4 ms·

> To me its just a shady way to do growth hacking. Or in other words, fraud.

by jonknee 10y ago

Alex3917 10y ago
The growth hacking part isn't fraud. Grocery stores demand slotting fees to get products on the shelves, so if you can get your product on the shelf by spending less money on secret purchases than you otherwise would on slotting fees then that's just smart business. Representing these purchases as legitimate sales to investors would definitely be fraud though.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Is that part allowed though? I guess it depends if the terms of the contract with the store itself prohibit the activity, as it doesn't sound to violate any obvious laws (outside of reporting it as sales).
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    It is allowed to some degree e.g. secret shoppers. Sometimes these programs involve being reimbursed by a third party.
brianwawok 10y ago
Every messaging board (ala Reddit), and Dating site (ala plenty of fish) I know of.. started with some founders "seeding the pool". To me it kind of makes sense, as you can't just open an empty 2 way marketplace and hope that it all works out. Ideally in the reddit way, there were actual discussions going on (except between 3 people not the 100 the usernames would success). Is this also fraud, or just the fact of starting a 2 way marketplace? Now for this story.. I cannot see a way to justify counting most of your sales as things you bought yourself. That sounds like a not valid way to do business, and I would be very surprised if it were legal to report those as sales.
- jonknee 10y ago
  > Now for this story.. I cannot see a way to justify counting most of your sales as things you bought yourself. That sounds like a not valid way to do business, and I would be very surprised if it were legal to report those as sales. Yes, as I said, fraud.
- Bahamut 10y ago
  I know of pretty much no message board that started that way - most aren't for profit even. This is just fraud.
- zck 10y ago
  > Ideally in the reddit way, there were actual discussions going on (except between 3 people not the 100 the usernames would success). Comments weren't in the initial release of reddit, and wouldn't be added until the end of 2005^1. In the stories I've heard, the usernames were just for submitting stories, and the site was getting enough submissions on its own by the time comments were added. [1] December 12, 2005. https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/17913/reddit_now_supports_comments/c51 https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/17913/reddit_no.... Reddit's first post was in June: https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87/the_downing_street_memo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87/the_downing_... .
- tedmiston 10y ago
  Is it different when they are creating data (threads / comments) vs purchasing their own product though?

> To me its just a shady way to do growth hacking. Or in other words, fraud.

by jonknee 10y ago

> To me its just a shady way to do growth hacking. Or in other words, fraud.

The growth hacking part isn't fraud. Grocery stores demand slotting fees to get products on the shelves, so if you can get your product on the shelf by spending less money on secret purchases than you otherwise would on slotting fees then that's just smart business. Representing these purchases as legitimate sales to investors would definitely be fraud though.

brianwawok 10y ago
Is that part allowed though? I guess it depends if the terms of the contract with the store itself prohibit the activity, as it doesn't sound to violate any obvious laws (outside of reporting it as sales).
- tedmiston 10y ago
  It is allowed to some degree e.g. secret shoppers. Sometimes these programs involve being reimbursed by a third party.

brianwawok 10y ago

Every messaging board (ala Reddit), and Dating site (ala plenty of fish) I know of.. started with some founders "seeding the pool". To me it kind of makes sense, as you can't just open an empty 2 way marketplace and hope that it all works out. Ideally in the reddit way, there were actual discussions going on (except between 3 people not the 100 the usernames would success). Is this also fraud, or just the fact of starting a 2 way marketplace? Now for this story.. I cannot see a way to justify counting most of your sales as things you bought yourself. That sounds like a not valid way to do business, and I would be very surprised if it were legal to report those as sales.

jonknee 10y ago
> Now for this story.. I cannot see a way to justify counting most of your sales as things you bought yourself. That sounds like a not valid way to do business, and I would be very surprised if it were legal to report those as sales. Yes, as I said, fraud.
Bahamut 10y ago
I know of pretty much no message board that started that way - most aren't for profit even. This is just fraud.
zck 10y ago
> Ideally in the reddit way, there were actual discussions going on (except between 3 people not the 100 the usernames would success). Comments weren't in the initial release of reddit, and wouldn't be added until the end of 2005^1. In the stories I've heard, the usernames were just for submitting stories, and the site was getting enough submissions on its own by the time comments were added. [1] December 12, 2005. https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/17913/reddit_now_supports_comments/c51 https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/17913/reddit_no.... Reddit's first post was in June: https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87/the_downing_street_memo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87/the_downing_... .
tedmiston 10y ago
Is it different when they are creating data (threads / comments) vs purchasing their own product though?