Redditor claims MS employees monitoring Reddit; making positive posts about the Xbox1

Many companies have been doing this for a long while on reddit. It happens a lot in r/gaming. It's usually obvious. If it feels like an ad, it probably is.
 
alr1ght said:
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http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-inte...e-changed/?mod=wsj_streaming_latest-headlines
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Hah, noticed this one as well. He's not even trying. :P
 
By the time they register here most of them will be banned anyways.

bUt Yeah, this type of stuff is eXactly what's wrong with Business, if yOu caN't trust thE consumer why bother making the product?
 
They wouldn't need to pay a firm to do it. They got legions of fans willing to spread good (and free) PR. Also why people continue to believe anonymous sources on Reddit when they've turned out to be fraudulent is beyond me
 
jokkir said:
I would assume that other companies with the money do this to an extent. Much like the fake applauds during their conferences (Sony, Microsoft, not sure about Nintendo)
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Good god, the applause at press conferences is the worst. I don't know that I can think of anything more out of place and more unnatural-feeling.
 
JABEE said:
It's misleading. It's like embedding an article in the New York Times supporting something without disclosing that you work for the company you are championing. It's sleazy.
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And I want more places or events in my life free of advertising. I don't want advertising disguised as discussion and I don't want a plaque on trees saying "This tree sponsored by IBM". I already accept a lot of advertising, I just don't want anymore.
 
While it isn't particularly surprising that this unfortunately occurs (not just for Microsoft and, this isn't based solely on the Reddit post which I find somewhat skeptical, it's based on the user that outright admitted to it) the most worrying aspect for me occurs when the employee ends up promoting their company subtlely as opposed to those who voraciously jump into conversations and engage in damage control and they are the ones (the subtle marketers) that cause me the greatest concern for NeoGAF. At least those who so blatantly rush in to defend each negative aspect of a product will, on this forum, generally be called out or spotted via their posting history and over time it may become quite clear that they have some ulterior motive to defend a company or product. Those who take a more relaxed approach though, it becomes difficult to differentiate between those with some motive to support a product and those who just fanatically support/enjoy one company/product (if they have a well-found, logical argument it becomes, very slightly, more acceptable but unfortunately this often isn't the case if there is an agenda). Hopefully the moderators continue to try and quell such marketers from the forum as it really is a practice that I don't approve of at all.
 
The mental picture of two people each a shill for their respective company trying to convince the other is somewhat hilarious.
 
If your first instinct or response to this information contains deflection or excuses, you probably need to re-evaluate.
 
jtb said:
I'm saying I don't see what's wrong with it. I'm not pro-anything (besides iOS <3), I'm just anti-shitty logic.

it's anonymous. the whole point of a forum is that there's a disconnect between your real self and your internet persona; isn't that the appeal of places like reddit and 4chan and, hell, even neogaf vs. something like Facebook where your identity is tied very clearly to your real life persona.

I see people that willingly post things all the time pro-whatever. there are people that go through all kinds of mental gymnastics to support X political party or Y product—and they're not getting paid shit. what makes them any different from someone who does those things and is getting paid? stupidity is fine as long as you're doing it for free?
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Are you really? I think we'll have to agree to disagree because your argument makes no sense to me. You bring up an example of something bad on the internet, then ask why something equally bad is worse because they are being paid for it. Logically, it is as bad, and worse, because it is being paid for, ere go intellectually dishonest.

In addition, how do you not see why it is harmful to honest discussion, when there are people in the audience being paid to support one side?
 
I think it's funny that there have been a lot of comments from developers, publishers, and media personalities downplaying the importance of GAF's and the internet's voice. But just these past few weeks we've had a massive amount of bannings of people paid to make positive posts about the Xbox One. Obviously our voice means something if they have to pay someone to post here.
 
Microsoft gaming and Phone and Skype divisions aren't in the same area, never mind building.

We had a semi-formal meeting in one of the larger meeting rooms, followed by lunch and some more touring. In some of the buildings they have offices for a whole range of different divisions all mixed together (e.g. I saw Skype offices, Windows Phone offices and more all in just one building). At one point we visited one of the Xbox offices, and our guide went off to find a particular manager for us to meet. He was gone for a while, so we were left hanging in the middle of a fairly hectic office for several minutes.
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Yeah... This isn't surprising in the least. What is surprising is how many MS are using for this. It's like they knew this used game crap/DRM garbage would go down hard and as such they had a little army ready to go at their defense.

But then the question becomes how do you decipher between people who genuinely like The One, and those who are just being paid shills?
 
blackflag said:
It actually is, yes of course they are going to try it. I'm Director of Marketing at a large company so I know all about it, that doesn't mean that the mods shouldn't investigate and eradicate so that we can have honest conversations instead of those tainted by marketers.
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(responding to this since you mentioned it earlier)

I guess my question is simple: is there an obligation to tell the truth on the internet?

I don't think there is. I mean, I appreciate that on some communities (like NeoGAF) there isn't much tolerance for lying (Amir0x-gate 1.0, Amir0x-gate 2.0, etc.) and that's a good thing, I think, but... in general, especially in the uncharted ocean of shit that is Reddit... People believe things. People hold opinions. You're never going to know all the ulterior motives at play (maybe the xbone ran over his grandmother! I don't know and I don't care) so I don't see why money is any different from any of those other ones.

I mean&#8212;if they're spreading blatant untruths like "oh there's no 24 hour check in" then sure, ban, whatever... but that's just a factual untruth. anything else... subjectivity... I don't know. I don't care. I don't really care about 90%+ of forum opinions anyways and I suspect most people don't either.

Ashes1396 said:
Are you really? I think we'll have to agree to disagree because your argument makes no sense to me. You bring up an example of something bad on the internet, then ask why something equally bad is worse because they are being paid for it. Logically, it is as bad, and worse, because it is being paid for, ere go intellectually dishonest.

In addition, how do you not see why it is harmful to honest discussion, when there are people in the audience being paid to support one side?
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let me clarify&#8212;I don't like paid shills. I don't like blind fanboyism either. but, I think there's understand what's wrong with either. like... what makes it any different? is there an expectation of honest discussion on the internet? I don't think so. Certainly not on Reddit.
 
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