which is what you kind of expect from big business.
On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
Remember that Samsung guy that got banned off TL a while ago? It seems like his enthusiasm for Samsung may have been more than voluntary...
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too?
No, the two are probably unrelated. Bad news about Apple is par for the course, even if its not so much a problem with Apple but a systemic problem shared by all consumer electronics companies. Its a good opportunity for the Chinese media to promote something negative, fill in air time, as well as promote local brands as being more honest.
Astroturfing by companies is nothing new, especially in industries as tribalistic as the tech industry. Samsung's done this for a pretty long time but its kind of hard to prove a lot of the time. With affinity_12, its fairly obvious because he went through a lot of effort to promote Samsung and trash everything else. Furthermore, the guy spoke in talking points so its even more obvious.
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On April 16 2013 16:38 Shady Sands wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:35 Melliflue wrote:On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too? Are you suggesting that a company from South Korea bought off Chinese state media? That seems like a massive leap from Samsung paying people to post anonymous comments criticising a rival. It is hardly the first time that somebody or a company has done that, but buying Chinese state media seems a whole new level. It seems more likely to me that the Chinese state has its own reasons for bashing Apple. Also, I am confused by the title. What does "astroturf" mean in this context? To me it is a type of artificial grass... :p http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AstroturfingShow nested quote +Astroturfing refers to political, advertising, or public relations campaigns that are designed to mask the sponsors of the message to give the appearance of coming from a disinterested, grassroots participant. Astroturfing is intended to give the statements the credibility of an independent entity by withholding information about the source's financial connection. The term is a derivation of AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.
On April 16 2013 16:39 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:35 Melliflue wrote:On April 16 2013 16:23 Shady Sands wrote:
This makes Chinese state media's recent bashing of Apple all the more interesting as well. Were they bought off by Samsung too? Are you suggesting that a company from South Korea bought off Chinese state media? That seems like a massive leap from Samsung paying people to post anonymous comments criticising a rival. It is hardly the first time that somebody or a company has done that, but buying Chinese state media seems a whole new level. It seems more likely to me that the Chinese state has its own reasons for bashing Apple. Also, I am confused by the title. What does "astroturf" mean in this context? To me it is a type of artificial grass... :p Astroturfing
Thanks both of you. I didn't realise it was such a common term now so I thought that googling it would not give me any useful results. I was wrong there :p
This is a bit off-topic: I didn't know the Chinese media could be bought that way but that article is about buying censorship. I still think there's a difference between paying someone to prevent bad things being said about yourself and paying someone to say bad things about a rival.
As for Samsung; they shouldn't have done this but I'm not surprised that they were doing it. I doubt I'd be surprised by any big company doing it.
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I don't care it's all commercial money. What does piss me off is that our GLORIOUS EUSSR dictator spend millions of tax euro's to hire internet trolls glorifying the EU on the internet..
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On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions?
Is this really how HTC is percieved in Australia or elsewhere? Because among my friends HTC is considered more of a premium brand, at least compared to shit like LG, Sony, or god forbid ZTE or Huawei. Yes, Samsung would be on par (Apple is a manufacturer of toys for kids and thus irrelevant), but not really valued more than HTC.
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Baltimore, USA22254 Posts
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5930 Posts
On April 16 2013 17:46 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions? Is this really how HTC is percieved in Australia or elsewhere? Because among my friends HTC is considered more of a premium brand, at least compared to shit like LG, Sony, or god forbid ZTE or Huawei. Yes, Samsung would be on par (Apple is a manufacturer of toys for kids and thus irrelevant), but not really valued more than HTC.
Samsung is definitely the top tier Android smartphone manufacturer as a result of an obscene advertising budget, good enough phones to justify the advertising claims, and carrier presence. HTC, LG, Sony don't have anywhere near the same amount of advertising or carrier presence so they've been regulated to the "cheap pack", through Sony seems to pushing extremely hard for more market share. Their flagship phones aren't without problems but they've had a top tier midrange for at least a year.
HTC's poor branding is an issue but the bigger problem is that Samsung can just shout over everyone else. They're the only ones that can actually get all of their phones on a carrier and in the United States (and Australia too), that's a really important thing. The branding thing is a problem with HTC but it honestly isn't any different from Samsung pumping out a billion different variants of Galaxy phones. The difference is that carriers actively advertise the Galaxy S flagship.
