10 ms·
It's sad that samsung would do this... Is it commonplace for companies to do this?
by umsm 13y ago
It's sad that samsung would do this... Is it commonplace for companies to do this?
- orangethirty 13y agoMore than you think.
- hosay123 13y agoYou decide.. https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=infoman https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=infoman The domain was registered one day after the HN account was registered, first post wasn't made for 14 days (aka. when the username no longer appears in green). In his defence, if he is a shill, he's not very good at it. Edit: hnsearch picked up a hellbanned post (it should appear on the front page, but it doesn't) at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5567259 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5567259 that mentions a couple more accounts
- orangethirty 13y agoGoogle has a little spammer loose on HN. Neat.
- Kylekramer 13y agoSeems much more likely to be the people behind glass-apps.org than Google.
- orangethirty 13y agoI'm not criticizing them, its neat to find something like this here. I can find it on almost any other site out there, but HN is not the place to game. Still, who knows if glass-apps.org is getting a nice check from Google. Not a bad thing, either. I know of companies whose sole reason of existence is to do this for bigger companies. Its just neat. That's all.
- jacquesm 13y agoConfirmed: http://information-man.com/impressum/ http://information-man.com/impressum/ "Verantwortliche Ansprechperson: Iwan Uswak" information-man -> infoman whois glass-apps.org: Domain Name:GLASS-APPS.ORG Registrant ID:AT1001919805572 Registrant Name:Iwan Uswak
- jacquesm 13y agothat makes this submission extra funny: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5440466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5440466
- orangethirty 13y agoMeta-spamming. (: Blog post in 3...2...1...
- taopao 13y agoLooks like a bot that programmatically shovels trendy topical matter from RSS into HN. The submission and article headlines are identical, down to the curly quotes - smells of automation to me.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 13y agoBookmarklet.
- xwei 13y ago> You decide.. https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=infoman https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=infoman do you think Google created this? Obviously not, Google get nothing from it.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mtgx 13y agoHe's just posting his own stuff...a little too often I agree, but nothing out of ordinary here beyond that. It's not like he's the first on HN who's ever done that.
- Geee 13y agoIt's exactly what you would expect from a company like Samsung.
- guelo 13y agoA multi-billion dollar multinational conglomerate?
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoThey're not exactly known for their ethical business practices. “[Samsung’s] long-standing policy prohibits union organising [and has] attracted critical attention. Samsung’s overall corporate structure centralises the policy-making that governs the activities of its vast network of subsidiary corporations. Samsung is a “chaebol” – one of the family-run conglomerates that dominate South Korean society. Almost Mafia-like in their obsessive secrecy and reach, chaebols have influence in most markets and industries in the country and wield huge political influence. They have also not been shy of using underhand methods to maintain their position. [...] [Secretly recorded conversations] revealed that Haksoo Lee (vice-chairman of the Samsung Group) and Hong (Korean ambassador to the US and then publisher of the Joongang Daily) were planning to deliver upwards of 3 billion won – around £2 million – to presidential candidates ahead of South Korea’s elections. [...] Samsung owns Joongang Daily… it also has unprecedented power over journalism because it has the economic power to buy advertising space and time. “It is hard to criticise Samsung as an individual journalist. It is considered insane.” [...] In 2008, the current Samsung chairman, Lee Kun-Hee, stepped down after his house and offices were raided and a police investigation began into claims that the corporation was maintaining a slush fund to bribe court officials and politicians. Found guilty of financial wrongdoing and tax evasion by Seoul Central District Court on July 16 2008, Lee Kun-Hee was in serious trouble. But despite prosecutors requesting that he be sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $347 million, the sentenced handed down was three years suspended and $109 million in fines. [...]” http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/3028/samsung-power-corruption-and-lies/ http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/3028/samsung-power-...
