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In the past we simply called this spamming, and it was pretty much universally reviled. I find it somewhat ironic/interesting given my past that the current in

by phil21 9y ago

In the past we simply called this spamming, and it was pretty much universally reviled. I find it somewhat ironic/interesting given my past that the current industry is effectively focused on spamming society to sell stuff. I find the e-mail spammers of old to be far more ethical than what is happening today backed by billions of dollars.

lucideer 9y ago
This isn't spamming though, by any definition. Spamming is unsolicited contact. All contact on Tinder is solicited (and a good deal of the non-automated content is a lot more "scummy" than this). I'm finding the sentiment on HN in response to this bizarre but I guess your reference to "industry" (and billions of dollars) may be a hint. US political campaigns are quite a different beast to elsewhere, and yes, a lot more comparable to campaigns of massive multinational corporations.
- phil21 9y ago
  Huh? It's spamming by every definition. When I swipe right on Tinder, it's not to get a political message. It's to (presumably) get laid. Bots that send me a political or commercial message on a service that specifically denies such contact is the definition spamming. It's the same thing as giving your e-mail address to play a cool new game, the game not existing, and now you're being spammed to death. Or messaging that interesting/hot girl from the AIM chatroom, only to find it's a bot advertising a commercial site. I'd say this is exactly the same line of thought, something I know for a fact since in a past life I've worked for folks who "marketed" in such a manner. The thought patterns are absolutely identical, and I'd be surprised if this political company didn't actually hire a SEO/chat spam company to implement such a feature. All you have to do is s/politics/penny stocks/ and this turns into an entirely different story. The content of the message doesn't matter, it's still abusing a service to send an unwanted political or commercial message. Edit: Typos
  - lucideer 9y ago
    Swiping right on Tinder gets you contact with that person. Nothing more. No guarantee of content topic (or sex). You're swiping to talk to someone.
    - xraystyle 9y ago
      > You're swiping to talk to someone. The key word in your sentence above is 'someone'. Not a goddamn bot whose raison d'être is to spam you with an unsolicited political message. How anyone can look at this and not see it as anything other than spam is beyond me.
    - dwaltrip 9y ago
      Nothing in life is "guaranteed". However, we often manage to form reasonable expectations about how things work. And when such reasonable expectations are broken, there are ramifications. In this case, I would guess that unexpected political spam devalues Tinder and makes people less likely to use it. Imagine if large numbers of organizations started using Tinder to spread a message or support their cause. It would make finding a date on the app significantly more frustrating.
- grej 9y ago
  The bot convinced users that they were swiping on someone that was local, but that person was often hundreds of miles away. I don't know how you think this isn't spam. They may have solicited contact by swiping, however, they did so thinking that they could potentially meet the person, because they believe that person is local. The political propaganda they're getting back from a bot that is made to appear like a local potential romantic partner that they thought they swiped on, is unsolicited given the nature of the Tinder platform.
grej 9y ago
Totally agree. It's a total bait-and-switch. People are not on Tinder to hear political propaganda and you're pushing it onto them surreptitiously. This is like the online version of someone telling you you won a contest for a free night's stay in a nice hotel resort, but not disclosing until check in that you have to listen to a 4-hour timeshare presentation. Actually, it's probably worse. In this case, often there isn't a real meet up possibility at all, as according to the article "the bot convinced Tinder that their profiles were in geographical locations where the vote was close," and often the "matches" were hundreds of miles away. At least the timeshare salesperson does, in fact, give you the hotel resort stay for your trouble.

by phil21 9y ago

lucideer 9y ago

This isn't spamming though, by any definition. Spamming is unsolicited contact. All contact on Tinder is solicited (and a good deal of the non-automated content is a lot more "scummy" than this). I'm finding the sentiment on HN in response to this bizarre but I guess your reference to "industry" (and billions of dollars) may be a hint. US political campaigns are quite a different beast to elsewhere, and yes, a lot more comparable to campaigns of massive multinational corporations.

phil21 9y ago
Huh? It's spamming by every definition. When I swipe right on Tinder, it's not to get a political message. It's to (presumably) get laid. Bots that send me a political or commercial message on a service that specifically denies such contact is the definition spamming. It's the same thing as giving your e-mail address to play a cool new game, the game not existing, and now you're being spammed to death. Or messaging that interesting/hot girl from the AIM chatroom, only to find it's a bot advertising a commercial site. I'd say this is exactly the same line of thought, something I know for a fact since in a past life I've worked for folks who "marketed" in such a manner. The thought patterns are absolutely identical, and I'd be surprised if this political company didn't actually hire a SEO/chat spam company to implement such a feature. All you have to do is s/politics/penny stocks/ and this turns into an entirely different story. The content of the message doesn't matter, it's still abusing a service to send an unwanted political or commercial message. Edit: Typos
- lucideer 9y ago
  Swiping right on Tinder gets you contact with that person. Nothing more. No guarantee of content topic (or sex). You're swiping to talk to someone.
  - xraystyle 9y ago
    > You're swiping to talk to someone. The key word in your sentence above is 'someone'. Not a goddamn bot whose raison d'être is to spam you with an unsolicited political message. How anyone can look at this and not see it as anything other than spam is beyond me.
  - dwaltrip 9y ago
    Nothing in life is "guaranteed". However, we often manage to form reasonable expectations about how things work. And when such reasonable expectations are broken, there are ramifications. In this case, I would guess that unexpected political spam devalues Tinder and makes people less likely to use it. Imagine if large numbers of organizations started using Tinder to spread a message or support their cause. It would make finding a date on the app significantly more frustrating.
grej 9y ago
The bot convinced users that they were swiping on someone that was local, but that person was often hundreds of miles away. I don't know how you think this isn't spam. They may have solicited contact by swiping, however, they did so thinking that they could potentially meet the person, because they believe that person is local. The political propaganda they're getting back from a bot that is made to appear like a local potential romantic partner that they thought they swiped on, is unsolicited given the nature of the Tinder platform.

grej 9y ago

Totally agree. It's a total bait-and-switch. People are not on Tinder to hear political propaganda and you're pushing it onto them surreptitiously. This is like the online version of someone telling you you won a contest for a free night's stay in a nice hotel resort, but not disclosing until check in that you have to listen to a 4-hour timeshare presentation. Actually, it's probably worse. In this case, often there isn't a real meet up possibility at all, as according to the article "the bot convinced Tinder that their profiles were in geographical locations where the vote was close," and often the "matches" were hundreds of miles away. At least the timeshare salesperson does, in fact, give you the hotel resort stay for your trouble.