Also, come on Apple devices being toys for kids? Really? Let's not go there OK?
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On April 16 2013 17:13 SamsungStar wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 17:09 ooni wrote:On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions? Was this before the money was invented? Or before the time of trade? LOL so true. Slandering, lying, and false advertisement have been around since the dawn of mankind. Hell, even before then. Look at camouflage and flowers, etc. Lying and deception is a part of nature.
Remember the time when people remembered the past accurately? :D
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I'm sure Samsung's eSports budget will be fine, they can and should get fucked on this issue. I'm sure it will result in a maximum penalty of a public apology plus a fine consisting of an inconsequential amount of money to a company like Samsung.
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Annoying, not surprising. Still like my Samsung phone though. 
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
Are you the guy from The Man From Earth?
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I remember back when HTC used to produce the best smartphones, but then they just had 0 innovation after the "desire" and completely fell off the radar.
They probably thought they could pull an Apple and continue producing overpriced clones of the same thing over and over but I guess they forgot that you needed to establish an overzealous fanbase first.
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5930 Posts
On April 16 2013 18:52 sluggaslamoo wrote:
I remember back when HTC used to produce the best smartphones, but then they just had 0 innovation after the "desire" and completely fell off the radar.
They probably thought they could pull an Apple and continue producing overpriced clones of the same thing over and over but I guess they forgot that you needed to establish an overzealous fanbase first.
What is innovation to you?
Innovation for the sake of innovation doesn't sell products. Complete packages sell products. That's why Samsung has, theoretically, the best Android smartphone on the market: the Galaxy S lineup doesn't have any real flaws besides kind of questionable material choices. That's why the iPad is still the tablet market leader: it still has one of the best screens, unquestionable GPU power, and obscene battery size. That's why Apple devices are able to sell for high prices: because the overall hardware and software package is mostly complete. Don't kid yourself, Samsung and everyone else all have their own overzealous fanbases. That's to be expected.
What makes HTC phones a harder sell is the lack of attention to detail. Sense, for a long time, has been complete rubbish in terms of performance. They also have a nasty habit of packing fairly small batteries into their phones and dropping support for their phones extremely quickly. That's why they're doing poorly, just like LG's or Sony Ericsson's inability to update their phones on time (if at all). There isn't a conspiracy theory why brand x sells well and why brand y sells badly.
The problem here is that, although the HTC One has solved many of these problems, it can't get a market foothold. Some of the reasons include launching too close to the Galaxy S4 announcement/too late after the Sony Xperia Z launch but the main reason is that HTC isn't the the darling OEM of the carriers anymore and they don't have the advertising budget to make sure their device is seen over other competitors. Component delays don't help things either.
As noted by the OP's article, Samsung can literally pay some people to spread bad news about the phone and they can't do anything to combat it besides asking the government to step in. They can't compete against Samsung's marketing budget nor can create enough noise to get rid of constant "complaints" about the HTC One. By the time the government finds Samsung guilty (or not), its too late since HTC One has already missed its launch period.
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On April 16 2013 17:55 Womwomwom wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 17:46 opisska wrote:On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions? Is this really how HTC is percieved in Australia or elsewhere? Because among my friends HTC is considered more of a premium brand, at least compared to shit like LG, Sony, or god forbid ZTE or Huawei. Yes, Samsung would be on par (Apple is a manufacturer of toys for kids and thus irrelevant), but not really valued more than HTC. Samsung is definitely the top tier Android smartphone manufacturer as a result of an obscene advertising budget, good enough phones to justify the advertising claims, and carrier presence. HTC, LG, Sony don't have anywhere near the same amount of advertising or carrier presence so they've been regulated to the "cheap pack", through Sony seems to pushing extremely hard for more market share. Their flagship phones aren't without problems but they've had a top tier midrange for at least a year. HTC's poor branding is an issue but the bigger problem is that Samsung can just shout over everyone else. They're the only ones that can actually get all of their phones on a carrier and in the United States (and Australia too), that's a really important thing. The branding thing is a problem with HTC but it honestly isn't any different from Samsung pumping out a billion different variants of Galaxy phones. The difference is that carriers actively advertise the Galaxy S flagship. Also, come on Apple devices being toys for kids? Really? Let's not go there OK?