- coldtea 13y agoYes. Multi-billion dollar multionational do the worst shit. As an example: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Coke-Machine-Behind-Favourite/dp/1583334068/ref=pd_sim_b_10 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Coke-Machine-Behind-Favourite/dp... http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/faqs/shell%2526%2523039%3Bs-environmental-devastation-nigeria http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/faqs/shell%2526%2523039%3Bs...
- betterunix 13y agoIt is so commonplace that I am not even surprised to hear about it anymore.
- cgh 13y agoYeah, I worked for an iOS game company that asked its employees to give its games positive reviews in the App Store and everywhere else they could think of. I don't think many of us bothered - I certainly didn't.
- threeseed 13y agoThis is very common place and I don't think there is anything wrong with it. What is unacceptable though is deliberately trashing your opponents.
- krapp 13y agoFake reviews are deliberately biased, and may contain false information about a product's quality and of course will ignore its flaws and defects. It's just advertising disguising itself as user experience. It is probably very common (and as an impulse understandable) but I think it's still wrong even without trashing your opponents. Saying your product is better than it is is not much different than saying explicitly that it's better than the other guys. Either way, it a cynical lie.
- pbhjpbhj 13y agoIt's against European law. But companies flouting the law doesn't bother some.
- lostlogin 13y agoLying is lying and not disclosing links is lying by omission. It's all personal preference but my line in the sand is pretty clear. If you eat to be ignored and derided, let someone else find your bias and kickback. Be up front and you will get a reputation for it. That's my 2c.
- mixedbit 13y agoAnd is it illegal? I'm pretty sure paying for fake negative reviews of competition is illegal, because there is a clear victim. But how about positive reviews of companies' products?
- lutusp 13y ago> And is it illegal? No, in most places it isn't. If a consumer was misled by a planted, phony review and bought an inferior product, he could go to civil court and demand monetary compensation, but civil courts largely deal with the kinds of damage claims that don't involve the legality of an action, only its harm. Just remember that an illegal action would be prosecuted in a criminal court. A claim of harm would be prosecuted in a civil court. Most of the activity surrounding phony reviews is not about the legality of the activity, but how much harm the public exposure might do to a company's reputation. > I'm pretty sure paying for fake negative reviews of competition is illegal, because there is a clear victim. Even in that case, it's not a question of "illegal" as much as misleading, and the remedies are usually civil, not criminal.
- josephlord 13y agoI think in Europe it should be illegal throughout the EU under the Unfair Commercial Practices directive. This would apply to any fake reviews.
- clobber 13y agoAbsolutely commonplace. Anything is 'fair' in business and nothing is off the table when it comes to money. Even the small/local businesses do this. Just check Yelp reviews. Hell, Yelp used to allow businesses to move their best reviews to the top if they paid them enough. 1) http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635 http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-... 2) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/the-yelp-mafia/3116 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/the-yelp-mafia/3116 3) http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/yelp-facing-class-action-suit-over-extortive-ad-sales/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/02/yelp-facing-class... There was so much fallout from this back in 2009/2010 that Yelp had to turn the tables and pretend to play nice guy finally by outing businesses that buy positive reviews (starting last October).
- obviouslygreen 13y agoAnything is 'fair' in business and nothing is off the table when it comes to money. Many people have this attitude, yes. That doesn't make it universally true or even close, and it's probably less commonplace than you seem to assume, particularly for small/local businesses, which overwhelmingly don't have time to waste on shill reviews. And while it definitely happens and is widespread, you're not doing your argument any favors by citing exactly one example and suggesting it shows a trend or proves a point.
- clobber 13y ago> Many people have this attitude, yes. That doesn't make it universally true or even close History shows humans will do anything to better their odds and leverage their success. > And while it definitely happens and is widespread > citing exactly one example and suggesting it shows a trend or proves a point. Guess you kinda just did the same thing? Just because I'm citing one example doesn't make it any less true and it seems we have two examples now: Samsung and Yelp. Sorry, but this is rampant in e-commerce.
- benologist 13y agoIt is on HN, here's a short list of sites that have gone far out of their way to spam HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5567427 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5567427