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eWatch what it is and how it may affect forums like this one.
onlinenow25
Member UncommonPosts: 305
Basically its a PR firm that a company hires that notifies the company about any online activity that puts the company in a negative light and suggests countermeasures.
The simple explanation of how it affects a website such as this is White Knighting. I am not saying that every person that comes in here and White Knights a company is a PR stunt but its very possible, and just knowing the fact that PR firms such as eWatch exist makes it that much easier that it is not a real person responding, but a firm representative trying to spin the company in a good light.
I guess my point is after reading this and finding out about it, it makes it that much easier to understand the 'pin in the hay stack' type of responses you get at overwhelmingly bad information. Biggest contender I can think of off the top of my head would be the people that praised Xbox One for its DRM practices when it was first announced. It is so consumer unfriendly, its hard to believe that the average person/consumer would be so against them selves to think it was a good addition to the Xbox.
What do you guys think of this kind of PR?
Comments
The shill has been around for centuries. I guess every generation has to discover it exists. It's your turn.
Your comment acts as if im some 12 your old kid and I know nothing about PR or corporate america. The only realization from eWatch is that it is something wide spread, not just a hunch I had reading comments that were completely out of place.
You act as if this is common knowledge that there are actual PR companies that monitor websites. Your telling me you knew this?
Yes, for over 20 years.
20 years you say? I would like you to show me a company that started 20 years ago with online monitoring of forums such as this one.
I would also like for you to show a me at the very least a survey poll that shows a majority of internet uses know companies use this type of PR. If you can't show me any of this, your just being condescending and I would like to ask you to stop posting in this thread. Your contributing nothing to it, and not responding to the topic.
You also very clearly didn't read most of my original post. Its 'known' only to those that don't trust companies, but they many don't have any proof or actual insight into what is happening only the inconsistency of posts. eWatch is an actual PR firm that does exactly what people having this 'hunch' that some forum posters and bloggers are bought. Your telling me you know of another 5 or 10 PR firms that do this kind of damage forum/damage control watch?
Heck can you even link detailed information about said company?
Thank you for understanding.
Internet "reputation protection" companies have been around for a while. I know I've even seen them advertising on network television for 3 or 4 years now. But yes, I'm sure their methods are getting even more broad and devious. Kind of like little NSA wannabes. However I don't find this surprising at all. Just sad.
(Yet some individual people, the home grown version of internet liars and thugs, are no treat either. So it goes both ways.)
Whether it is a PR firm or individual companies or individuals doing their own sugar coating these attempts have been going on since before the World Wide Web. Attempts at manipulating forums have occured since Usenet was popular. When Usenet was popular it was easier to spot them and easier to pass along information about such sock puppets and shills. This was largely because they hadn't learned how to hide their sleaze on the internet.
These attempts at manipulating forums have become more subtle but they have existed for more than 20 years. Whether it was done by individual companies or out-sourced to specialized companies paid for that specialization is irrelevant. With the WWW their audience is just bigger than the crowd at a side show stage at the state fair. Either way, my statement about shills existing for centuries is still true and relevant.
Go ahead and be angry about the practice but your primary target should be the corporation that hired the shill. Those side show crowds didn't just tar and feather the shill upon their discovery. Both parties were ridden out of town on a rail.
Hell your pharmacy probably does it. What do you think those identification... errr, sorry, those 'loyalty discount' cards that are filling your wallet are for?
@Grunty
I don't know what you have been reading but my tone was not angry at all. Any frustration was at you, for your lack of comprehending my post. Nothing about my post expressed anger or frustration about PR.
You also again from you last post claim I was completely unaware of PR. Please as I said before stop posting in this thread and attacking me when I clearly created the topic to talk about companies such as eWatch.
Nothing new, just new ways of doing it as others have said. Marketing lies and suppression of the truth have been around forever. Wake up call: it's not about you or your opinion, it's about the almighty dollar.
ewatch, individual paid shills, bribed fanboys...the list is endless.
Random forum example:
X says "best game ever"
Y says "tis not"
X states lies and phony hype about game
Y proves lies/hype are not true
X gets reinforcements to call Y "troll" and criticize their diction
Y feels harassed and gets angry, fights back
Mod steps in "no trolling or flame wars!"
Post gets deleted
Y gets banned
X says "best game ever"...
Marketing Hype 1, Consumer 0