The Apple remark could have been done better, I agree. Just the point was that in the social group where most of my firends are, this is the perception - almost noone has an iPhone, partly because it would be just considered childish, partly because they really believe that it is not a good idea to buy one. This fact prevents the other brands from being "smashed" by Apple. Also in general, I believe that Apple's marketshare in everything is much lower in Czech than in the US, largely due to the widespread notion that iStuff is "snobbish".
The carrier thing is interesting - I have honestly no ideawhat phones are offered by carriers, it's not really profillic in here. Most of the people I know buy smartphones from computer vendors anyway.
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On April 16 2013 16:43 Sayle wrote:
Samsung pays Stork's salary. They can do whatever they want and I will still love them :D
What if they.... kill Stork??
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On April 16 2013 17:39 frontliner2 wrote:
I don't care it's all commercial money. What does piss me off is that our GLORIOUS EUSSR dictator spend millions of tax euro's to hire internet trolls glorifying the EU on the internet..
Yeah I'm going to have to go ahead and ask for confirmation on that from some reputable source.
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On April 16 2013 20:49 Figgy wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 16:43 Sayle wrote:
Samsung pays Stork's salary. They can do whatever they want and I will still love them :D What if they.... kill Stork??
Jangbi and Great for me (when he was on samsung) . But still, I have to condemn this.
I now mentally separate the team from their shitty underhand marketing strategies.
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The thought process of companies that leads to "whatever works for my products to sell more" is kinda showing fear and insecureness. I like the Samsung mobile phones so far but the weak decision making for this kind of marketing was unnecessary and shows that Samsung really needs to take care of it's own business structure.
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Well that's nothing new or suprising really. I don't want to know how many guys various companies have in store to write on several forums/amazon review pages etc...
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This is something you see in the average Korean drama guess they should go into the TV business
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5930 Posts
On April 16 2013 20:44 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 17:55 Womwomwom wrote:On April 16 2013 17:46 opisska wrote:On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions? Is this really how HTC is percieved in Australia or elsewhere? Because among my friends HTC is considered more of a premium brand, at least compared to shit like LG, Sony, or god forbid ZTE or Huawei. Yes, Samsung would be on par (Apple is a manufacturer of toys for kids and thus irrelevant), but not really valued more than HTC. Samsung is definitely the top tier Android smartphone manufacturer as a result of an obscene advertising budget, good enough phones to justify the advertising claims, and carrier presence. HTC, LG, Sony don't have anywhere near the same amount of advertising or carrier presence so they've been regulated to the "cheap pack", through Sony seems to pushing extremely hard for more market share. Their flagship phones aren't without problems but they've had a top tier midrange for at least a year. HTC's poor branding is an issue but the bigger problem is that Samsung can just shout over everyone else. They're the only ones that can actually get all of their phones on a carrier and in the United States (and Australia too), that's a really important thing. The branding thing is a problem with HTC but it honestly isn't any different from Samsung pumping out a billion different variants of Galaxy phones. The difference is that carriers actively advertise the Galaxy S flagship. Also, come on Apple devices being toys for kids? Really? Let's not go there OK? The Apple remark could have been done better, I agree. Just the point was that in the social group where most of my firends are, this is the perception - almost noone has an iPhone, partly because it would be just considered childish, partly because they really believe that it is not a good idea to buy one. This fact prevents the other brands from being "smashed" by Apple. Also in general, I believe that Apple's marketshare in everything is much lower in Czech than in the US, largely due to the widespread notion that iStuff is "snobbish". The carrier thing is interesting - I have honestly no ideawhat phones are offered by carriers, it's not really profillic in here. Most of the people I know buy smartphones from computer vendors anyway.
That's fair enough, thanks for clarifying. Its interesting that continental Europe + eastern Europe doesn't really have as much attachment towards Apple products as English speaking countries. I wonder, does it have to do with less Apple store presence? I know the Apple Store is really Apple's true success story, since you actually have a reason to go there if you have a problem.
Yeah, carriers are important for the North American and Australian (and UK?) markets. I'm not sure why, I always buy my phones outright but I know a significant number of Australians who buy their phones on plans, where you pay as you go. Sometimes it actually isn't that much more expensive if you need an expensive, high data phone plan so I guess that's why people like to buy their phones this way. I've heard that the philosophy is a bit different in Europe and your anecdote seems to suggest that too.
But basically, that's the case. The only two companies that get all of their phones on all major carriers during the launch period is pretty much Apple and Samsung. When you're looking for a plan and a swanky new phone, you've only really got these two options to pick from.
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Northern Ireland25195 Posts
On April 16 2013 17:39 frontliner2 wrote:
I don't care it's all commercial money. What does piss me off is that our GLORIOUS EUSSR dictator spend millions of tax euro's to hire internet trolls glorifying the EU on the internet..
What are you even talking about here? Pro-EU internet trolls?
The same EU that, in Britain at least has a lot of media outlets with a very clear anti-EU, anti consumer/worker protection bias? Wonder if those are related.......
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On April 16 2013 17:49 EvilTeletubby wrote:<3 That was one of my favorite bans. Edit: And afterwards, he kept right at it.
The evidence seems overwhelming but I'm just shocked that we'd find a shill on TL. Places like anandtech, hardforum, etc. I'd expect but we're not exactly known for our tech sub-forum. I'm hugely disappointed that I can't even get unbiased hardware advice on TL.
Oh, and happy birthday.
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Northern Ireland25195 Posts
Anyway back on topic, I believe that this is relatively commonplace.
However, I do see that companies have kind of created this problem for themselves. Over time I have seen professional reviewing somewhat discredited in all sorts of fields due to leaning from companies. This then legitimised/necessitated peer-reviewing on the internet for consumers, which is liable to such abuses as the OP is discussing.
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On April 16 2013 16:51 ControlMonkey wrote:Relevant.
I was just gonna say that reminds me of that one guy on TL's Automated ban list lol.
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Not gonna lie. Probably would have done this for free.. I love Samsung hahaha.
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On April 16 2013 16:51 ControlMonkey wrote:Relevant.
This is hilarious haha
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Northern Ireland25195 Posts
If that guy isn't a shill, wow he must be fun at parties haha
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On April 16 2013 16:32 phodacbiet wrote:
Ah remember the good ol' days when sales depended on how good the product is instead of using slanders to put down competitions?
No, because this has never happened in the life of business. People have always been attracted to what they're told about something and not what it is. If you think the internet changed anything, then you haven't been paying attention to history. Salesman have been deceiving people since the dawn of the salesman. They're job is to sell you on something you may not even need, but they make you think you need or want it regardless of how good it actually is.
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Didn't they catch some guy @ EA writing good reviews for their game over rotten tomato? Hired reviews have been around for ages.
Same with all those "buy 1k likes on facebook from real users for $xxxx". This is something I keep getting annoyed as: facebook is more or less a cheap advertisement platform.
On the samsung fanboy that got banned....
I admit samsung make great phones, at least having SD support+removable battery is quite important for me (battery on long days where I spend a majority of time taking pictures and videos on phone).
But monitors... honestly I hardly really notice a difference...
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Northern Ireland25195 Posts
On April 16 2013 22:46 Hikari wrote:
Didn't they catch some guy @ EA writing good reviews for their game over rotten tomato? Hired reviews have been around for ages.
Same with all those "buy 1k likes on facebook from real users for $xxxx". This is something I keep getting annoyed as: facebook is more or less a cheap advertisement platform.
On the samsung fanboy that got banned....
I admit samsung make great phones, at least having SD support+removable battery is quite important for me (battery on long days where I spend a majority of time taking pictures and videos on phone).
But monitors... honestly I hardly really notice a difference...
God that annoys me so much. Facebook had (has?) so much potential as a platform for 'genuine' new and unheralded content creators to get their names out there, but is increasingly proving not to be the case due to a combination of Facebook's algorithims being increasingly aimed at, and used by established entertainment stables.
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On April 16 2013 22:25 Existential wrote:
Not gonna lie. Probably would have done this for free.. I love Samsung hahaha.
As much as I like Samsung *products*, I'm lucid enough to realize that the company itself is a piece of shit that's just after my money. I don't understand why people like companies... Blind brand loyalty is such a plague.
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Iunno I figured you all were more up to date on this...pretty much every politician, major corporation, etc. does this...hell apple probably does it too.
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Northern Ireland25195 Posts
I think you are mistaken on that. Most are aware this goes on, but it's rare that such behaviour actually results in anything tangible.
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On April 16 2013 23:06 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 22:25 Existential wrote:
Not gonna lie. Probably would have done this for free.. I love Samsung hahaha. As much as I like Samsung *products*, I'm lucid enough to realize that the company itself is a piece of shit that's just after my money. I don't understand why people like companies... Blind brand loyalty is such a plague.
Out of all the HD TV's that I / my friends owned mine is by far the oldest without any issues. Maybe dumb luck or maybe Samsung makes a better product. I personally always want the best product unless there is some serious shady shit behind it, but you really can't avoid that. Paying people to falsely make statements is one thing, but let's say I knew my TV was made by slave labor or whatever then I might reconsider.
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On April 16 2013 23:20 Wombat_NI wrote:
I think you are mistaken on that. Most are aware this goes on, but it's rare that such behaviour actually results in anything tangible.
And also because there is an infamous banned poster who did the exact thing on TL. There may be other paid shills lurking around, but they are far more subtle than that guy. Affinity_12 was really obvious because of all the marketing speak he was using.
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On April 16 2013 23:33 andrewlt wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 23:20 Wombat_NI wrote:
I think you are mistaken on that. Most are aware this goes on, but it's rare that such behaviour actually results in anything tangible. And also because there is an infamous banned poster who did the exact thing on TL. There may be other paid shills lurking around, but they are far more subtle than that guy. Affinity_12 was really obvious because of all the marketing speak he was using.
I love most samsung products but a lot of the "comparison" sites he was linking had like 1 review on it.
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lol i just spent way to long reading Affinity_12 posts.
if i didnt already have an S3 i would totally get one now.
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I guess all those ads saying I could earn lots of $$$ sitting at home in front of the computer weren't false advertisement after all...
I wonder how much they pay, though, just out of curiosity.
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On April 17 2013 01:19 iMAniaC wrote:
I guess all those ads saying I could earn lots of $$$ sitting at home in front of the computer weren't false advertisement after all...
I wonder how much they pay, though, just out of curiosity.
I would be more interested on how their review their perfomance. I mean, how they know the guy is doing a good troll job.
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Oh man I can't believe affinity_12 infiltrated Team Liquid! To think we had a corporate shill, right here, advertising their products  . I take solace in the fact that he is banned now, but I wish we could have interrogated him a bit .
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If i remember correctly there was a guy on TL who chill eventually banned for doing something exactly like this with samsung recomendations..could he be one the these people????
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On April 16 2013 16:51 ControlMonkey wrote:Relevant.
First thing that came to my mind, too.
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On April 17 2013 01:38 Aveng3r wrote:
If i remember correctly there was a guy on TL who chill eventually banned for doing something exactly like this with samsung recomendations..could he be one the these people????
Geez, it's not like it's in the OP and most of the discussion in the thread is about him.
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I would buy Samsung or LG anyway because these companies support esports unlike Apple or HTC
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On April 16 2013 23:21 NoobSkills wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 23:06 Djzapz wrote:On April 16 2013 22:25 Existential wrote:
Not gonna lie. Probably would have done this for free.. I love Samsung hahaha. As much as I like Samsung *products*, I'm lucid enough to realize that the company itself is a piece of shit that's just after my money. I don't understand why people like companies... Blind brand loyalty is such a plague. Out of all the HD TV's that I / my friends owned mine is by far the oldest without any issues. Maybe dumb luck or maybe Samsung makes a better product. I personally always want the best product unless there is some serious shady shit behind it, but you really can't avoid that. Paying people to falsely make statements is one thing, but let's say I knew my TV was made by slave labor or whatever then I might reconsider.
Like I said, it's fine to appreciate the products, but the company is there to profit from you. My old Galaxy S has served me well and I'm happy with that, so I'll most likely buy another Samsung phone in the future, provided they turn out to be good. I won't praise Samsung though, I won't pledge my "allegiance" to them, and I won't defend their "good name" online just for the sake of defending the name.
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I remember that ban...
Corporations have far reach. scary.
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Still tho, half my stuff is samsung as well. Maybe I should apply for a job.
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Only makes you wonder what other stuff you read on TL (and, of course, the internet as a whole ) is backed by special interests.
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On April 16 2013 16:51 ControlMonkey wrote:Relevant.
This is the exact first thing that came to my mind too hahaha
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There has been cases in the US about things like this all the time, that is where it started I believe.
Most commonly it's people who get paid to advertise in their own neighbourhood, talking about how great they find certain products to their friends.
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On April 17 2013 02:41 Cinim wrote:
There has been cases in the US about things like this all the time, that is where it started I believe.
Most commonly it's people who get paid to advertise in their own neighbourhood, talking about how great they find certain products to their friends.
There have been shills since the dawn of consumer society, so no, it didn't really start in the US.
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Hoooooly crap that ban... lol
It's funny because I caught myself "shopping" a few months ago online and had the thought, "Why aren't big companies taking advantage of these 'online reviews?' Surely they realize that the savvy internet folks read lots of reviews before making a final decision?"
Well, apparently I was years behind on that thought. I mean, it's not like I believe(d) every review I saw, it just didn't seem that widespread, especially since a lot of products have no reviews at all.
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I loved that guy.
*game of thrones thread, yo guys did you hear about the new galaxy?*
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I know more than a few companies participate in this type of shenanigans. I say, why not? Alls fair in love and war, and this is way more profitable than war.
Samsung, however, takes it to a whole new level!
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Honestly, every companies do this. Samsung just got caught, that's it.
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Yeah, so many companies do this that there's even a new legal / service niche industry for it, you pay them, they browse reviews of your business, prove that astroturfed bad reviews for you are astroturfed, and get them taken down off the internet.
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Yeah it does sound like most companies would do this. To be fair, though, HTC probably doesn't do this because it comparatively doesn't have very much money at all to go toward marketing.
Not sure what "more than voluntary" even means though. If it's more than voluntary, it means it was...really voluntary as a result of samsung incentivising the behavior. So it was voluntary I guess? Probably voluntary either way lol
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So? All companies do this - EA has been ousted for doing this as well and anybody who believes random comments from first time posters on a forum deserve to buy a POS phone... except samsung phones are good
So are HTC and it pretty much comes down to budget and a persons preference.
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Didn't Bioware hire bunch of random gamers to talk shit about The Witcher 2 on gaming sites like gamefaqs and metacritic and got caught? This happened 2 years ago.
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On April 16 2013 19:51 Womwomwom wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 18:52 sluggaslamoo wrote:
I remember back when HTC used to produce the best smartphones, but then they just had 0 innovation after the "desire" and completely fell off the radar.
They probably thought they could pull an Apple and continue producing overpriced clones of the same thing over and over but I guess they forgot that you needed to establish an overzealous fanbase first. What is innovation to you? Innovation for the sake of innovation doesn't sell products. Complete packages sell products. That's why Samsung has, theoretically, the best Android smartphone on the market: the Galaxy S lineup doesn't have any real flaws besides kind of questionable material choices. That's why the iPad is still the tablet market leader: it still has one of the best screens, unquestionable GPU power, and obscene battery size. That's why Apple devices are able to sell for high prices: because the overall hardware and software package is mostly complete. Don't kid yourself, Samsung and everyone else all have their own overzealous fanbases. That's to be expected. What makes HTC phones a harder sell is the lack of attention to detail. Sense, for a long time, has been complete rubbish in terms of performance. They also have a nasty habit of packing fairly small batteries into their phones and dropping support for their phones extremely quickly. That's why they're doing poorly, just like LG's or Sony Ericsson's inability to update their phones on time (if at all). There isn't a conspiracy theory why brand x sells well and why brand y sells badly. The problem here is that, although the HTC One has solved many of these problems, it can't get a market foothold. Some of the reasons include launching too close to the Galaxy S4 announcement/too late after the Sony Xperia Z launch but the main reason is that HTC isn't the the darling OEM of the carriers anymore and they don't have the advertising budget to make sure their device is seen over other competitors. Component delays don't help things either. As noted by the OP's article, Samsung can literally pay some people to spread bad news about the phone and they can't do anything to combat it besides asking the government to step in. They can't compete against Samsung's marketing budget nor can create enough noise to get rid of constant "complaints" about the HTC One. By the time the government finds Samsung guilty (or not), its too late since HTC One has already missed its launch period.
I really wanted to report this for astroturfing but apparently you can't report red's posts. JOKE RUINED
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I don't understand why Samsung would need to talk down HTC in the first place... I would understand Apple but HTC? HTC makes great phones, but sells no where near as many as Samsung does. They are no where close to being a rival..
I second that most companies would do this. Interesting that Taiwanese commission is the one suspecting Samsung of doing this. Protecting homegrown company it is.
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On April 17 2013 14:41 ExceeD_DreaM wrote:
I don't understand why Samsung would need to talk down HTC in the first place... I would understand Apple but HTC? HTC makes great phones, but sells no where near as many as Samsung does. They are no where close to being a rival..
I second that most companies would do this. Interesting that Taiwanese commission is the one suspecting Samsung of doing this. Protecting homegrown company it is.
HTC flagship phones have always been competitive. On engineering and design, I would probably put them above Samsung, but as others mentioned, their marketing sucks balls which is why they are lagging behind.
They put top quality hardware in a nice chasis but then royally fuck it up by using the stupid sense UI which lags everything then follow up with no updates or zero updates. Their UI team and their CEO needs to be shot.
If they release a phone on vanilla android, their sale will be through the roof!
My first two smart phone were HTC, but only the google nexus phones, then when nexus moved on to another brand, I stopped buying HTC.
Such a shame really, they were first to market on several trends but never really did anything with it, this is typical of Taiwanese tech companies. They are complacent staying as OEMs.
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On April 16 2013 21:45 Womwomwom wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 20:44 opisska wrote:On April 16 2013 17:55 Womwomwom wrote:On April 16 2013 17:46 opisska wrote:On April 16 2013 16:53 haduken wrote:On April 16 2013 16:49 ETisME wrote:
read about it before, I hope I don't offend any Taiwanese by saying this but I find it a bit fishy:
Taiwan is EXTREMELY sensitive for HTC and samsung competition. Some politicians' choice of phone get flamed on media news if it isn't a HTC and sometimes they would even get asked why not using a HTC phone to support Taiwan industry on camera news.
HTC is under high competitive pressure, especially from Samsung. It isn't doing as well as before anymore, the chinese market didn't like HTC while the oversea is getting smashed by Samsung and Apple.
And to users who aren't aware, Taiwan has a separate political system than the Chinese one That's Taiwan's own damn fault, just look at all the Taiwanese vendors like ASUS, HTC, Gigabyte, same old make cheap alternatives, race to the bottom, flood the market with 10000 products with random product names, shitty generic line ups with no continuity, confuse all consumers, zero innovation or invest into their marketing. Such a shame as the new HTC phones are great products. Is it any wonder they are getting owned by organised competitions? Is this really how HTC is percieved in Australia or elsewhere? Because among my friends HTC is considered more of a premium brand, at least compared to shit like LG, Sony, or god forbid ZTE or Huawei. Yes, Samsung would be on par (Apple is a manufacturer of toys for kids and thus irrelevant), but not really valued more than HTC. Samsung is definitely the top tier Android smartphone manufacturer as a result of an obscene advertising budget, good enough phones to justify the advertising claims, and carrier presence. HTC, LG, Sony don't have anywhere near the same amount of advertising or carrier presence so they've been regulated to the "cheap pack", through Sony seems to pushing extremely hard for more market share. Their flagship phones aren't without problems but they've had a top tier midrange for at least a year. HTC's poor branding is an issue but the bigger problem is that Samsung can just shout over everyone else. They're the only ones that can actually get all of their phones on a carrier and in the United States (and Australia too), that's a really important thing. The branding thing is a problem with HTC but it honestly isn't any different from Samsung pumping out a billion different variants of Galaxy phones. The difference is that carriers actively advertise the Galaxy S flagship. Also, come on Apple devices being toys for kids? Really? Let's not go there OK? The Apple remark could have been done better, I agree. Just the point was that in the social group where most of my firends are, this is the perception - almost noone has an iPhone, partly because it would be just considered childish, partly because they really believe that it is not a good idea to buy one. This fact prevents the other brands from being "smashed" by Apple. Also in general, I believe that Apple's marketshare in everything is much lower in Czech than in the US, largely due to the widespread notion that iStuff is "snobbish". The carrier thing is interesting - I have honestly no ideawhat phones are offered by carriers, it's not really profillic in here. Most of the people I know buy smartphones from computer vendors anyway. That's fair enough, thanks for clarifying. Its interesting that continental Europe + eastern Europe doesn't really have as much attachment towards Apple products as English speaking countries. I wonder, does it have to do with less Apple store presence? I know the Apple Store is really Apple's true success story, since you actually have a reason to go there if you have a problem. Yeah, carriers are important for the North American and Australian (and UK?) markets. I'm not sure why, I always buy my phones outright but I know a significant number of Australians who buy their phones on plans, where you pay as you go. Sometimes it actually isn't that much more expensive if you need an expensive, high data phone plan so I guess that's why people like to buy their phones this way. I've heard that the philosophy is a bit different in Europe and your anecdote seems to suggest that too. But basically, that's the case. The only two companies that get all of their phones on all major carriers during the launch period is pretty much Apple and Samsung. When you're looking for a plan and a swanky new phone, you've only really got these two options to pick from.
Carriers plans means people can go into debt to afford their phones, rather than paying up front, this drives more sales obviously.
It means the world for phone manufacturers in countries like Australia, as not long ago, only way to buy phone upfront was to get it grey imported from hong kong with no warranty.
However that's changing now due to online retailers and prepay pricing coming down a lot... but majority of population probably still go on plans.
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On April 17 2013 13:57 Raropatx wrote:
I'll just leave this here...
...
This is the work of one guy, he use to use a BMW logo across multiple web forums until he was caught out.
just wanted to add that affinity_12 is still active and spreading fud on overclock.net and whirlpool forums 
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Shame, I actually really like Samsung products, got a Samsung monitor and I had a Samsung Droid Charge (although my phone broke).
Needless to say, despite underhanded marketing techniques, I'll still buy from them because they're crap is usually pretty good in my experience (aside from my droid breaking grrr.....)
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On April 16 2013 17:21 Womwomwom wrote:
I don't think this is surprising. Anyone remember affinity_12? The same bloke has been doing rounds all around major tech forums and websites like The Verge, Engadget, Hardforum, Anandtech, Whirlpool, and so forth. Its kind of obvious that its him, he has a very specific posting style. Got the fucker banned because dude was shitting in my monitor thread,
I find this pretty interesting, is there any concrete proof this bloke is actually trolling all those sites? maybe the "talking points" coincide with other identities because they have been instructed on what to say
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5930 Posts
On April 20 2013 16:15 Ganz333 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2013 17:21 Womwomwom wrote:
I don't think this is surprising. Anyone remember affinity_12? The same bloke has been doing rounds all around major tech forums and websites like The Verge, Engadget, Hardforum, Anandtech, Whirlpool, and so forth. Its kind of obvious that its him, he has a very specific posting style. Got the fucker banned because dude was shitting in my monitor thread,
I find this pretty interesting, is there any concrete proof this bloke is actually trolling all those sites? maybe the "talking points" coincide with other identities because they have been instructed on what to say
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/postmessage.php?quote=87&topic_id=408046
Basically this, its definitely the same guy. Its hard to believe its a fanboy because he does a lot of crossposting and has the same rubbish talking points. A lot of effort just to participate on a forum if you ask me!
On April 17 2013 12:49 Meatex wrote:
So? All companies do this - EA has been ousted for doing this as well and anybody who believes random comments from first time posters on a forum deserve to buy a POS phone... except samsung phones are good
So are HTC and it pretty much comes down to budget and a persons preference.
That's a cop out and you know it. This is a matter of ethics, most companies do this but tend to do it through more "honest community participation. When AMD, Asus, and NEC do product promotion on forums, they have it clear what they're doing and actually have a reason for existing since they tend to offer support to the community.
This sort of sockpuppeting serves no purpose and companies that actively do this are no better than snake oil salesman, no matter the quality of their products.
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5930 Posts
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After living in Korea for a few years I believe it to be plausible that this is completely true. I'm interested in finding out more about this.
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edt: nvm misread the post
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Lol, I'm pretty sure most companies do this.
God, even political parties do this.
And of curse, it sux.
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On April 16 2013 17:49 EvilTeletubby wrote:<3 That was one of my favorite bans. Edit: And afterwards, he kept right at it.
Yeah, that ban post was hilarious back then. <3
Always wondered what became of the guy, missed him going at it again just after his temporary ban, haha. 
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On April 16 2013 17:21 Womwomwom wrote:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=18315850Basically this, its definitely the same guy. Its hard to believe its a fanboy because he does a lot of crossposting and has the same rubbish talking points. A lot of effort just to participate on a forum if you ask me!
Wow, this is too obvious
Most of those messages are bordering on defamation, the rest are blatant spam
On April 16 2013 17:21 Womwomwom wrote:
That's a cop out and you know it. This is a matter of ethics, most companies do this but tend to do it through more "honest community participation. When AMD, Asus, and NEC do product promotion on forums, they have it clear what they're doing and actually have a reason for existing since they tend to offer support to the community.
This sort of sockpuppeting serves no purpose and companies that actively do this are no better than snake oil salesman, no matter the quality of their products.
What makes this particularly sinister is they have made it a point to target struggling companies, hope someone throws the book at these cowards.
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EPT
